The passage we are looking at has been greatly misunderstood.
Some have thought it contradicts what Paul says about being
justified by faith. James says we are justified by works. They
appear to be holding opposite views, but a close study of the words
reveals that they are in perfect agreement. When Paul spoke of faith
he meant a faith that works, and when he spoke of works he meant
works before salvation trying to merit salvation. James speaks of
faith as mere intellectual knowledge that even the demons have, and
which is not saving faith. When he speaks of works he means those
works after one is saved.
Let us not forget that the theme of James is always a practical
faith. In chapter one he talked of the trial of faith, to pray in faith,
and he begins this chapter withholding faith without respect of
persons. Faith is the theme, but because of mistaken ideas on faith
James stresses that true faith is a working faith. When Paul stressed
faith he did not emphasize works because he wrote to those who were
in danger of the deception that good works could save them. When
James stresses works, he writes to those who are in danger of being
so heavily minded they are of no earthly good. They are those who
say they have faith, and that is all they need.
The proof that God knew what He was doing when He inspired
two men to write about faith from two points of view is that two of
the heresies that have plagued the church have grown out of
extremes in one side or the other. Pelagians have said we'll work our
way to heaven. Antinomians have said that we will ride on faith to
heaven and do nothing. Paul and James are a team, and they strike
down both of these heresies. Paul says in Eph. 2:8-10, "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. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do
good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Paul
makes it clear we are not saved by good works, but for good works,
and that is what James is saying. If your faith is true, it will show
itself in works. James indicates that we can test the truth of our faith
by asking two simple questions. First-
I. IS THERE ANY PROFIT IN MY FAITH. vv. 14-17.
James asks them what does it profit to have a faith without
works? A faith that does not express itself in action is nothing but
words. He gives a rather humorous illustration. The wind is
howling outside as Christian A sets down by the fireside to eat a good
meal. There is a knock at the door. Christian A opens the door, and
there stands a member of his church, Christian B. He has no
overcoat, but only a shabby light jacket. He tells Christian A of the
fact that he lost his job, and hasn't been able to buy any groceries.
Christian A, with all the compassion of a phonograph record says,
"Well brother, you can count on me to pray for you. The Lord bless
you. I will see you in church on Sunday." He shuts the door and
goes back to his warm fireside chair and finishes his meal. Christian
B continues to hunger in the cold.
Where is the profit in such foolishness says James. Can you
really be so blind as to think that mere words can substitute for
food? Do you think that a faith that is mere words can save your
soul? The use of this illustration indicates that these Jewish
Christians were giving a wrong meaning to faith in contrast with
their old concepts of works. As Jews, before they became Christians,
they thought alms-giving was a way to salvation. Ben Sirach wrote,
"Water will quench a flaming fire, and alms maketh an atonement
for sin." In Tobit we read, "Everyone who occupieth himself in alms
shall behold the face of God, as it is written, I will behold thy face by
almsgiving." This is why the Pharisees wanted everyone to see them
giving alms.
What happened was that when the Jews accepted salvation by the
free grace of God, they forgot the other half of the Gospel, and they
said that since alms do not save us we can forget that aspect of our
old faith. But James is warning them that faith without works is
dead. We are saved by faith, but not by a dead faith. We are saved
by a living faith that loves God and man, and desires to express the
love of God to man by deeds of love and compassion. As Paul says,
though I have faith to remove mountains and have not love, I am
nothing. Why? Because God is not interested by moving mountains
by faith, but in moving men by love. There is no profit in a faith that
does not express itself and works of love.
Men of true faith have been men whose faith brought profit in the
sense of meeting the needs of men. Evangelical Christians have often
considered the so called social Gospel a nasty word. The causes for
this are obvious. It was so abused that it came to be that mere
humanitarian works became the essence of the Gospel. Salvation by
faith in Christ was neglected. Evangelicals made the same mistake as
these Jews to whom James is writing. They were saying, "Since
alms do not save us then we can forget alms altogether." And
evangelicals were saying, "Since the social Gospel did not save
anyone, we can forget humanitarian works."
