A few weeks ago, we started a year-long journey chronological study of the New Testament today. Hence the reason we are calling this message series Chronos. It's a word that means “time.” We will be journeying through time back to the start of the early church. We will be doing this by walking through the books of James, Thessalonians, Galatians and Corinthians. We will take a few detours along the way for the major Christian holidays. However, we will be opening up our bibles each week to unpack the scriptures as they were present in the early church.
We start with the book of James because it is the earliest writing determined by present day scholarly dating.
It is the first book or letter written to this new ‘church’ or gathering.
It was written by Jesus to his first half brother, James.
It was written to the messianic Jews who had come to believe Jesus was the Messiah and those first followers who weren't Jewish called Gentiles who had become aware of and believed in Jesus.
It was written to the first bad actors and their practices that were stunting the movement’s growth.
Jennifer last week did a good job of challenging us to look within ourselves at our own prejudices. It’s never easy to point out spiritual blind spots while being convicted of our own at the same time. This week we will continue the journey by diving back into James.
We live in a day when in many cities Christianity is losing its place of respect and influence. While many church members are quick to say they are people of faith, the world shouts back with a nagging question, “What good is it?” Because the Christianity has lost its voice in so many communities, our whole nation is involved in an ethical dilemma.
Ethical paradoxes or moral dilemmas, are situations in which an idea stands under two (or more) conflicting moral requirements, none of which overrides the other.
The conflict between faith and works is just such a paradox and is as old as faith itself. The whole argument revolves around the question: can one person have faith without actually bringing a little heaven to earth? James reveals to us that a faith without fruit is false, futile, and fatal.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
By asking, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?” James is laying the groundwork to answer a question coming from within the new church plant. Just as we learned last week we all have biases and somebody or a group of somebody’s judging whether or not you can be a Christian just because you claim to. James makes it clear when he writes about a man who “claims to have faith.” Then James rhetorically asks, “Can such faith save him?” The answer to the big question of the day is that a saving faith is never one that is just a statement said once or repeated in worship but a witness to personal transformation that could not happen without a major shift from self to unselfish.
Lawyers and judges will be quick to tell you they look for evidence- cold hard facts. The key to understanding this paragraph is to understand James is not talking about a faith with works but a faith that works!
INSERT: Personal story of person who does good for their own benefit
Faith with “works” is a sign of an unhealthy relationship. Healthy relationships do not include manipulation in any form. They especially do not include actions done out of guilt, ingratiation, deceit, love bombing, gaslighting, threats or silent treatments. In a healthy relationship we act out of our desire to return the love continuously given.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
At first James 2:18 appears to contradict Paul’s statement in Romans 3:28 when he says, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” In reality, they are complementing one another, not contradicting one another. When we examine these statements in context we find that James and Paul arrived at the same point with a different emphasis.
When Paul spoke of works, he was referring to the works of the law such as observing the Sabbath and offering required sacrifices. However, when James spoke of works, he was referring to the fruit of our faith, which is obedience that comes out of love. Paul was hitting hard at men and women who try to be saved by being religious instead of trusting Jesus alone for salvation. While James was concerned with people who confused head knowledge with heart transformation. A heart or soul that is changed ultimately produces fruit (or good) as a witness to the love they know comes from God.
INSERT A story of two people doing the same good but noting the difference of the person who does it out of love
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[a]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. 25 In 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? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
A faith without fruit is not simply false and futile, it is fatal. James 2:26, calls it “dead.” It has flatlined and all that is left is a body being kept alive by the Christian industrial complex. James 2:20 says that it's “useless.”
Many church members today have no faith and no “works.” Some gather to say creeds and talk about faith and positive thinking but have no ongoing ministries to meet people’s needs. Others have works or lots of good activities without faith. Their approach is motivated by simply social or humanistic values. In the end these are selfish because they have self centered motives. Biblically based Christianity is not a faith with works; it is a faith that works!
