James, Part 13

James, pastor of the church in Jerusalem a decade after Jesus’s ascension, wrote a letter to Christians in the Diaspora. He was concerned about the persecution they were enduring and the false teaching they were embracing. There were numerous misconceptions about what it means to be a Christian, and James corrects several. In chapter 2, he addresses inaccurate teaching they had received concerning the nature of faith.

They were being taught the Christian faith is personal and private and need not change a believer’s way of life. James disagrees. He says genuine faith is living and powerful and will always show up in the lifestyle of a Christ follower. He offers a well-reasoned argument that begins with an explanation of what faith is not.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t show it by their actions? Can that kind of faith save them? If a brother or sister has no food or clothing, and you say, “Go in peace; stay warm and eat well,” but do nothing about the person’s physical needs–what good does that do? In the same way, faith, if not accompanied by action, is dead.
James 2:14-17

The people James wrote to had a shallow and partial understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. He tells them the Christian faith is much deeper than what they have been taught. “What good is it,” James asks, “if someone claims to have faith but doesn’t show it by his actions?”

James, Part 12

James 2 addresses the subject of prejudice. People in James’s day, like people today, created social hierarchies based upon wealth and power. The rich were catered to and given preferential treatment everywhere, including the church. James makes it clear that favoritism has no place among apprentices of Jesus and offers three reasons:

• Discrimination is contrary to God’s attitude toward the poor (2:5–6a).

• Discrimination makes no sense (2:6b–7).

• Discrimination violates “the royal law” (2:8–13).

We looked at the first two reasons in part 11. Today we’ll explore the third: discrimination doesn’t just contradict God’s regard for the poor–it contradicts God’s very nature. Let’s read James 2:8–11:

If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it, for the one who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

James, Part 11

James 2 is one of the most debated passages in the Bible. Many have misunderstood what James meant when he said faith without works is dead. Some have come to the hasty conclusion that James is teaching salvation by works, but a closer examination of the passage delivers a different verdict. James is not saying a person must do good things in order to be made right with God–he’s saying a person who is right with God will do good things.

Why? Because people who have been born from above not only have new interests and priorities; we have a new identity in Christ. Believers don’t do good works in order to earn or maintain God’s approval–we do good works because God has given us a new nature and changed us from the inside out (2 Corinthians 5:17). We do good works because we want to.

James, Part 10

Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres–not  a forgetful hearer but an active doer–he will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled in the sight of God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being stained by the world. 

James 1:22–27

Many Christians wander through life feeling defeated and confused about their faith. They try their best to live according to godly principles, but setbacks are frequent and frustrating. Is there a way to turn things around? Is it possible to be content, even joyful, in the midst of life’s ups and downs?

James says there is a way that is both simple and foolproof. “If you want to be truly blessed,” he says, “don’t let God’s Word go in one ear and out the other–do what it says–put it to work in your life.” That’s a paraphrase of verse 25; James was more blunt. He said blessings come not to “forgetful hearers,” but to “active doers.”