James is trying to get Christians to see that a true faith is of profit
in all areas of life, because a true faith acts on what it believes. John
Wesley made an amazing impact on the world by his preaching, but
only because it was backed up by practice. When he was in Oxford
College he began to give to the poor all that he did not need to live
on. He made 30 pounds that year, and he lived on 28. He gave the
rest to the poor. The next year he made 60 pounds and still lived on
28. He gave the rest to the poor. He kept on making more but living
on the 28. God did not require that, but here was a ma whose faith
did not just profess, but it also produced. There was none of this,
"be warmed and filled," with him. He went on to start the medical
dispensary in London. He founded a home for widows, and a school
for poor children. He also founded a loan fund for the poor. He was
so concerned for the sick that he studied the anatomy and medicine
on the side. He even wrote a book called Primitive Physic that went
through at least 23 editions.
Wesley's faith was a true faith, and all the world can tell, for he
not only preached the love of Christ he practiced it. The result was
great profit for the kingdom of God. Not all of the people he helped
received his message of salvation in Jesus Christ, but then, how many
of the 5,000 that Jesus fed became His followers? Jesus did not love
and have compassion because He saw it would pay off. He loved
because it was His nature, and a true faith in Christ will cause us to
love that way as well.
It is hard for us to see this sometimes because of our background.
I'll admit that I sometimes wonder about the value of meeting
people's needs other than their spiritual needs. But then I read the
books of Frank Laubach. He was a man so dedicated to the task of
helping the illiterates of the world to learn to read. He helped
millions, and his system is working around the world every day.
Why all this effort to teach people to read? One short paragraph
from his book The World Is Learning Compassion will explain why.
He writes,
"The most bruised people on this planet, the naked, the hungry,
the fallen-among-thieves, the sick, the imprisoned in mind and
soul, are the twelve hundred million adult illiterates. At least
a billion of them are virtually slaves! Almost every illiterate is
in debt all his life, and his children, and his children's children
inherit the debt. He does not know how much his debt is, nor
whether the interest on it is correct. The money lender takes all
he can take and still keep his victim alive. It would be silly for
him to kill the animal that makes him rich. In one form or another,
this is the black sorrow of nearly every illiterate in the
world."
As I pondered the labors of Frank Laubach I became convinced
that he is demonstrating the faith the James is looking for. It is the
faith that is of profit because it works and expresses the love of God.
This picture of millions upon millions of enslaved people for whom
Christ died is beyond us, but we ought to thank God for a man who
has the power, skill, and compassion to reach them. How can we
doubt that this man has a true biblical faith? Can our faith be true if
it does not rejoice in the efforts to relieve the world of the miseries
caused by sin?
James is trying to illustrate the fact that if our faith is not
profitable for others, it is of no profit to us either. Can such a faith
save you he asks, and he answers by his illustration-no! A faith that
cannot even feed a hungry man can hardly be an adequate faith to
save a man's soul. If a faith doesn't work it is dead, and a dead faith
is not a saving faith. A workless faith is a worthless faith.
Therefore, a test of a true faith is found in asking ourselves-is there
any profit in our faith? Is the world a better place where we are
because we are men and women of faith? Leonard Ravenhill wrote,
Could a mariner sit idol if he heard the drowning cry?
Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patience die?
Could a fireman sit idol, let men burn and give no hand?
Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?
If you can, James would have us consider, what does it profit
brethern, can such a faith save us? Secondly, we need to ask-
II. IS THERE ANY PROOF OF MY FAITH. vv. 18-26
This amounts to the same thing really, but James handles it from
the point of view of an argument here. He wants to prove that, not
only from a practical point of view, but from a logical point of view, a
faith without works is dead. In verse 18 he says, some man, that is a
third party says, "Well here it is, you Jewish Christians have faith,
and James has works." This man puts all Christians into these
categories. Some are just people of faith, and others are workers. So
this man is trying to throw a blanket over the whole thing, and just
say, "Let's forget about the matter. To each his own."
James will not buy that theory. He says, "I have faith too, but I
have proof of my faith in my works. How do you prove your faith
without works? How do you know you have any faith at all? If you
have no works, how does your faith differ from indifference and
unbelief? Oh I see, you are Orthodox in your theology. You believe
there is one God. Well, that is fine. It proves your good sense, and
brings you as high as the devil's religion anyway, but that is a far cry
from Christian faith. Let me show you from history that your kind
of faith is dead."
He had been asking, where is the profit of such faith? Now he is
asking, where is the proof that faith even exists at all? Someone said
that faith is like calories. The only way you know they are there is by
their visible results. We cannot see them, but we know them by their
fruits, if you can call an expanding waistline a fruit. The point that
James is making here is, you cannot show me that you even have
faith without works, but by works I can prove to you that I also have
faith. The invisible can only be known by its visible results. Power is
invisible. No one has ever seen power, but all have seen its results.
