Faith that works, Part 1

James 2:14-26

All great logicians know the ins and outs of inductive reasoning. And the granddaddy of all inductive reasoning tests is the world-famous duck test.

You know the one: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”

James wants this same test to be applied to Christians. He wants our actions to be so obvious that they point to an inner working. He wants our theme to be: real change has happened, and I prove it by what I do.

He has worked exhaustively to show us that the Word of God needs to make an incredible impact in our day to day living. It needs to affect how we treat people, but also how we ourselves act.

In this section, James is going to be arguing not that works needs to be added to faith, but that faith includes works. Works is faith’s very nature.

Our human flesh loves to add licence to everything we do. If the old montage was ‘holier than thou,’ today’s Christians want to be ‘freer than thou.’

Another way to put this temptation is this: “If I don’t have to work for my salvation, I am saved freely, and don’t have to work to keep it, then I can do whatever I want.” James along with several other NT authors is trying to combat this false type of thinking.

Works has nothing to do with bringing us into a relationship with God, but once this relationship is established, works are essential.

The argument plain and simple is that real faith has real proof. (Jas 2:14) What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

He starts out with a rhetorical question, and the construction demands a negative answer.

This is not a contradictory statement. He and Paul are not on opposite ends of the theological spectrum.

We know Paul says: (Eph 2:8-9) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Both Paul and James believe that we are saved by faith; they are just looking at it from different viewpoints. Paul looks at justification from the viewpoint of God and James looks at it from the viewpoint of man.

Let me explain to make the context clear.

Let’s look at verse 18. (Jas 2:18) Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

Now let’s look at verse 25. (Jas 2:25) Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

In the example he gives, Rahab was justified by works in the sight of people. She showed the reality of her faith through her actions. God knows our heart, but people don’t. They can’t see the righteousness that God gives me. They can’t see the spiritual nature that now infuses my soul. But they can see what I do. And that is the point that James is driving at.

Through the context we are going to see that James is talking about bogus faith. In other words, does an intellectual faith that doesn’t change you save you? No, it doesn’t. So many Christians are proud of what they don’t do.

Their inner theme song is “I don’t smoke, drink or chew, and I don’t run with the girls that do.” That’s actually really good news to hear, but it doesn’t end there. If we know what you don’t do, what is it that you do do? That’s going to be covered next time.

But for now we can ask the same question that James already has: has the faith that you have claimed changed you?

Ryan King is minister at Bethel Baptist Church in Westville.