Week 6 - Working Out Your Faith

Read James 2:14-26

“Like rain on a cold window, these thoughts pattered against the hard surface of the incontrovertible truth, which was that he must die. I must die. It must end.”

Reading the words above, one might think they are a modern-day description of Jesus’ thoughts as He approached the end of His life. But one would be incorrect. These are the thoughts of Harry Potter near the end of his own 7-book story. And these few lines neither explain nor spoil the story. Few, if any, people would look at a few lines of a novel and claim to understand the whole story. Yet we do this quite often with Scripture, and today’s verses are probable victims of such reading.

It is easy to read this text as James saying that works are the essence of faith. Our desire for laws, rules, and checklists of how we should act would actually enjoy this call to action. If there is a specific way that a Christian acts, then we can know who the Christians are just by watching. And everyone else can know that we are Christians just by seeing us live out those expected actions. It’s so much easier to have a checklist of required works than to deal with heart change and the unquantifiable idea of a relationship with God.

We have to remember that James is the half-brother of Jesus. Everything James writes is influenced by living with His Savior, by seeing Jesus live out the faith & deeds conundrum in perfection. Being the practical man that he was, James is revealing the bare bones of the vine analogy in John 15. Jesus is the vine in which we, as believers, are to abide. When branches are living healthily with their vine, the branches produce fruit. James breaks down this flowery (pun intended) analogy.

Our belief must inform the way we live. A mental ascent to the story of Jesus will not produce works, just as a branch cut from one tree and glued onto another will not produce fruit. However, if we truly believe the Gospel, we must act out of that. We are compelled by God’s grace! The Word implanted in us will bloom into works that reveal our faith.

James is in no way disputing the truth that Paul sets forth in Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” James is offering a complement. Jesus’ sacrifice alone is the only basis for our justification. And that justification is demonstrated through our actions. Faith and works.

Questions:

1. Do you tend to err more to the side of “I am saved by faith alone, no works are needed” or “My works demonstrate my faith – they are necessary” as you think of your spiritual life?
2. In verse 16, James writes of someone who reacts to a cold, hungry person with the well-wish “Go in peace, be warmed and filled.” In what ways are we guilty of meeting the needs of others in this way rather than allowing our faith to bloom into works?
3. Reflect on the fact that both Abraham, a religious ‘insider,’ and Rahab, an outsider, are said to be considered righteous by their works.