Study Through James - Part 6

Today, we will be looking at James 2:14-26.

"James 2:14-26
¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."

So, there ya have it. This is an *amazing* passage of scripture; one of my favorites.

Perhaps y'all know that Martin Luther was... * cough *... not a huge fan of James. In fact, he though James should not be a part of the Bible. But that is because he misinterpreted this passage. Martin Luther was *so* big into being saved by faith (which is indeed correct!), that he thought this passage was wrong. Luther thought that this passage was saying we are saved by our works. No no no no nonononono. =P What James is saying throughout this entire passage is: We are saved through faith, but faith produces good works. Okay, I'm not gonna go into it here. Let's just jump into the scripture, and I'll explain it more there.

First, we'll look at verses 14-17. "¹⁴What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."
Now, this all sounds like, "Oh, okay, we're saved by our good works." Nope. That is *not* what it is saying. Read verses 15 and 16 as an example. Sure, he wished the guy well, but did he do anything? What was the point of saying what he did without doing anything? I mean, what is the point? Then, James explains in verse 17 that faith without good deeds is the same thing. What is the point of having faith if we just sit around and do nothing? Faith is dead without good works. We must have good works. I mean... what more can I say than that faith is pointless without works?
What if you just believed in Jesus. Sure, you believe in Jesus. But what if: you didn't read your Bible, you didn't pray, you didn't go to church, you didn't help the poor, you didn't tithe, you didn't do *anything* that the word of God tells us to do. What is the point? Can I express this any more plainly? =P

Next we'll look at verses 18-19: "¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

¹⁹You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder."
In verse 18, this probably *really* confused Luther. I'm sure that he thought this was ridiculous, "...and I will show you my faith by what I do." He probably thought that meant, "My faith is my good deeds." Nope, that is *not* what James was saying. He was saying that through his works, he would show he had faith. Say for instance, what if we say we're a Christian, and we don't have anything to do with Christ. But then again, what if we say we are a Christian, and we obey Christ in everything, and go to church, and do tithe, and help the poor... well, that shows our faith! Through Christ, we do good works. Through our faith, we do good works. Okay... that probably doesn't make any sense, but I really hope you see what I mean.
As for verse 19... heh heh... does that make my illustration (What if you just believed in Jesus. Sure, you believe in Jesus. But what if: you didn't read your Bible, you didn't pray, you didn't go to church, you didn't help the poor, you didn't tithe, you didn't do *anything* that the word of God tells us to do) make more sense? Sure, we have faith in Christ... we believe in God.... we believe there is one God.... But note verse 19. Even demons believe that. And are demons good? Do demons have anything to do with God? No, obviously not.

Next, we'll look at verses 20-24. "²⁰You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone."
So... that should take Luther's confusion out. ;-) Abraham was considered righteous because of what he *did*. But, take note of verse 22: "²²You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." See, we must have faith and good works! But also note that his faith was made complete by what he *did*. And verses 23 and 24 continue to say that deeds is what completes our faith. If we have no faith is half of the Christian life; good works is the other half. You cannot have just one or the other. Both of them must work through us. If you have one or the other, you are not living the Christian life. You must have both.

And lastly, we will look at verses 25-26: "²⁵In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead."
Yeah, Rahab the prostitute was considered righteous. Isn't that slightly interesting? ;-) And last of all: verse 26 has one of my favorite examples. The body is dead without the spirit. I'm sure everyone who is reading this has been to a funeral (I guess). When you see a dead person, don't they always look different? I think they do. But that is because their spirit is gone. Life has left that body. Faith without works is like a body without life in it. Just remember that. We all should. We all need to.

I hope all of you enjoyed the post!! =)

In Christ alone,
~Madison