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James 2:14-26 Sermon Notes

By November 13, 2022March 25th, 2023Sermon Notes

In 2007, I was asked to be a part of a team to help develop a resiliency program for the National Guard…suicides were spiking after 5+ years of war.

-My part was to help with the spiritual piece of the four pillars…physical, mental, spiritual, social.

-A medical doctor from DC, who was also a general officer, was asked to work on the physical pillar.

-I had several meals with him, sat with him in meetings…he was an engaging and enjoyable person and an expert on resiliency and suicide prevention.

-Soon after the resiliency program was launched, he took his own life.

*It was shocking to those who knew him.

-It was a devastating example of the difference between information and application.

-You can know stuff…and yet fail to apply what you know.

-We all experience this in many less extreme and permanent ways.

-How often do we find ourselves shaking our heads thinking…”I knew better!”

“Why did I say that? Now, it’s going to take a lot of work to dig out from under it…I knew better.”

Today, we are in the heart of the Book of James…2:14-26

The thesis or main point is this: Faith without works is dead.

To know something of God, but to not be changed by him…is not saving faith.

James 2: 14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Some Christians, misunderstanding Paul’s teaching, had come to believe that works of obedience were optional.

Such “faith” James argues (faith without works), is not real faith at all.

He is not at odds with Paul, who wrote in Gal. 5:6 about “Faith expressing itself through love”

Of course Paul knew that faith would show up in faithfulness.

But Paul was working against an overemphasis on human effort

James was working against an underemphasis on human effort

James is not saying that a Christian must “add” works to faith, but rather than saving faith “will work”

Humans are notoriously bad at maintaining balance…it’s like walking a tightrope, it’s easier to fall off either side than keep your balance.

James leaves no doubt as to his theme:

“faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (v. 17)

“faith without deeds is useless” (v. 20)

“faith without deeds is dead” (v. 26)

Dead or useless means=unable to accomplish its purpose (it cannot save or justify us).

Again, he is not saying that works must be added to faith but that biblical faith will be revealed in works of faithfulness.

Let’s paraphrase this passage:

14 What good is it, to claim to have faith that doesn’t lead to any actions? Can THAT KIND OF faith save him?

Think about like this…if one of your friends is cold and hungry…and you offer them well wishes…did you any real good?

Can they eat those words, or wear them in the cold?

No…it’s not real help…it is imaginary help, symbolism without substance.

Well, In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is useless…it doesn’t work…mere symbols without substance.

James in NOT contrasting two alternative options to relationship with God…one through faith and the other through human efforts.

He is contrasting an inherently defective faith (it doesn’t work) with one that, because it is genuine, works.

In verse 18 he introduces an imaginary person to argue against his point.

“Look James, buddy, you have faith and I have deeds, to each his own!”

As if saving faith and faithful acts can be separated into component parts.

James, responds to this imaginary debater, “Only where works are evident is saving faith present.”

James then really ups the ante in verse 19

“You have biblical beliefs about God…great…so do demons, little good it does them…they don’t have relationship with God, they live in utter fear of him…as they should.”

This is not belittling biblical theology or beliefs…how we can we know who God is and what he wants without truth about God?

This is…information without application is not heart transformation.

In verse 20 he addresses his imaginary opponent by using the Old Testament.

He is going to use two examples on opposite extremes of the spectrum to make his point.

  1. Abraham: The Father of the Jewish faith.
  1. Rahab: an outsider to the Jewish faith and a prostitute.

I think he uses these extremes to make his point universal.

“This applies here and way over there…and everywhere in between”

If you remember Paul’s writing on this same topic you might be confused.

He seems to be saying the opposite of what James is saying.

But they are not working against each other but working together to paint a full picture of Biblical faith.

Paul writes that to be made right with God is through faith alone.

James writes about what that right relationship with God will look like in practice.

Paul wrote, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” Rom 4:1, this happened, Paul writes…before Abraham did anything other than believe.

James isn’t arguing against this, he assumes it.

“Sure, Abraham had saving faith at the point he believed God…you know how we know his confession of faith was real faith back them…because it showed up in what he actually did later on.”

In Genesis, Abraham is called out of Iraq, from a culture that worshipped, among other things, the moon.

God revealed himself as the true God, the maker of the cosmos, and made a covenant with him…Abraham would be the father of a people who make God’s true nature known to the nations.

Abraham, at the point God called him…”believed what God said” and God said “your confidence in me is your righteousness (right standing, basis of relationship)”

“Abraham, I’m going to do this.”

“Okay, God…I believe you.”

