Math was always a challenge when I was growing up. It was bad enough when the teacher would give us a problem and we just had to enter our answer. Then they started requiring us to show our work. This was a problem, because I couldn’t bluff my way with just an answer any longer.
They made us show our work to demonstrate that we understood how it worked. Understanding how to do it was more important than guessing a right answer. Showing our work was a measure of our understanding.
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This is very similar to the wisdom James gives us in chapter two. When it comes to living out our faith, our actions, works, or deeds are an essential way of displaying the faith we have in Jesus.
We’ll look at that wisdom today in James 1:14-26
James challenges us about our faith
What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?
James 2:14 (NLT)
This is pretty intense. What good is it to say we have faith in God if it doesn’t show up in what we do? It causes us to ask if our talk reflects our walk.
And before we start to think we don’t have a problem with our faith, he challenges us with a hypothetical situation.
Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Goodbye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well,” but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
James 2:15-16 NLT
James gives us this hypothetical interaction, and it seems to be a cordial one, where we meet someone in need. But if we wish them warmth and food but don’t do anything, how does that actually help them?
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
James 2:17 NLT
James uses this hypothetical situation to make a point. If we see someone in need and wish them all the best while doing nothing, how does that help them? In the same way, if there’s nothing behind what we call faith, that may indicate our faith isn’t real, or it’s useless.
Many people have an issue with this passage
For many, this is a controversial text. It’s one of these things where we can’t get away from the gaze of it. Martin Luther called James “an epistle of straw,” with many experts believing his issue with the book centered around this very passage.
How do you balance what James here against other things in scripture?
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)
James says faith without works is dead, but Ephesians says we don’t earn our salvation. Is there a contradiction here? If we take a deeper look, we find that they don’t contradict each other, but actually support one another.
It’s not about faith vs. works, it’s about faith that works
This isn’t about picking one over the other. Instead, the two come together as something good.
We cannot earn our salvation. It is only by the grace of Jesus that we have any hope. James isn’t contradicting that, but telling us as a result of grace, we should live in a way that produces good deeds. If we aren’t doing so, our faith may not really be faith.
Does this bother anyone else? This is something that cuts deep and confronts us internally. It attacks this American concept that our faith is just between us and Jesus. We don’t share it with anyone, we don’t talk about it, but instead just say your prayer of faith and go hide in a corner and wait for eternity.
But instead, James tells us that our faith should move us to action. Your faith should move you to serve, to love, and to share. If it doesn’t do any of that, it’s fair to ask what kind of faith you have. He asks us if our faith is worth anything if it doesn’t change us.
Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”
James 2:18 (NLT)
We might say that some have a lot of faith, while others are doers, but we’re all part of the body of Christ. However, James shows us it’s not about one verses the other. Instead, it’s about a faith that works, where faith and works come together to show the change that Jesus has made in our lives.
He responds by asking how we can show faith without any works. Instead, he says I’ll show my faith by what I do and say, by how I serve, talk, listen, and spend my time. Our faith and our works come together as the natural outpouring of what Jesus has done in our lives.
Simply believing is not enough
If you think he’s been controversial so far, James doubles down. He takes it deeper and explains that simply believing is not enough.
You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?
James 2:19-20 (NLT)
Even the demons believe that there’s one God. But what do their actions reveal? They don’t follow Jesus, haven’t been changed by him, and don’t indicate that this belief means anything.
We know that believing is the first step. Most Sundays, we quote Romans 10:9 that says if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.
But it doesn’t end at agreeing to a statement. Jesus said that everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. One statistic says that 63% of Americans consider themselves to be Christian, but do we see that in action? Salvation doesn’t come through lip service, but by grace through faith.
What James is telling us here doesn’t contradict salvation by grace through faith, but is identifying that our works reveal whether we have faith.
Examples of faith that works
Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 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. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
James 2:21-24
James’s audience was primarily from a Jewish background. He used the example of Abraham, the father of their faith, to drive the point home.
God promised a son, and to do great things through that son. This was after he and Sarah were well beyond the age for having children. God delivered on that promise.
Imagine the confusion when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son. There were so many ways that it didn’t make sense. Why would God promise so much through this son, then miraculously provide that son, only to take him away? Why would God ask for a human sacrifice, something he detests?
It didn’t make sense, but Abraham believed enough in God doing what was right that he stepped out in faith. His faith caused him to move.
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? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 2:25-26 (NLT)
When God offered his promised land to Israel, it wasn’t just “hey, here it is.” Israel had to go out and get the land. In this process, we meet a gentile prostitute named Rahab.
There were so many things about Rahab. She was a gentile, she was a woman, and she was a prostitute. These are not things that put her on good standing with the Israelites. Yet she believed enough that God was worth following that she stepped out, betrayed her own people, and hid the Israelite spies.
God responded to this faith in action. He saved her and her entire family.
How interesting that Abraham and Rahab, two individuals on opposite ends of “Jewish acceptability,” were mentioned in the same passage! All because the common thread of a faith that moved them to action.
Just as much as we are to be believing Christians, we are also to be doing Christians.
James tells us in this passage that if that faith is real, it naturally shows itself in what we do. Believing in God is good and it’s necessary. However, if it doesn’t move us to action, is it really faith?
If that faith doesn’t create good deeds, doesn’t impact our actions, and doesn’t cause us to live differently, it may well be dead. One commentary summarized this really well.
The warning is one that the church needs to constantly hear. Too often we have been content to offer mere words, when God may have been calling us to action. Words—sermons, prayers, confessions of faith, wise advice, encouragement—are indispensable to true Christianity. But they are shown to have real meaning, James reminds us, when people can see actions that correspond to those words.
James Moo: “James, an Introduction and Commentary.”
Our actions are the platform where faith is displayed. They show that faith is active, that it matters to us. They’re a sign that Jesus changed us and he changed how we live, interact with others, and how we serve them.
In this, James reminds us not to develop a complacent, lazy, or dead faith. Instead, we should develop a faith that allows the work of Jesus to be shown in what we do.
When we do this, we no longer have a tension between faith and works. In place of that, we develop a faith that works, a faith that shows that Jesus changed our lives and how we live.
Conversation Questions
Every few Sundays, we will have a conversation Sunday where we gather in groups to have conversations about the message. This message was one of those.
The embedded video at the top of this page includes at the end a conversation narrated by our online host.
We encourage you to take time and think about the following questions from that conversation:
