Faith In Your Relationships

Belief in God is pretty strong among Americans. A survey shows that 53% say that they know God exists and they have no doubts. 18% say that they believe in God but they still have some doubts. And 4% believe in God just sometimes.

Another poll found that more than 68% of Americans identify as Christians. You would think with such a large majority professing a belief in God, and nearly as many claiming faith in Christ, that the ethical and moral standards of Americans would be higher. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Some want to blame our ethics and morality problem on the opposing political party, or social media, or television, but the responsibility actually rests on us as individuals. If 68% of us claim to be Christian, where are our ethics and morality?

I think that the problem is not with what people believe; the problem is that too many of us don't live what we claim to believe. So, what we do does not match what we say we believe. Fortunately for us, James wrote about this problem and he points us to a better way. Today we will be using the writings of James 2.

Prayer. We pick up our story where we left off last week:

James 2:14-17 – “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.”

James was writing to Jewish believers who came from a strong tradition of hospitality in their culture. The Jewish people were instructed to never turn away a stranger, much less a brother or sister. By their social norms, they were expected to help.

Yet, James gives us an example where no help was offered - only useless words. He gave the example of a desperately poor brother or sister who didn’t have anything to wear or eat. Here was a person needing help, but all he received was encouragement to go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed.

James connected this to faith. People must see our faith in what we do; otherwise, our belief - our faith - is dead. Death was a vivid image! Lifeless and useless. Death gives off an unmistakable stench. James is saying that an inactive faith has the smell of death around it.

Maybe you have stood in a walk-in closet full of clothes and said, I don't have anything to wear. What that usually means in our culture is, I can't find anything that's appropriate for the occasion, or in the right color, or that I feel like wearing.

When James describes this fellow Christian is without clothes, he wasn't implying that he was without nice clothes or without the appropriate clothes. He was without clothes -period! This fellow believer was either completely naked or only wearing an undergarment. He was in a dire, desperate situation.

Not only was this person naked, but he was also hungry. Again, as with the clothing, this person was not merely without good, healthy, tasty food, or even food that he favored at that moment. This believer had absolutely nothing to eat.

Let me interject here for those that may not even know. SEBC has a very active and successful clothes closet. If someone needs clothes, don’t turn them away with only a prayer. SEBC also has a food pantry. If someone is hungry, don’t send them away with only a prayer. These are two of many of the vital ministries of this church.

So James is warning us that we need to do more than just wish them well and tell them we will pray for them. If we have faith, we are being told that we need to put it into action. Inactive faith doesn't merely fail to do good; it makes the situation worse.

In James's examples, the poor brother or sister would leave the church just like they were when they entered, still without clothes and lacking food. Instead of the warmth this person needed, he or she felt the cold wind of apathy. No one really cared. At least they didn’t care enough to offer the help they needed.

As this individual left, the only thing this person was given was the strong impression that those they considered as a brother or sister was lacking love and faith. Again, James reminds us in:

James 1:22 – “But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”