How do you check to see if someone is alive? You check for vital signs. You check their pulse. You find out if the person is breathing. You may check for blood pressure. You might ask if the person can move their fingers or toes. You may even holler out the person’s name. There are several ways to check to see if someone is alive.
What about our faith? Are there ways to see if our faith is alive and well? What are the vital signs of faith?
There are three types of faith: dead, disguised, and dynamic. We are going to explore these this morning.
Turn with me to James 2.
Read James 2:13-26.
The first type of faith that James examines is…
I. DEAD faith.
James’ idea of faith involves the notion of doing good deeds. It goes beyond ritual and rule following. James is not saying that keeping a set of rules or following a ritual is the answer. Those things are okay, but that is not what saves us.
I’ve heard an old saying, “A dead dog won’t hunt.” A dead dog is useless. A dead faith is…
A. USELESS faith
A dead dog is pretty much useless. In fact it’s a liability. If you have a dead dog lying in the front yard, it’s going to attract vultures and other critters. It’s a great place to grow disease and other junk. Then you have the wonderful odor of rotting dog permeating the air. There’s nothing like the smell of a rotting dog on hot summer afternoon.
What do you think dead faith smells like to God? Look at verses 15 and 16. Read verses 15 & 16.
This is the picture of dead faith. What good does it do someone to say, “Hey, good luck with finding food”? That hasn’t done one bit of good to feed that person. That’s like saying, “I feel your pain” then turning around and doing nothing.
The question to ask is, “Will the person to whom that is said believe that you have any faith at all?” It doesn’t matter how sincere the words are. They may come from a heart of genuine concern and love, but when they are not backed up by action they are meaningless words. When we leave that person they are just as hungry as they were when we first saw them.
James is talking about someone that was known to the readers. This is a brother or sister. This is not someone halfway around the world. This is someone we know. This is a friend, neighbor or co-worker, and we tell them, “See you later. I hope everything works out for you.”
That is dead faith. We may say we have faith, but it is dead. If our dog is dead, we can still say that we have a dog, but it is still dead. Dead things are of no use.
James looks next at…
B. USEFUL faith.
In verse 18, James is anticipating an argument that would arise as a result of what he just wrote. James says that you cannot prove faith without something to back it up. Anyone can say they have faith, but the words are empty if they aren’t backed up.
I can say that I am a professional baseball player, but you likely aren’t going to believe that until you see how well I play or don’t play. The best athletes in the world don’t have to talk on and on about how good they are. They let their performance show how good they are. When an athlete starts talking about how great they are, that probably means that their skills are slipping.
I remember a basketball game that I played in when I was in sixth grade. Lincoln Elementary was playing Webster Elementary. It was an incredible battle. We won the game 42-0. If anyone from Webster Elementary started talking about how good they were, all we had to do was point at the scoreboard. That told the story. No amount of talk could change the fact that they did not score one basket, not even a free throw.
No amount of talk about how much faith we have can change the fact that we don’t bother to show it. Faith is only alive to the point that we can demonstrate that there are vital signs and it is useful
I can say that I am the greatest whatever, but it means nothing until I demonstrate it.
James now turns his attention to…
II. DISGUISED faith.
Halloween is coming up in a little over a month, and the little ones will be clamoring for costumes. The girls can put on disguises and pretend to be a ballerina or princess. The boys can be Spiderman or Bob the Builder. For a night they can pretend to be something they’re not.
We can often pretend that our faith is something that it’s not. That is called…
A. EMOTIONAL faith.
James says that the demons believe in one God, and they shudder in fear and terror. They have a merely emotional response to God.
We can have an emotional response to God that really doesn’t affect our lives. This is a kind of “easy faith.”
Easy faith is easy. It’s easy to have when we need it, but it’s also easy to discard when it becomes a little too inconvenient. It’s a nice disguise to wear, when we have to.
It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion that may surround a religious experience. The problem is that emotions change about as much as our moods change.
When we first meet the love our life, there are all sorts of giddy emotions attached. Even up until the time you get married. Then you have to deal with things that rob the giddiness like morning breath and dirty laundry all over the floor.
When we have a merely emotional response to God, we may have those same types of giddy feelings. Then something goes wrong, and we ask, “Where’s God in all this?” Then the emotions ebb and flow.
What winds up happening is that our emotions run our life, and no real change takes place. When everything is based on emotion, our actions ebb and flow with that emotion. We claim faith based on emotion, but it does nothing to change our life.
This disguised faith based on emotion is no faith at all. The emotional high of an experience becomes a substitute for the real thing. When something is based on emotion, there really isn’t any trust there. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, “Being a Christian involves trusting Christ and living for Christ; you receive the life, then you reveal the life.”
In other words, being a Christian has to do with trusting and living, not emotion. Emotion is a disguise that deceives us into thinking we have faith.
James looks next at…
B. EVIDENT faith.
In verse 20, James asks his readers if they want proof.
