Introduction
“Help Me I Am Drowning!” “Help Me My House Is On Fire And My Child Is In There!”
“Help me I am out of work and cannot feed my family.”
“Help me I am struggling to feed my children as my spouse died last year.” “The orphans are starving will you help?”
Imagine just responding to these cries of help with this, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled.” This is the old version of “I love you and I will be praying for you.”
Yes, prayer is important and we should pray for people. Yes, prayer is necessary and appropriate. But, we can do more than just pray.
People always need help. We help many different people in many ways, and this is good. But, we many times resort to saying I will pray and then we never even do that.
That is what this section of James is about. It is about fulfilling the royal law. It is about how we save our soul-lives by performing what the law of liberty/royal law says.
We are not people who just know God’s word but people who embrace His word and do what His word says.
That is the pure religion of Jas. 1:27. That is not showing partiality, and it is loving our neighbor as ourselves.
Which leads us to what James says in James 2:14-26
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
James 2:14–26 ESV
The first thing we see is that…
Words Are Useless Without Action (14-17)
We have seen that for our lives to have meaning, for our salvation to be blessed and without discipline, or loss of reward and blessing at the judgment seat of Christ, being doers of the word is important.
We see here in verse 14 that if someone says he has faith, in the royal law, the law of liberty, but does not put that to work, can faith save him? He is pointing back to those who have only heard the word and believed it but never perform what they heard.
Eternally saved, probably because he calls them brethren, but they can lose much at the judgment because of their failing to act. James is saying to them can believing God’s word save at the judgment that he spoke of in 2:12-13. Can believing the royal law save one at the judgment of a believers works according to what the royal law says?
The answer is no. We see the clear connection of this in the next verses.
In 15-16 we see a brother or sister in need asking for help and the Christian telling them to be warmed and filled. This tells us that James is still talking about the believer needing to be a doer of the word because if they are not then they have failed to fulfill the royal law.
They have become useless. One commentator says that James is not talking about whether someone is saved but about their fulfilling the royal law.
He further states, “Everyone agrees we are supposed to love God and love others, but how many are genuinely living out that truth day by day. And the warning is NOT that unloving people are fake Christians. The warning is that being a hearer only of God’s Word will be no benefit at the judgment. And why is that? Because the judgment determines whether we just heard (believed) the royal law or humbly welcomed it as God’s implanted word, so that like a seed it germinated and produced good works in our lives.” (Smelley, Hutson. Enduring Storms: A Mission 119 Guide to James . Hutson Smelley. Kindle Edition. Loc. 1093).
That is why he next says that faith without works is dead in verse 17. This dead is spiritually deficient. It is a life of you believe but you do nothing and you stay as a baby Christian and never seek to do the good works we were created in Jesus for. We are not good to God in this type of life.
Much like my pickup one time. It was back in the “blizzard” of 09-10 when we had like 18 inches of snow in Windthorst.
I had been trapped at home and just at home because I had nowhere to go for like 10 days. I was going crazy. It had melted off some so I decided I would drive around.
I got out and drove around some back roads and they were good. Life was good again. Then I got into a spot that had snow banks still. I nearly made it through but got stuck.
I tried to get out but it was no good. I sat there until a friend came who got stuck and then a tractor happened along and they got us out.
Now, my pickup was still a pickup. It was a good vehicle. It had a lot of promise. But when it was stuck, it could do nothing for me. It was just there. That is what James is saying about a dead faith.
It is no good to anyone until we use what we believe to help, much like that man with a tractor did for me.
We can do this when we look at what the royal law says. It says love your neighbor as yourself. We see the need they are in and we act in a manner that we would want.
When we look at people like that, we can become strong people of faith and serve them well.
We can because when we do our…
Faith is Demonstrated by Works (18-25)
Here we see a proposed objector in verses 18-19 and James’ response to him in 21, and then an example of why works along with faith matter.
In 18-19 the proposed objector says that there is no relation between faith and works. When we see that the text is pointing back to believing God’s word the word of the royal law here, that this description of the demons believing has no impact on salvation. It is him saying that you believe and do good, great, but demons believe too and all they do is shudder. His conclusion is that faith and works are unrelated.
He is trying to say that works are unnecessary in the life of a Christian that being a hearer knowing the truth is enough. (Smelley, Enduring Storms, Loc. 1214).
If this was about salvation and a supposed false faith, then James would have responded that demons had a wrong type of faith. He may have also said that good works will inevitably follow true faith, but he did not. (Smelley, Storms, Loc. 1217).
He did not do that because someone can be saved and be unfruitful. Is that good? No and that is what James is driving at.
That is why he uses Abraham. Abraham was the father of Israel. He was a faithful man. He believed God and was counted as righteous. But his works in his going to sacrifice Isaac made his faith complete/mature.
Working for the Lord builds us towards that maturity that James spoke of in the beginning of the writing.
When we have a strong and enduring faith it is because we have not only believed and trusted God but put what we believe to action.
Just think about Abraham. He was called out of his home when he was 75 and told to got o a land where I will show you. He went faithfully. God then met him again and made a covenant with him to bless him with a massive family. He had no children and his wife was barren and too old to have a child. Abraham believed and knew God would do what he said.