“Good, you are in relationship with me.”

Then, if you know the story, Abraham did not consistently live in line with his faith in God…but his overall direction was towards God.

Again…faith was manifest in overall faithful direction not in perfection in every action.

The highlight of Abraham’s story was the terrible testing of his faith when he was asked to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Isaac, was the son of the promise…so this was tied directly to Abraham actually believing what God had said to him.

Abraham, was not a wicked Father and God was not a wicked God…Abraham knew his son would walk away, even if God was going to have raise him from the dead.

God was not tempting Abraham to sin…there was a lot at stake here…for the entire world.

The test was not excessive when you consider the role God had called Abraham to play in human history.

When Abraham passed the test the angel of the Lord reaffirmed God’s verdict, “Now I know that you fear God” (Gen 22:12)…fear=willing to obey…follow through on your faith.

When Paul speaks of Abraham’s “saving faith” he is addressing the timing…it was WHEN he believed God that he was declared righteous.

Paul is correcting those who think that the order is “Do good stuff…obey God…then God saves”

No, that’s not true.

James is not addressing the timing but the outcome of being saved. “When God saves, you will obey God.”

*Since Abraham’s faith was real, it showed up his life choices.

Okay, now look at verse 24.

Here is the center of James’ discussion…he goes from speaking to an imaginary opponent to speaking to his readers directly.

24 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

First, James doesn’t say “A person is justified by works and not by faith” he says “not by faith alone.”

James, like Paul, knows that salvation is rooted in faith.

But IF that faith is “alone” or “all by itself” and not accompanied by actions…it is not real faith.

Faulty faith doesn’t work…it doesn’t produce faithful actions.

“Faith alone” is James summarizing bogus faith.

Here’s my paraphrase…

“‘Saving faith’ travels with its best friend, ‘faithful actions’…if you see faith alone, all by itself, be sure of this…it is an imposter.”

He then goes from the father of the Jewish faith to the ultimate outsider, Rahab.

Her story is told in Joshua 2.

She lived in Jericho, a walled city state that stood between the people and the promised land in the Exodus.

She had heard of God’s mighty acts on behalf of his people and she came to believe that he is the true God.

An important fact about Rahab, she is in the genealogy of Jesus…in Matthew 1.

So this ultimate outsider to the faith, became the ultimate insider…she in the lineage of the Son of God.

So, when the Israeli spies showed up to gain intel on the city, she hid them and helped them escape.

25 In the same way, (James writes) was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

Again, James uses Father Abraham to make his point…real faith works.

But then, just in case someone might think…”Yeah, but he is Abraham…”

He adds, Rahab, an outsider, nobody.

Anyone is capable of acting on his or her faith…because real faith is “God’s power in us”…and his power works.

Finally he caps off the passage by restating the main point.

26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

By spirit he means that part of us that animates the human body.

The body is dead without the human spirit, so too, faith without faithful actions is dead faith.

Let me uses James’s style to address some questions.

The style, popular in his time, is called “a diatribe.”

Now that word means “A long, angry rant.”

But then, it was a useful literary device to make important points…you set up an imaginary questioner and then go back and forth.

We see this in James when he wrote, “But someone will say….”

  1. “Okay, Terry, you say…that real faith works.”

“Does this mean, I am to measure myself and others and keep track of deeds done to know if I have real faith?”…does it turn into a sort of tally sheet?

No, John wrote, “I’ve written these things to you who believe in the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:12

God intends for us to have confidence in our relationship with him…we call this the security of the believer.

However, James would say, “There is no security for the unbeliever.”

If over time, you demonstrate no evidence of relationship with God in your life…you should assume you don’t have a relationship with God.

Here’s the thing…the people who really should be worried about this…aren’t.

The people who are worried about this…probably need not be.

They are likely repenting when they fail and they are…imperfectly but consistently moving towards God over time.

  1. “Okay, I agree, faith works…so I look around me at people in the church and people claiming to be Christians and I see hypocrisy everywhere…I think these people are not genuine Christians.”

Well, that’s actually not your business…your business is to seek to express faith in faithfulness.

If you start trying to judge the hearts of others…you are in God’s domain.

So, don’t live with insecurity and don’t live judging others…live in the freedom of the law of God.

Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the perfect law that gives freedom.

Don’t judge others by that law.

Look in that mirror James wrote about…and act on what you see there…don’t shove it the faces of others.

  1. “When I look at my own life and my failures…it causes me to doubt my relationship with God…or perhaps wonder if God will grow tired of my failures and be done with me.

