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.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to the Church through His servant, James, and we get His main point. There’s a species of faith that’s no good. There is a way of believing in God that’s not the genuine product. We could be fake Christians. We could come to Judgment Day and it’s discovered that we’ve painted over our out-of-sorts-ness with God with some pretty, religious words. With an over-intellectualized religion. With positive thinking and niceness.
This fits in with a theme we’ve already picked up on in the first chapter of James: don’t be fake. Don’t hear and not do. Don’t be a good Christian when things are going well but then some suffering exposes your commitment to Christ as weak, superficial. Don’t claim to be religious and perhaps genuinely enjoy something about the religious culture…but then never meet the needs of needy people.
Church, don’t allow in a fake culture. Where we don’t follow through on our commitments to each other and actually meet real needs. Where our conduct at home is wildly different than our words in the gatherings. Where emotionalism and emotivism replaces attention to detail and closure in obedience. When as inconvenience or trouble from practicing Christianity comes we return to drifting along with the world.
Ok, we get the general thrust of what James is saying in this paragraph, and it fits in with things he’s already written. But what about the details? And what about the fact that in some places he seems to be saying the opposite of what we’ve heard elsewhere in the NT, particularly from Paul? Let’s tackle both by going through the passage slowly:
V. 14 – Can that faith save him? That is, can the faith that isn’t accompanied by works save a person? The implied answer is “NO!” There is a type of faith that does not yield works… and that is not the faith by which God saves a person. Paul says in Ephesians second chapter, You are saved through faith. James agrees but adds: but there is a kind of faith that doesn’t save, namely, the faith that isn’t accompanied by works.
VV. 15, 16 – Fake or incomplete or wrong faith often hides behind fine-sounding words. The words are so sweet or well meant that for a second one doesn’t see how empty they are. Empty of what? Empty of corresponding action! Beware of the Christianity that is full of lofty phrases and idealistic notions… pledges and aspirations and promises… but that never gets down to the details of work.
Which means there’s something slippery in the scene of a professed Christian driving down the road listening to worship music. The musicians are singing the powerful song with the moving beat, the professing Christian is singing along and maybe her eyes are getting a little misty. She hears the words, she repeats the words, she is so sincere that she’s crying…surely this is all a reliable sign of genuine faith? And James says, NO.
A little rabbit trail: That Christian words can cover over the truth brings up one of the limitations – even traps – of relying heavily on podcasts/recorded sermons – – – you hear many words but aren’t able to observe how the words are fleshed out in the life of the teacher. “By their fruits you shall know [good teachers from bad]” says our Lord.
V. 17 – Faith without works is dead. Even if the best of words are attempting to fill the vacuum, the absence of productive, problem-solving works is the sure sign of death. The one without works is still dead in his trespasses and sins, even while he’s saying good things….or driving down the road weeping to worship music.
V. 18 – This verse seems to be zeroing in on the futility of finally separating faith from works. You can distinguish faith from works – and should distinguish the two – for theological reasons…which Paul does in various places. But in real life they always go together: genuine faith always presents with good works.
V. 19 – Another bad replacement for the genuine faith that always includes works is adherence to theological orthodoxy – orthodoxy that’s even strong enough to move one to strong feeling – but minus works. James presents a wild example:, the demons have completely bought into this fundamental proposition – that God is One – and they believe it so whole-heartedly that they shudder. But it’s a thing to be certain about certain religious facts, it’s another thing to respond to them with deep emotion – BUT NEITHER OF THESE SIGNIFY GENUINE FAITH IF WORKS ARE ABSENT.
VV. 20-24 – James raises the story of Abraham – who was the beginning of God remaking humans and the world – to demonstrate that from the very beginning of the story faith and works are inseparable. In v. 23 James recalls the night when God brought Abraham outside to look up at the stars… and then followed up that awesome sight with the pledge he would give Abraham as many descendants as the stars in the night sky. To this pledge, Abraham simplybelieved God and [that belief] was counted to him as righteousness. Without doing anything except nakedly believing – Abraham is made righteous: he is justified, he comes into a forever partnership with God, he is part of God’s remaking of the world. That’s Paul’s emphasis in Romans 4.
