The Friend Of God - James 2:20-24 Series

James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor 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 justified by what he does 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.

Abraham: the Friend of God

Let me ask you a question that would have been really easy for you to answer when you were in third grade, but might be a little harder now. The question is this: Who is your best friend? Apart from your spouse or family, who would you say is your closest friend? Whichever people are coming to your mind right now – what are the criteria you are using to determine how close of a friend they are?

“I consider this friendship a close one because of ____.”

There are other people that you consider friends, but if someone asks you, “Is that your best friend?” you would say, “Oh no - we’re not that close.” Why? What is different about your relationship with them? What are the components that constitute friendship?

Now, can you imagine those components being applied in the relationship between a certain person and God? Take a look at the end of verse 23.

James 2:23 Abraham … was called God’s friend.

Isaiah 41:8 But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend…

2 Chronicles 20:7 O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land … and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?

That’s quite the credential, isn’t it? A lot of people have a lot of impressive credentials, but this one is hard to beat. If you and I were having a conversation about the most famous celebrity alive today and I told you that I consider that person my friend - that would be one thing. But what if that celebrity came on TV and said, “I consider Darrell Ferguson my friend”? I actually don’t care much about secular celebrities, but I can think of a few pastors and theologians that, if they came out publicly and said, “I consider Darrell Ferguson a close, personal friend,” I would probably get puffed up with pride. It would be one thing if Abraham said, “I consider God my friend.” But it is the other way around – God is the one saying, “I consider Abraham My friend.”

So back to the components of friendship – what constitutes a close friendship? With those in mind, if someone walked up to God in heaven right now and asked Him if He considered you to be His personal friend, based on those criteria, what do you think he would say? Do you think He would say, “I love him/her as one of the millions of subjects in My kingdom, but no, I don’t think of him as a personal friend”? Or do you think He would put you right in that same category with Abraham and call you His friend?

Our Father

One of the most astonishing truths of the gospel is that it is actually possible for a regular person like you or me to attain to that level that Abraham attained where God actually calls you His friend.

James 2:21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous…

Why does James call Abraham our ancestor (lit. father)? Most of us are Gentiles. It would be great if we could somehow be descendants of Abraham because they are the ones God promised to bless with salvation. They are the ones who get all the wonderful things God promised. So it would be fantastic if I could somehow be shown to be in the line of Abraham. But as far as I know, I don’t have a drop of Abrahamic (Semitic) blood in me. So how does James call me a descendent of Abraham? The answer is in Romans 4.