Whether or not a battery has power in it can only be proven by
putting it to the test to see if it can produce any visible results. Can it
start a car, or turn on lights, or make the indicator on a meter move?
This is true with all that is invisible. It might be love, hope, courage,
kindness, or joy, but they are all known only by the visible results
which they produce, and without those results there is no possible
way to prove that they even really exist. Therefore, a faith without
works is like a battery that will not do anything. The battery is dead,
and so is the faith. You cannot have a kind man who never does a
kind deed. Kindness can only be proven by some visible act that
reveals its existence, and so it is with faith.
In verse 19 James says that even if you are orthodox in your
theology, but you do nothing, you have no proof of your faith.
Monotheism is a basic doctrine. The Jews quoted Deut. 6:4 every
morning and evening, and the Orthodox still do to this day. This is
called the Shema, "The Lord our God is one Lord." James would
not deny that this is a basic truth that must be believed, but he wants
to make it clear that if this belief does not cause us to serve this one
Lord, we are deceived. The devil himself is a monotheist, and there
are no atheistic demons. When Jesus cast them out they knew Him,
and they said, "I know Thee who Thou art, the holy one of God."
And, "What have we to do with Thee Thou Son of the Most High."
Can it be believed for a second that a faith that goes no further than
that of demons can save your soul? If there are no works growing
out of your faith, your religion is lower than that of demons, for they
at least tremble at the fact of one God. Their belief produces some
results.
The demons are not better off for their knowledge. They are
orthodox, and they probably have a better theology than anybody,
because they know the facts about the realm of the supernatural. All
of their good theology, however, does not cause them to obey God
and bring forth good works, and so it is dead orthodoxy, and dead
faith.
A man can say, "I believe the sun is 93 million miles away. I
believe that friction causes heat. I believe that Christ died for
sinners." They are all facts which he can believe and be none the
better. James says the ability to produce certain sounds with your
tongue has no power to save your soul. Many people say I believe in
one God, and I believe in Christ, but James asks, "What difference is
there in your life because you do?" If there is no difference, you
have no proof that you are a believer. John the Baptist said to
people, "Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." In other words,
show some proof that you have repented.
When you stop and think about this, you can see how sensible the
argument of James is. We don't think of people basically because of
their theology. When you think of some Christian you greatly
admire, you are usually thinking of their loving kindness and
Christian actions, and not their views of the trinity. It is by behavior
that we impress people with our Christian faith and not by our belief.
It is what we do, and not what we say that will be remembered.
What we do is the fruit of what we believe, and so belief is the root,
but it is the fruit that is the proof that the root is there. If there are
no fruits, James want to know how we can even prove there is any
root at all.
James uses Abraham as an example. His faith was known to be
real because of his works. He believed God's promise to make a
great nation of his seed, and he proved he believed it by being willing
to offer his son on the altar. That was God's test. Would his faith
have been any good if he did not act on it? Not at all. By works his
faith was made perfect. Faith is not complete until it acts.
James begins the chapter with a warning about respect of persons,
and now he practices what he preaches, for he illustrates his point,
not just from the great Abraham who was a good man even before he
believed God, but from the lowly Rahab who was a wicked woman
before she believed. He is illustrating that be it male or female, great
or small, the same principle holds true that faith without works is
dead. She proved her faith was not mere words by helping the
messengers of Israel escape, and by later hanging out the cord on the
wall of Jericho.
The great artist Gustave Dore lost his passport while traveling
through Europe. When he came to a check point he was asked to
produce the document by the officer in charge. Dore explained that
he lost his passport but said he was Dore the artist. The officer said
that people often parade under a false identity, and he would have to
somehow prove that he was Dore. He quickly took out his workcase
and began to sketch the view from that spot. The officer looked at
the sketch and said, "Now I am sure you are Dore. No one else can
draw like that." Dore could back up his words with action. He had
practical proof that gave validity to his claim. People need to look at
our lives and see evidence in action that back up our claims to be
Christian. The world is not looking for a definition of faith, but a
demonstration of faith.
So if you want to know if your faith is a true saving faith just
examine it, and ask, is it profitable and is it provable. If it works, it is
alive and real. If it only moves the tongue to say the right things, but
does not move the person to practical action, then, like the body
without the spirit, it is dead. All of us need to ask God to help us
practice what we profess, for only as we do can we know that our
faith is true.