But – and here’s James’ point – Abraham’s faith didn’t consist in him simply trusting God’s promise. He trusted in God, the One who said he would give Abraham many descendants, and in this trust he followed God’s instructions offering up Isaac to be sacrificed. Abraham followed through on a hard commandment that seemingly worked against God’s plan in the world…it certainly worked against his fatherly feeling…because he trusted God. His belief wasn’t merely intellectual but worked itself out in works: including the details of plotting a course for their journey, saddling a donkey, arranging for firewood to be chopped up etc.
In v. 21 James says that Abraham our father was justified by offering up his son. Now, James must be using “justified” differently from Paul, who says in Romans 4: 1-5 that Abraham was not justified by works. Paul is using justified to mean, ‘declared legally to be righteous.’ Simply by means of an intellectual process of apprehension and acceptance Abraham is brought into God making right the world, a covenant partner in God’s future plans. But years later when Abraham offers up Isaac, he shows that he is in the right, a partner with God. By his works it is seen that Abraham is justified in the claim that he in friendship with God. That’s how James uses justified.
Or, to use James’ exact phrasing in v.22: Abraham’s belief in God’s word about blessing the families of the world through his descendants is completed by his offering up his lone descendant to be sacrificed:
- Stage 1 of Abraham’s faith was hearing and accepting as true God’s statement about what God was going to accomplish. Paul labels this as Abraham being justified by faith. Brought into a righteous partnership by grace.
- Stage 2 of Abraham’s faith is acting in obedience to God’s word about how Abraham should participate in God’s accomplishment…even though it seemed counterproductive. James labels this as Abraham being justified by works. Proving by his obedience to be in a righteous partnership with God.
V. 24 sounds shocking after 500 years of Roman Catholic and Protestant jockeying for just the right statement on faith. But heard in this passage’s context it’s simply a natural and obvious summary of what James has already laid out. The one who merely hears and accepts God’s word as true can’t lay out the proof that he is in a righteous partnership with God. So, he can’t be justified by James’ definition. And one who merely hears and accepts God’s word as true without the eventual accompanying works must have a bogus faith…because genuine faith is always accompanied by works. So that person of faith without works can’t be justified by Paul’s definition either.
V. 25 – The Rahab story is found in Joshua 2. Israel has wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Now they are encamped at the eastern side of the Jordan, poised to enter the promised land, start driving out and in some cases, yes, killing off the land’s inhabitants. One of the key strongholds to be dealt with was Jericho. Let’s pick up the story in Joshua 2:
2 And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” And they went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab and lodged there. 2 And it was told to the king of Jericho, “Behold, men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land.” 4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. And she said, “True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. 5 And when the gate was about to be closed at dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.” 6 But she had brought them up to the roof and hid them with the stalks of flax that she had laid in order on the roof. 7 So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords. And the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.
8 Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof 9 and said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. 11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. 12 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a sure sign 13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the Lord gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”
15 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. 16 And she said to them, “Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward you may go your way.” 17 The men said to her, “We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. 18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19 Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. 20 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear.” 21 And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
22 They departed and went into the hills and remained there three days until the pursuers returned, and the pursuers searched all along the way and found nothing. 23 Then the two men returned. They came down from the hills and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they told him all that had happened to them. 24 And they said to Joshua, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”
Why does James call Rahab the prostitute as his next example of the right kind of faith, the kind with works? We can understand Abraham because he’s the start of the redemption story and in beginnings we can see the truths of the matter more clearly. But Rahab would seem to work against James’ point because she was, well, a prostitute, certainly not a purveyor of good works!
And yet, Rahab is the perfect choice for James. Because – like Paul – James is not claiming that good works earn salvation. We each first hear God’s gospel as unrighteous, dead in our trespasses and sins. Rahab’s career choice only accentuated the truth about her that is also true about us: we and Rahab are connected to Adam the sinner, we ourselves have sinned and fall short of the glorifying God – the very thing image bearers can’t do. We are condemned because we’re guilty and the consequence and the penalty of broken image bearing is death. Death in the short term and the long death that is called hell.
But when Rahab hears from the spies what the God of Israel is up to…which is a sliver of this huge project beginning with Abraham and culminating in King Jesus that we call ‘the gospel’…. when Rahab heard the gospel she believed. And when she believed God, she was graciously justified (in Paul’s sense) apart from her works, apart from her sins, apart from her prostitution – in a moment she’s declared to be in the right, part of God’s future plans for the world, an image bearer in partnership with God’s remaking the world. HALLELUJAH!