Finally at the age of 100 God provided Abraham and Sarah with this little boy Isaac. They loved him and were so proud of him. He was their only child. He was the promise revealed. He was theirs.
Then God calls to Abraham and says that He wants him to sacrifice that promised special child to Him. Abraham complies and takes him to the mountain. Abraham tells his servants to stay behind while he and the boy went to the top for the sacrifice.
Abraham took that precious promise to the top to sacrifice him. He was trusting God because he had faith in Him. He went to work with that faith and was following through when God stopped him and provided a sacrifice. A perfect goat tangled in the bushes only steps away.
By this action he was justified. Not before God but before the servants and people who knew of this. One commentator says it like this, “When…one is justified by works he or she achieves an intimacy with God that is manifest to others. He or she can then be called a “friend of God,” even as Jesus said, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:14; see also the discussion of Jas 4:4).” (Zane C. Hodges, Arthur L. Farstad, and Robert N. Wilkin, The Epistle of James: Proven Character through Testing (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1994), 70.)
Abraham was justified before people and they saw his justifying faith put to work and his faith as mature and then fulfilled. His works demonstrated a mature faith in God.
We can have the same type of maturity when we allow God to use us. When we allow God to take us and put us in situations that we may not like, like trials and tests, and we put to action what we believe about God during them. We will show people we are friends of God and that His power is more than anything the world has.
People will see and learn that God is amazing. Jesus is the way the truth and the life because of what we have done because of what He has done for us. We can have a mature and justified faith through our works when we trust the Lord and grow through our tests and trials and fulfill the royal law.
This illustration from Abraham demonstrated that works along with our faith are necessary for the Christian life. If we do not work we are useless and not any good to others or for the Lord.
He uses Rahab and how she demonstrated her faith through her works with the spies. She hid them and sent them out by another way.
Her faith in God was put to work when she did this and people were saved by her works for the Lord.
Works are necessary to have a mature and vibrant faith. They justify us before others and at the judgment seat of Christ to come where we will be judged by the mercy we gave and the works we did. Our faith is then justified by faith before God and justified by works before men.
We can impact the world when we take the royal law seriously and put it to work.
We can be the go-to people for the world when we live out our faith everyday.
We can do this when we take a moment and look at how we would want to be treated if we were in a bad situation. We can become strong faithful, faith filled, followers of Jesus when we allow Him to work in and through us every day.
One other point of this section is that…
Works Vitalize our Spirit (26)
Here he again says that faith without works is dead. It is like a body without a spirit. This term is that which gives life to a body, that which animates it.
Works give life to our faith. God knows our belief in Him but works are what vitalize our spirits.
Zane Hodges said of this, “James therefore wishes his readers to know that works are in fact the vitalizing “spirit” which keeps one’s faith alive, in the same way that the human spirit keeps the human body alive. Whenever a Christian ceases to act on his faith, that faith atrophies and becomes little more than a creedal corpse. “Dead orthodoxy” is a danger that has always confronted Christian people, and we do well to take heed to this danger. But the antidote is a simple one: Faith remains vital and alive as long as it is being translated into real works of living obedience.” (Zane C. Hodges, Arthur L. Farstad, and Robert N. Wilkin, The Epistle of James, 72.)
When we act and do our faith remains vibrant and strong. We can be that person that is saying the Lord is with us and we are good when the plane is going down.
We can be the person who stands strong when we are standing before a firing squad because of our faith. We can be the person who never allows the concerns of the world bring them down because their faith is so strong in the Lord. Just like working out keeps the body strong, putting our faith to work will keep it strong and vibrant.
Think of it like this, a car battery when used regularly stays charged for a long time.
Yet when you let that battery sit for a spell, just a few months, it will be dead and will not crank the starter.
But hook some cables to it from a car that has a vibrant and charged up battery, and your battery comes to life and turns the starter and boom, you are on the road.
That is works in our lives. When we put our faith to work, we become active and we can do so much. We can be like that battery and stay charged up by use until we are used up and die.
That is what James is saying here. We can live a fully charged life until the day we are used up and get called home when we put our faith to work regularly.
Conclusion
We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, but as Eph. 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
When we do this, people see that we are different. They see that Christians actually believe what they say they believe. They see us doing what we say and that makes a difference.
I have always had a problem with sports and coaches. It all stems from bad experiences and many different bad coaches. But regardless of that I have always thought to myself when a coach is yelling at me and telling me to do certain things and run faster, jump higher, get around that guy, do more sit ups, do, do, do–“I would like to see you do what you are telling me to do. If you would do all this you are saying I will fight to do more.”
But they never do but they sure tell you to do more. That was my experiences anyway.
This is what the world says of us. If we would do more of what we say, there might very well be many more come in and believe and go and do likewise.
We can be more effective when we remember:
Words are Useless without Action
Faith is Demonstrated by Works
Works Vitalize our Spirit
If we can get this in our hearts and minds, we can be charged up and highly effective Christians who impact the world in ways we could only dream of before.
Jesus did when He came and died for us and rose again. He changed much but it was His followers who believed in Him that changed the world by putting that faith to action.
You can too because Jesus gives you that power and ability. But to have that you must have first believed in Jesus for your salvation.