Some years back, Pepsi-Cola issued the Pepsi challenge. For years, they had been saying they were better than Coke. They decided to challenge people to see for themselves that Pepsi was better than Coke. They had all of these commercials where people would drink a little Pepsi and a little Coke and then choose which they liked the best without knowing for sure which was which. In the commercials, everyone chose Pepsi. Then they challenged the viewer, “Have you taken the Pepsi challenge?”
We all want proof. We are all somewhat skeptical by nature. We may sit and listen to arguments or debates, but we want some concrete evidence that what we are being told is true.
We want to hear more evidence about what living faith is like. James has painted a picture of dead faith. What is living faith? First, living faith is…
III. DYNAMIC faith.
I remember from literature class that in a novel there are two types of characters. There are static characters. A static character is one who doesn’t change. They are basically the same person at the end of the novel as they were at the beginning.
The other type of character is a dynamic character. A dynamic character is one who is different at the end than they were at the beginning. Usually they have grown or matured throughout the course of the novel
James is illustrating a dynamic faith. Faith that is static is either dead or disguised. Living faith is dynamic. It is growing, maturing and changing.
James goes straight to history to illustrate what dynamic faith looks like. He looks at…
A. PAST faith
James uses two illustrations that would be very familiar to his readers.
The first example is Abraham. Abraham is revered for his gigantic faith. Jews, Muslims and Christians hold Abraham in high esteem for his faith in God.
God had promised Abraham, who was an old man at the time, that he would give him a son and that he would be the father of nations. Abraham was in his nineties, and he had no children. Most of us would think it ludicrous if God told us to start a family at that age, but Abraham believed that God would follow through on his promise.
God did follow through on that promise, and gave him Isaac. God then did something strange, at least in our thinking. He told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham obeyed God without questioning, believing that God would raise Isaac from the dead. At the last moment, God provided a ram to be used in the sacrifice. Abraham’s faith was put to the test, and he passed with flying colors.
Abraham had faith when we believed that God would give him a son in his old age, but his faith grew when he was asked to sacrifice his son.
Abraham is a hero of the faith. He is the example of faith that is used more than anyone, but James’s second example is a little different.
James uses the example of Rahab the prostitute. We would not expect God to bless a woman of the evening.
As the Israelites were scouting out the Promised Land just before the invasion and the Battle of Jericho, spies were sent into the city of Jericho to scope it out. There the spies encountered Rahab, who was a resident of Jericho. Her people had been there for centuries. It was a strong, well-fortified city. There was no reason for her to believe that her city would be defeated. She had heard of the exploits of God’s people, and she decided to put her faith in God. She hid the spies and told them how to sneak out of the city.
She believed that God would give the city to the Israelites. She and her family were the only citizens of Jericho to survive the battle, because of her faithfulness. Her faith was dynamic. It grew, in a short time.
This points us to the reality of…
B. PERPETUAL faith.
Faith that is disguised is useless. Faith that is useless is dying. Faith that is dead is worthless.
James shows the inseparableness of faith and works with the analogy to the life. “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” We can’t imagine a life form that doesn’t breath. Likewise, there can’t be faith that doesn’t exhibit itself in works.
Without the functions of life, the body will decay. Without works faith will decay.
Our works are not a matter of earning our salvation. We cannot earn our salvation. The works come after salvation. They are the result of a changed life.
When our life has been changed, our reaction to the needs of others is different. We don’t say, as James mentioned earlier, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled.” We actually help, as best we can. We may not be able to do everything and solve every problem that someone has, but we help where we can. If your car is broken down on the side of the road, don’t expect me to fix it. I can let you use my cell phone to call for help, or I can give you a ride somewhere, but you surely don’t want me messing with you car’s engine.
At one job I had, the owner came in and said to me, “Go look at my car and see if you see anything wrong with it.” Ya, right. I lifted up the hood, and I saw an engine.
God has given us the command to help others, and in any way that we can, we must do that. We may not have vast financial resources to help someone, but we may know the ropes of working with charities to get help for those in need. Anything that we do to actually alleviate suffering is better than saying, “Good luck finding help for your problem.” Any faith that says that belongs in the morgue.
Conclusion
James is a most practical writer. He is not so much concerned about philosophy as he is about practical expressions of faith. James was not someone who sat around and debated the philosophy of faith and works, as he was someone rolled up his sleeves and did something about the problem. It wasn’t enough for him to just deliver a letter or sermon about it, he would want everyone to be called to action.
How is your faith today? Is it dynamic, disguised or dead? The good thing is that dead faith can be resuscitated.
All we have to do is make a real commitment to him. On the bottom of your outline in your worship folder is some space for you to reflect on practical ways to live out your faith. This is a way to check your faith’s vital signs.
What are one or two things you can do in your daily life to insure a dynamic faith? Think about it for a minute. Write something down. Pray about it, and do it.
