Danish theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, told of a make-believe country inhabited only by ducks. One Sunday morning the ducks all came to church, and waddled down the aisle into their pews. The duck preacher took his place behind the pulpit, opened the duck Bible and read, “Ducks! You can have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky! Use your wings!” Excitedly, all the ducks said, “Amen!” and then waddled home.
Maybe you can identify with the ducks. You have heard sermons and Sunday School lessons all your life. You have affirmed the truth, but the question of the day is, “have you acted on what you heard?” Too many Christians live in a sentimental fog of vague piety. They have a religion that fails to challenge their intellect, or place demands on them. It’s a pleasant pursuit of emotional quivers, and stained glass platitudes. And Satan loves it! He’ll always choose to vaccinate a man with a mild case of Christianity in order to keep him from the real disease.
James pleads for the marks of Christ’s lordship to be evident in our lives. Faith must be more that mere wishful thinking, or some kind of unclear hope that things will “all work out”. James is too practical for that kind of reasoning, so he gives a clear description of faith in 2:14-26.
I. A PROBLEM ADDRESSED v. 14
James poses a problem that needs a solution. Some profess to believe in Christ, but their lifestyle is no concrete evidence to their testimony. That person merely “claims to have faith.”
James asks, “Can such faith save him?” He clearly expects a “no” answer. The question could be properly stated, “Such faith cannot save him, can it?” Insincere faith cannot save. Deeds demonstrate the difference between what a person claims and the genuine article.
There is no conflict between James’ teaching and Paul’s. However, there is an important distinction in how they define “works.” Paul said, “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law [works]” (Romans 3:28). For Paul, justification was the act by which God declared a believing sinner to be acceptable. He is reported righteous by the grace of God.
Human deeds cannot produce salvation. They just prove the presence of genuine faith. Both apostles believed that. James examined the fruit of salvation while Paul tested the root. James battled superficial faith that failed to change the life of a professed believer. Paul contended with legalism, the belief that one earns saving merit by good deeds.
James says if faith doesn’t change your behavior you’d better look again at what you call faith. He proposes four marks of genuine faith.
II. A SOLUTION PROPOSED:
A. Genuine Faith is Useful ... vv. 15-17
“A brother or sister” is in genuine need. Probably destitute for some time, his clothing was inadequate and he had no food. The Greek word for “without clothes” meant light clothing like you might use in a gymnasium. Today we pay a bundle to be lightly clad in special gym togs. But if you had to wear that flimsy stuff in the severe cold of winter you’d be distressed. The person in v. 15 wears only “rags” and is cold and hungry, not knowing where the next meal will come from.
The only support offered this unhappy person is a cheerful greeting. Basic, life-sustaining supplies are needed: food and clothes. But the response is: “See you later! Don’t worry! Keep warm and eat well!” Pious words, but so indifferent! It’s a tip of the hat and a cheery “Good luck to you” to a starving man, and it’s a shallow spoof. An expression of concern without an effort to help is a dirty joke. So too, says James is false faith.
Genuine faith is proven by acts of concern. Once a close friend of John Wesley was in desperate financial need. Wesley learned of Sam Bradburn’s difficulty and sent 5£ (then worth about ten dollars). He attached a note which read: “Dear Sammy: ‘Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.’ Yours affectionately, John Wesley.” Bradburn wrote back: “Rev. and Dear Sir: I have often been struck with the beauty of the passage of Scripture quoted in your letter, but I must confess that I never saw such a useful expository note on it before.”
That is real, responsive faith. It is compelled by something inside that says, “I must be involved.” Unconcerned faith is not merely limited; it is dead! But genuine faith is useful!
B. Genuine Faith is Visible ... vv. 18-20
Someone says, “You have faith; I have deeds.” It’s like he says, “I have heard your claims of faith, now show me.” Genuine faith will reveal its reality in a believer’s behavior and values. It is visible.
Every morning and evening faithful Jews would quote De. 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one.” The Shema was a confession of basic doctrine. James agreed that proper doctrine is “Good!” but he shocked them by saying that an accurate opinion about God is unrelated to trust in Him. “Even the demons believe that — and shudder” (v. 19). Demon theology is quite impressive. They know a great deal about truth. They never had a question about the identity of Jesus. They knew who He was. Intelligent as they are, however, their demonic character remains unchanged. They know God, but have no peace or friendship with Him. Without faith they can only shudder. But at least they have an emotional response. Some who quote doctrine and Scripture twice a day do so without feeling and reaction.
The people James addressed affirmed an intellectual commitment. But the very God they affirmed said, “...love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord” (Le. 19:18). It was this passage James quoted in verse 8. He is still insisting that faith cannot just be intellectual assent. It must be visible.
