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By Pastor Glenn Pease
The passage we are looking at has been greatly misunderstood.
Some have thought it contradicts what Paul says about being justified by faith.
James says we are justified by works.
They appear to be holding opposite views, but a close study of the words reveals that they are in perfect agreement.
When Paul spoke of faith he meant a faith that works, and when he spoke of works he meant works before salvation trying to merit salvation.
James speaks of faith as mere intellectual knowledge that even the demons have, and which is not saving faith.
When he speaks of works he means those works after one is saved.
Let us not forget that the theme of James is always a practical faith.
In chapter one he talked of the trial of faith, to pray in faith, and he begins this chapter withholding faith without respect of persons.
Faith is the theme, but because of mistaken ideas on faith James stresses that true faith is a working faith.
When Paul stressed faith he did not emphasize works because he wrote to those who were in danger of the deception that good works could save them.
When James stresses works, he writes to those who are in danger of being so heavily minded they are of no earthly good.
They are those who say they have faith, and that is all they need.
The proof that God knew what He was doing when He inspired two men to write about faith from two points of view is that two of the heresies that have plagued the church have grown out of extremes in one side or the other.
Pelagians have said we'll work our way to heaven.
Antinomians have said that we will ride on faith to heaven and do nothing.
Paul and James are a team, and they strike down both of these heresies.
Paul says in Eph.
2:8-10, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Paul makes it clear we are not saved by good works, but for good works, and that is what James is saying.
If your faith is true, it will show itself in works.
James indicates that we can test the truth of our faith by asking two simple questions.
First-
I. IS THERE ANY PROFIT IN MY FAITH.
vv.
14-17.
James asks them what does it profit to have a faith without works?
A faith that does not express itself in action is nothing but words.
He gives a rather humorous illustration.
The wind is howling outside as Christian A sets down by the fireside to eat a good meal.
There is a knock at the door.
Christian A opens the door, and there stands a member of his church, Christian B. He has no overcoat, but only a shabby light jacket.
He tells Christian A of the fact that he lost his job, and hasn't been able to buy any groceries.
Christian A, with all the compassion of a phonograph record says, "Well brother, you can count on me to pray for you.
The Lord bless you.
I will see you in church on Sunday."
He shuts the door and goes back to his warm fireside chair and finishes his meal.
Christian B continues to hunger in the cold.
Where is the profit in such foolishness says James.
Can you really be so blind as to think that mere words can substitute for food?
Do you think that a faith that is mere words can save your soul?
The use of this illustration indicates that these Jewish Christians were giving a wrong meaning to faith in contrast with their old concepts of works.
As Jews, before they became Christians, they thought alms-giving was a way to salvation.
Ben Sirach wrote, "Water will quench a flaming fire, and alms maketh an atonement for sin."
In Tobit we read, "Everyone who occupieth himself in alms shall behold the face of God, as it is written, I will behold thy face by almsgiving."
This is why the Pharisees wanted everyone to see them giving alms.
What happened was that when the Jews accepted salvation by the free grace of God, they forgot the other half of the Gospel, and they said that since alms do not save us we can forget that aspect of our old faith.
But James is warning them that faith without works is dead.
We are saved by faith, but not by a dead faith.
We are saved by a living faith that loves God and man, and desires to express the love of God to man by deeds of love and compassion.
As Paul says, though I have faith to remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing.
Why?
Because God is not interested by moving mountains by faith, but in moving men by love.
There is no profit in a faith that does not express itself and works of love.
Men of true faith have been men whose faith brought profit in the sense of meeting the needs of men.
Evangelical Christians have often considered the so called social Gospel a nasty word.
The causes for this are obvious.
It was so abused that it came to be that mere humanitarian works became the essence of the Gospel.
Salvation by faith in Christ was neglected.
Evangelicals made the same mistake as these Jews to whom James is writing.
They were saying, "Since alms do not save us then we can forget alms altogether."
And evangelicals were saying, "Since the social Gospel did not save anyone, we can forget humanitarian works."
James is trying to get Christians to see that a true faith is of profit in all areas of life, because a true faith acts on what it believes.
John Wesley made an amazing impact on the world by his preaching, but only because it was backed up by practice.
When he was in Oxford College he began to give to the poor all that he did not need to live on.
He made 30 pounds that year, and he lived on 28.
He gave the rest to the poor.
The next year he made 60 pounds and still lived on 28.
He gave the rest to the poor.
He kept on making more but living on the 28.
God did not require that, but here was a ma whose faith did not just profess, but it also produced.
There was none of this, "be warmed and filled," with him.
He went on to start the medical dispensary in London.
He founded a home for widows, and a school for poor children.
He also founded a loan fund for the poor.
He was so concerned for the sick that he studied the anatomy and medicine on the side.
He even wrote a book called Primitive Physic that went through at least 23 editions.
Wesley's faith was a true faith, and all the world can tell, for he not only preached the love of Christ he practiced it.
The result was great profit for the kingdom of God.
Not all of the people he helped received his message of salvation in Jesus Christ, but then, how many of the 5,000 that Jesus fed became His followers?
Jesus did not love and have compassion because He saw it would pay off.
He loved because it was His nature, and a true faith in Christ will cause us to love that way as well.
It is hard for us to see this sometimes because of our background.
I'll admit that I sometimes wonder about the value of meeting people's needs other than their spiritual needs.
But then I read the books of Frank Laubach.
He was a man so dedicated to the task of helping the illiterates of the world to learn to read.
He helped millions, and his system is working around the world every day.
Why all this effort to teach people to read?
One short paragraph from his book The World Is Learning Compassion will explain why.
He writes,
"The most bruised people on this planet, the naked, the hungry,
the fallen-among-thieves, the sick, the imprisoned in mind and
soul, are the twelve hundred million adult illiterates.
At least
a billion of them are virtually slaves!
Almost every illiterate is
in debt all his life, and his children, and his children's children
inherit the debt.
He does not know how much his debt is, nor
whether the interest on it is correct.
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