A WORD FOR TODAY, September 19, 2013 “What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect; and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith. And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.” James 2:14-26, ASV Feel good story of the day: The customers were standing in line at a Dairy Queen with a nice young man at the register. The customer at the counter was a regular, a blind man that the worker recognized from previous visits. During the encounter, the man struggled with his wallet and accidentally dropped a twenty dollar bill. The worker saw it fall to the floor. The woman behind the blind man saw it, picked it up and put it in her own wallet. The blind man walked away without even realizing it. The young man at the counter was shocked that anyone would be so cruel. When she approached the counter, the young man refused to serve her. “Ma’am, please give the man his twenty dollar bill.” She argued with him, claiming it was hers. He would not take her order and asked her to leave. She demanded to speak to the manager, but he was the manager on duty. She angrily left without making it right. The young man was brave, bold and kind to stand up for the blind man with such fervency. But the story doesn’t end there. After he helped his other customers, apologizing for the disruption, the young man left the counter, reached for his own wallet and pulled out a twenty dollar bill which he gave to the blind man. He told the man, “You dropped this.” He knew it was the right thing to do. He followed his heart. He didn’t let the world change him; he did something that would change the world. He didn’t even accuse or blame the woman who stole the twenty dollar bill; he simply made things right for the blind man. It has been said that Martin Luther did not appreciate the book of James because it seems to be centered in works righteousness; however this is not completely true. While Martin Luther did doubt the authenticity of the book, as did others in the Church at the time. In his comments on the book, detractors often focus on the negativity, but ignore the rest of Luther’s comments. He says that James is a good book because, “it sets up no doctrine of men but vigorously promulgates the law of God.” Luther continued to wonder about the book, finding contradiction between Paul and James on faith and works, but he never considered removing the book from the canon. As a matter of fact, he translated and published the German version of the whole bible, including those books about which he had doubts. Though I am not smarter than Martin Luther or any of the Christian theologians in every time and place, I think the story of this young man at Dairy Queen is exactly an example of what James was talking about. We don’t do good works to earn our place in heaven. Christ won that for us already. We do good works because we are already in God’s kingdom and we are given the courage, boldness and heart to do what is right. We love because God first loved us. We do good works because God has been extraordinarily good to us. We share God’s grace with others because He first did so for us. James says, “Faith without works is dead.” To me, this means that if we aren’t living a life of doing the right thing, of sharing God’s grace and loving our neighbors, then our faith is meaningless and even ‘dead.’ Living faith manifests in real action in the world, reconciling people and making this right. (Culled 4rm A Word For Today Daily Devotional)
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 15:47:26 +0000
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