Paul taught that salvation could not be earned, but he always believed that a visible Christian lifestyle was the final test of faith. He took the half of Ephesians to lay a doctrinal foundation, and then began the second half of the letter saying, “...I urge you to lead a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph. 4:1). The rest of the letter tells how belief should behave in the home and in the marketplace. One man says, “It is a good thing to possess an accurate theology, but it is unsatisfactory unless that good theology also possesses us” [C. Leslie Mitton, The Epistle of James (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1966), 110].
Charles Colson tells about a young lady in Washington, D.C., who made her genuine faith visible. She gave this witness at the church where she and her husband attended:
Four years ago this week, a young girl sat crying on the floor of a New Jersey apartment, devastated by the news of a lab report. Unmarried and alone, she had just learned she was pregnant….
I considered myself a Christian at the time. But I had found out about Christ while in the drug scene. After I learned about Him, I knew I wanted to commit myself to Him, but I couldn’t give up my old friends or my old habits. So I was drifting between two worlds — in one still smoking dope every day and sleeping with the man who lived in the apartment below mine; in the other, going to church, witnessing to others, and working with the church youth group.
But being pregnant ripped though the hypocrisy of my double life. I had been meaning to get right with God, but I kept slipping back. Now I couldn’t live a nice, clean Christian life like all those church people.
I felt the only answer was to wipe the slate clean. I would get an abortion; no one in the church would ever know. I was terrified but my boyfriend was adamant. My sister was furious with me for being so stupid as to get pregnant …My mother called me: “If you don’t get an abortion, I don’t want to see you while you’re pregnant. Your life will be ruined and you’ll deserve it.”
I had always been desperately dependent on other people. But I knew this was one decision I had to make alone. I was looking out my bedroom window one night when I thought clearly for the first time in weeks. I realized I either believed this Christianity or I didn’t believe it. And if I believed in Christ, then I couldn’t do this. God is real, I thought, even if I’ve never lived like He is. That decision was a point of no return. I put my faith in the God of the Bible, not the God I had made up in my head. I was still ev-erything I never wanted to be — pregnant, alone, deserted by family, and rejected by the one I had loved. Yet for the first time in my life I was really peaceful, because I knew for the first time I was being obedient.
When I went to an obstetrician and told him of my decision to have the baby and why I had made that choice, he refused to charge me for the pre-natal care and delivery. I confessed my double life to the church, and through the support of Christians was able to move away from my old friends to an apartment of my own. I began going to a Christian coun-seling agency and felt God leading me to give the baby up for adoption.
I had a beautiful baby girl and named her Sarah. She was placed with a childless Christian couple, and we all felt God’s hand in the decision.
And so that’s why I praise God this evening. I thought in the depths of my despair that my life was ruined, but I knew I had to at least be obedient in taking responsibility for my sin. But today, because of that very despair and obedience, I have what I never thought I could — a godly husband and now a baby of our own. But what matters more than anything is that I have what I was searching for so desperately before—peace with God [Charles W. Colson, Loving God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1983), 138f].
Genuine faith produces peace with God. The product of faith is visible.
C. Genuine Faith is In Partnership ... vv. 21-24
Paul and James both refer to the story of Abraham. Both taught that Abraham was justified because he believed God. Paul used Abraham to emphasize a theological concept while James expressed a practical point.
Abraham personified a faith that believes God’s promises, as improbable as they may seem. He believed when called to leave his home for an unpredictable future. He believed the incredible promise that his aged wife would bear a son. He obeyed God’s strange but clear command to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Paul says, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3). That emphasis on a simple trust in God is the heart of the Gospel. John Calvin, wrote, “It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.”
Paul emphasized the “faith alone” concept, while James the faith that “can never be alone.” To do this, James points specifically to Abraham’s offer of Isaac on Mount Moriah. The patriarch believed that God demanded a terrible sacrifice of him. What God really required was Abraham’s willingness to obey. At his obedience, God said: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (Gen. 22:12). Abraham demonstrated his faith well beyond verbal profession! He could have stayed in the valley and claimed that he believed. Instead, he took his son and actually began to climb the mountain. Phillips paraphrases v. 22: “Can’t you see that his faith and his actions were, so to speak, partners?” Moffatt says: “Faith co-operated with deeds”.
God’s promise was centered on Isaac, and Abraham trusted God. But the day came when he started up the mountain, built an altar, put Isaac on it, and lifted the knife. “His faith and his actions were working together” (v. 22). His actions proved his faith. “His faith was made complete by what he did” (v. 22). Faith grows to maturity as we take action steps with God. God prepares us just as He did Abraham - step by step, as we respond to His guidance. As God proves His faithfulness we learn to trust Him more. At his extreme moment Abraham believed God and assured Isaac, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering!” (Ge. 22:8).