You can’t add to what has been done for you…Christ has paid your sin debt.

Your role is to believe and receive…nothing else.

Now, when you receive God’s gift of life…he will begin to change you inside out.

Your role then is to cooperate and collaborate with God…train for godliness.

Insecurity tends to follow when we fail to train faithfully…while we don’t try to be in relationship with God…we do train to be like Christ.

Security tends to follow when we train faithfully.

We train…not to earn God’s love…but because we have it…and we want to enjoy it and express it more fully.

*Last Sunday afternoon, I went with Christy to a piano recital by a friend of hers, who teaches at WSU.

-It was win/win…I got to spend time with Christy and I got an afternoon nap.

Back up a day…last Saturday, I did an invocation for a man who served 38 years in the Air Force.

What those two events have in common is they represent a convergence of God’s grace gifts and human faithfulness over time.

By Grace gifts…I don’t mean the gift of salvation…I mean the lesser gifts of: talent, life, health, opportunity, people who invested in them.

A lot has to go right to become a pianist of that caliber or have career of that length…a lot that is largely beyond your control.

Every good gift, James writes, comes from God.

But then, these two had to show up and put forth lots of effort over a long period of time…to bring those gifts to fruition.

So, you have moments become a movement…that I experienced in a moment.

A recital, a retirement…moments become a movement…painting a picture in a moment.

You can see these moments in funerals…when the person has lived a faithful life…it’s a delight.

The picture is the convergence of God’s gifts and human faithfulness.

Now, we know the stories of people who have squandered gifts…they have not been faithful with what they have been given.

There are many cautionary tales of very gifted people who squandered what God has given them.

-In fact, too often, gifting becomes a curse when not accompanied by gratitude and faithfulness.

When God’s grace and human faithfulness converge…there is beauty…even if people don’t recognize God the gave them the gifts.

The beauty of music, or a productive career of service.

God grants grace gifts that can be revealed through faithfulness (talent, opportunity, etc.)…or they can be squandered through lack of faithfulness.

What James is saying to us is that God’s greatest grace gift of salvation will be revealed through faithfulness…saving faith will show up in our lives.

Because it is real power…and it changes us at the heart level.

Now, the challenge here is to seek to be found faithful.

1 Cor. 4:2…it is required that those who have been given a trust be found faithful.

This applies universally…we don’t compare what God has given us in terms of his lesser gifts, one to another.

We are simply to be found faithful with what has been given.

*One day I pulled into the Timbers and saw my friend, Jim Bosch standing by his wheelchair holding the flag pole.

I walked over and asked “What are you doing Jimmy?”

“Exercising” he said.

It didn’t look like exercise, It looked to me like he was standing holding onto a pole…

but then I noticed his arms and legs shaking, sweat on his brow….he was practicing physical faithfulness…even though he did not have the grace gift of physical fitness.

There are different stewardships in terms of lesser gifts of grace…family experiences, physical health, opportunities…but in all of this…our single calling is to be found faithful.

What James has been demonstrating in his letters by telling the poor to delight in their in their spiritual riches and the rich to delight in the poverty of mere “stuff”…is this…

In Christ we are all equally gifted…salvation is the same for everyone who believes and receives God’s gift.

Now we are all equally responsible to be found faithful…to express our faith in ongoing faithfulness.

Don’t get tripped in ideas of perfectionism…or comparing one to another…faithfulness is about “directionism”

Or…keep getting back on track…mess up, fess up, move on.

Let’s go back to last week’s passage…remember, we are looking at this letter piece by piece, but it was written as a single flowing writing.

“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the perfect law that gives freedom.”

James is big on faith expressed in our words (much more on this next week)…our words and our actions should express our faith in the faithful judge and his perfect law.

The outcome of obedience to God’s word is increased freedom.

God is for moral purity because he is for freedom.

God is for us putting others first because he is for freedom in relationships

God is for life in community because he is for freedom to share blessings and burdens.

On and on it goes.

When humans try to grasp for freedom from God’s Laws…they find themselves moving away from freedom in all forms.

James and his readers had not perfected this…otherwise, why would he be writing it?

Grasp the challenge here…but frame it correctly in your thinking.

If you have believed the gospel and received God’s gift…when you unplug from God’s power and do what leads to “I knew better…why did I do that?”

Don’t wallow in guilt…quickly repent and return to God.

The realm of God’s will for your life is the realm of God’s power in your life.

2 Cor. 7:10: Godly vs. Worldly sorrow

  1. Specific 1. Vague
  2. Sin 2.Sinner
  3. Relenting 3. Unrelenting

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