Doing is the great thing. For if, resolutely, people do what is right, in time they come to like doing it.-John Ruskin Righteousness-doing what is right. 2 Timothy 3:10-17 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in RIGHTEOUSNESS, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Read James 2:14-18. Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.” Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. What does James mean by faith without deeds? James has used three important terms by which to assess faith without deeds. First, such faith is of no good. We found this term to mean of no use or benefit. Second, such faith does not save, and we found this to refer to the lack of salvation for the one who has this kind of faith. Third, such faith is dead. James chose this third term for summation and climax in 2:17, even as he will employ it again at the very end of this passage in 2:26. There he will explain his analogy: faith without deeds is dead as a body without a spirit is dead. The force of his meaning thus builds and intensifies. Faith that does not result in deeds is a faith that is utterly useless, ineffectual for salvation and in fact dead. With such terms in the text, we are finally forced to conclude that he is talking about a faith that is no genuine faith at all. Even when James depicts a Christian in the example of 2:15-16 , this does not mean that he expects a person of genuine, saving faith actually to ignore the poor.(materially, emotionally or spiritually) The point of the illustration is that such an outcome is unthinkable. Relationship and embracing each individual is of utmost importance. Dont send them to others for help but open the door of your hearts to allow the Spirit to flow through you. One of those doors is you! Sing it friends! Love that song! See below... This biblical truth needs to be forcefully preached and taught for the social conscience of the modern church. It must become unthinkable for us, too, that our faith would leave us content to ignore needy people. Our churches are failing to supply the channels of ministry for a life of faith if they are not providing ways for Christians to minister to needy people. As churches plan their priorities, it does not matter whether church growth can occur through outreach to the poor; it is a question of whether we have genuine, saving faith. This point is a message to convict and to motivate those who would be people of faith. 3. What does James mean by faith? A life of faith is the unifying theme of Jamess letter. He strongly emphasizes that faith is a stance of belief and trust toward God--for example, trusting God even in the face of trials. But with equal strength James emphasizes that genuine faith is working faith . It is the stance of belief toward God by which one endures trials, asks for wisdom, resists temptation, looks after orphans and widows in their distress, keeps oneself unpolluted by the world, avoids favoritism, loves ones neighbor as oneself, gives physical necessities to the poor and, in short, lives as a doer of the word. We can affirm all of this with Jamess passionate earnestness but without distorting his view into an unrealistic expectation of sinless perfection. Of course Christians fail to live up to this perfectly; that is why James bothers to write about it. But the meaning of real faith is still to be embraced and practiced. If the works of faith are not present, the authenticity of ones faith is in serious question. Genuine faith, faith that does result in salvation, must acknowledge the lordship of Christ and so respond to Christs word with actions of obedience. Chapter 2:14 recalls the emphasis on that which can save you in 1:21. Christ is both Savior and Lord; he cannot be separated into two persons. Genuine, saving faith necessarily includes both a trusting of Christ as Savior and a following of Christ as Lord!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 02:56:21 +0000
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