And unlike Abraham did, when she hears and believes she has an immediate occasion to act on her belief. Abraham sees the stars and hears that his descendants will be as many. All he can do in that situation is think, ‘OK.’ That thought is the stuff of justifying faith – in Paul’s sense! But Rahab is immediately able to prove that she is in partnership with God etc. She hides the spies and so is justified by James’ definition of the word.
Before we end with v. 26, let’s ask the question of application: what are we supposed to do with this meditation of James? And someone says, well, that’s obvious: do good works. But then the questions tumble out: which good works? How many? And for how long until I prove that I’m a genuine Christian?
And here I just point out something that is so big we might have to return to it: you don’t do works by focusing on the works. Here’s probably the only time when you’ll hear me use that oft-quoted evangelical line: it’s not about a list of do’s and don’ts. But that’s not because there aren’t a lot of things to do and not do!
If I were to hand you a list and say, do all these things: 1) Go through your house and assign value to each thing; 2) Open up the trunk of your car; 3) Pack your suitcase for a three-day trip; 4) Assemble your dog cage; 5) Check local traffic; 6) Look out your window; 7) Fill up your water bottles; 8) don’t dawdle…
You could fulfill all those things on the list mechanically and be wondering what’s going on. Just a list of dos and don’ts…
But what if before I handed you the list I said: there’s a fire out of Hartford county that is about to sweep through Tolland… and you need to get out of here pronto! Now you’re grateful for the list…and ready to do all the things on the list…because you have believed my story. And the list of instructions fit in with the story!
If you want to understand what to do, how to do it, among whom to do it…you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the story. You don’t do justifying works mainly by focusing on the works but mainly by focusing on the story that makes sense of the works.
Faith requires works because faith is telling the kind of story in which you play a part that is much more than thinking some thoughts or crying over worship music.
Like Abraham and Rahab, when God gives you ears to hear what He is up to and you believe that…you better believe that you’ll respond… no matter what it costs.
And what is God up to? In several stages God is judging the ancient Serpent, condemning sin, and ransoming the world out from under their hateful, wicked grasp. The Father of all is remaking the cosmos and uniting the renewed everything in heaven and earth under His Son by the work of the Spirit… because He delights in Him. In Jesus the old cosmos riddled with sin has been and will be brought to death…In Jesus the new creation has and will be raised to life, directed to God, ETERNALLY ALIVE!
God is bearing witness to this judgment and redemption in Christ through the Church – ransomed from death saints led by elders who gather and then scatter and then gather again:
…Through the Church hearing and entering into and proclaiming the Message of Jesus Christ’s victory over sin…
…Through the Church’s Spirit-produced, new- creation- fueled- alignment with and care for and gentleness toward each other…
…Through the gathered and scattered Church in the power of the Spirit advancing God’s work for His glory in so-called ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’ spheres…
Yes, God is right now gathering into the Church ransomed from death image bearers under the authority of King Jesus and by Word and sacrament and trial forming them and their children into genuine worshipers who are paying attention to what he’s doing. He has already furnished these holy ones to pass through earth’s coming cataclysms and is training them to enter the age to come – the merging of Heaven and earth – as competent lords and priests who themselves will initiate the final stage of reconciling God and his creation.
So when you believe this message, really enter into this story, are there works to do? You better believe it!
Works to gain more understanding of this Story and our place in it. Works to strategize. Works to leave no one in the Church behind. Works to gather. Works that involve risk-taking. Works to keep cleansing out the Satanic destructiveness which so easily overtakes us. Works of persuading and warning our fellow humans about the coming cataclysm. Works of building families and businesses and houses and homes and marriages and roads and well-behaved dogs…works that have been so energized by and instructed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ that the order and beauty and righteousness of the age to come has already shown up in miniature.
V. 26 – You look down at a dead body and you can see hands and arms and legs – all these parts that are made for action… yet are inert. That’s the macabre image James leaves us with – faith without works is like that. Faith – rightly understood – is built for action. The faith – the story of what God has been up to and what he’s doing now and where it’s going and what it means – is a story filled with activity and daring and sacrifice and place and work and pruning and politicking and lost ground and ground taken again. You come into that story only expecting that it will be action-packed, not primarily cerebral or emotional. Actually, the intellectual component has a lot to do with learning what to do or stop doing.
AMEN
😃👍🏻❤️