Most of us want to see a ram in the bushes before we obey. But faith is made strong as we obey in those times when God doesn’t seem to be present. Ruth Harms Calkins describes this in her poem, “Tell Me Again, Lord, I Forget”:
I don’t want to get up this morning, Lord
The day is cold and misty
I feel it
Even with the shades drawn
My head aches
My heart skips beats
And my fingers tingle.
I just can’t handle the pressure
Piled sky-high.
Lord
Do something
Say something
I’m scared.
Little one
I’ve already shown you
I’ve already told you
If you obey
You’ll see.
If you refuse
I’m so sorry.
Tell me again, Lord
I forget.
Genuine faith is not independent. It is a partnership faith—belief cooperating with deeds.
D. Genuine Faith Must Be Personally Active ... vv. 25-26
James now surprisingly links Rahab with Abraham. Her character was as bad as his was good. She was a prostitute in Jericho while he was a patriarch of Israel. By placing her alongside Abraham James condemned prejudice. He shows that heritage, family background, or ancestry mean nothing to God. Rich and religious though he was, it was his faith in God, not his social status that made Abraham righteous. Rahab had no status. People laughed and pointed as they passed her house of ill repute. Yet she ranks alongside Abraham because of her faith.
Rahab believed what she heard about God and acted on her belief. She welcomed two Israelite spies, provided a hiding place and helped them escape from Jericho at the risk of her own life. Though her deeds were different from Abraham’s, they proved that a living faith is working and active. Faith and works are inseparable. Just as the human body is lifeless without breath or spirit, without deeds, faith is no more than a corpse.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who opposed the Nazi takeover of the German church during the Third Reich. Hitler hated Bonhoeffer and had him placed in a concentration camp where he was martyred just before Allied troops could deliver the prisoners. Before he died, Bonhoeffer summed up the relationship between faith and works: “Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes.”
Tim Kimmel tells about a friend, a church leader whose daughter got pregnant:
I asked Tom what they had decided to do. Would they keep the baby, or put it up for adoption? That’s when he delivered the blow. With the fire burning low, Tom paused for a long time before answering. And even when he spoke he wouldn’t look me in the eye. “We considered the alternatives, Tim. Weighed all the options.” He took a deep breath. “We finally made an appointment with the abortion clinic. I took her down there myself.” I dropped the stick I’d been poking the coals with and stared at Tom. Except for the wind in the trees and the snapping of our fire it was quiet for a long time. I couldn’t believe this was the same man who for years had been so outspoken against abortion. He and his wife had even volunteered at a crisis pregnancy center in his city. Heartsick, I pressed him about the decision. Tom then made a statement that captured the essence of his problem...and the problem many others have... In a mechanical voice, he said, “I know what I believe, Tim, but that’s different than what I had to do. I had to make a decision that had the least amount of consequences for the people involved.” Just by the way he said it, I could tell my friend had rehearsed these lines over and over in his mind. And by the look in his eyes and the emptiness in his voice, I could tell his words sounded as hollow to him as they did to me. In one sweeping statement, Tom had articulated a major trend that is robbing the American home...
So many of the people approaching me for counseling want relief without reprimand. They want to find solutions to their inner restlessness, but don’t want to change their lifestyle. They want to feel the peace of God while living in direct opposition to the stated principles of His Scriptures. In short, they want the freedom to live life outside the protective fence of God’s Word—yet with the gate left open so they can rush back inside and avoid any negative consequences for their actions. Let me list a few of the ways I’ve seen people trying to live on both sides of the fence:
—A service manager is outspoken about his desire to be a deacon at his church but is even more outspoken in his use of coarse language at work to “motivate” his men.
—A mother is addicted to the most permissive of the daytime soaps, but preaches to her daughter about the questionable messages of rock ‘n’ roll.
—An employee outfits his desk at home with supplies he requisitioned from work.
—A man goes on vacation with his family but makes one “business” call in order to deduct the entire trip on his income taxes.
—A mother reprimands her child for lying to her, but consistently has the same child tell a caller to whom she doesn’t want to speak that she is “not home.”
—A husband lectures his kids about their taste in movies, but rents adult videos for private viewing.
—A mom and dad drop the kids off at church while they slip away for some “needed time together” at a restaurant [Tim Kimmel, Little House on the Freeway (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1987), 69ff].
Do you need to re-examine your life today? If you genuinely follow Christ, God will show you areas of weakness in your faith. Maybe you’ve avoided involvement with those who need help. You may have a fear, or wrong attitude. But God has promised you the power to do what He asks you to do. As you accept His strength you will begin to demonstrate by your life that your faith is useful, visible, in partnership with good deeds, and personally active.
Perhaps you’ve heard James’ words today and have realized that you are not a Christian at all. You are familiar with truth. You have said polite, orthodox, enthusiastic things about Jesus, but in practice you have done nothing more than mouth religious words. If that is your situation, God longs for you to come to Jesus and give your life to Him.
