Sermon Snippet

“14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a 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? In 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. You 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." (James 2:14-26)

Martin Luther wrestled with James in this passage to make sure he wasn’t saying anything out of line when it came to grace and faith. There is a fear, and it is rightfully founded, that a wrong interpretation of this passage could lead to some dangerous thinking about being saved only by what we do… rather than what Christ did. So we must navigate carefully today.

Now, the flip side of the argument is that if we separate faith and works too much… it will lead to apathetic Christianity. Do any of you remember church camp song ‘Casual Christian.’ I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be a casual Christian. There are multiple reasons why I don’t like that song that I won’t get into today… but one of reasons is because the term ‘Casual Christian’, to me, is another great example of an oxymoron. Those two terms should never ever go together. And I’m wondering if James is arguing here that they can’t, in fact, go together.

Our confession of faith MUST influence the type of person we strive to become. It must influence our words, thoughts, decisions, habits… it must influence what we do.

We should backtrack just a moment to gain some clarity. In the passage directly proceeding the one we are looking at today… James calls us to a lifestyle of Christ-like love for our neighbor… a love that sees beyond skin color, economic status or any other human class distinguisher. He just got done calling us to incorporate mercy into our dealings with other people in verses 12 and 13… and then he hits us with this statement in verse 14: “What good is it when a man claims to have faith but no deeds?”

I think he’s asking us to consider: If we don’t display that Christ-like love to our neighbor… if that is not a part of our lives… then has God’s grace really taken hold of us? Is our faith legit? Does our confession of faith even matter without the life change that should happen as a result? It’s another sobering part of James that asks us to really take a closer look.

Now, critics will throw up their hands and claim that James is suggesting that we are saved by our works… that we are really saved by what we do. Friends, that is not how I read this passage. For the people that want to throw James out of the New Testament because he seemingly contradicts Paul… I actually think they need to go back and read Paul some more. Paul includes many passages about loving and relating to others, many passages about doing good rather than evil… many passages that deal with ethics and morality. Paul never intended to divorce faith and works… James doesn’t here… and neither should we.

To be clear: We are saved by what Christ accomplished for us on the cross and through the empty tomb… but if our belief in the victorious, risen Christ does not lead to life change… if it doesn’t lead to an obedience to that same Lord who died for us… we have to ask how genuine our faith really is...