James 2:14 Bible Teaching

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Verse by Verse pick it back up at James 2:8 for a quick review.

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James 2.14
March 8th 2015
MEAT
Okay, I admitted some confusion last week when it came to James approach to his topic especially relative to Law.

We said that on the one hand he writes of “the perfect LAW of liberty, of the Royal law, and then obviously brings in the Law written in Stone in verse 10 and 11.

I’m not going to re-approach this because I think I can see what he is going and the key to it is verse 12.

So let’s read from verses 8 on and go from there.

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” ye do well:
9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

If you weren’t here last week I can’t take the time to fill you in – the teaching is in the archives. But if you were here I think that verse 12 brings all this together where James adds:

12 So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

Now, we’ve mentioned that James continually (in the first three chapters) addresses the topic of what we say and speak.

It’s a theme he actually hits on through the entire epistle. And this seems to be his point –

If we say something (good) do something good.

If we profess good things make sure we live what we profess.

Don’t let there be a disconnect between what our words are all about and the things our lives and actions are all about.

This message is quite subtle in chapter one with him first writing:

James 1:19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Then he touches on some other ancillary points and then adds at verse 26

“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.”

And then he describes pure religion – a makes it pure action, pure verb, pure love – toward widows and fatherless specifically.

That’s chapter one.

Now in chapter two he introduces us to a “living, working, verbish” example of Christianity misdirected, and presents us with an illustration about looking on some people who are rich preferentially while looking on the poor with indifference.

And he explains that when we look (with our eyes and judge with our hearts both the rich and the poor) AND THEN SAY
(to the rich thus and such) and THEN SAY (to the poor) thus and such, we prove ourselves guilty of the sin of treating people preferentially.

To correct this attitude he reminds us in verse 8 of what he calls, The Royal Law and defines it as, Loving neighbor as self,” and says if we do this we do well.

And I WOULD SUGGEST (HAVING THOUGHT ABOUT IT) THAT VERSES 10 and 11, which obviously speak of the LAW written in stone, are presented as contrast.

The recipients of this epistle were converted Jews. They were treating people preferentially, which was essentially according to the culture and dictates of the Law.

This was in conflict with the Royal Law of loving neighbor as self. And so in verse 10 and 11 he is merely reminding them that if they are going to live by the Law of Moses they had better live it perfectly.

And the key to understanding his point is, in my opinion, in verse 12 where, having pointed all of this out says to these BELIEVERS –ready?

“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

As you speak, do those things because when you do you will be judged by the Law of Liberty (which is love) rather than the Law written in stone (which must be kept as a whole and is therefore impossible.

Get it?

I think this is right.

It’s a tie back into chapter 1 verse 25 where he wrote:

“But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

In other words, IF a person is really loving (one who looks into the perfect Law of Liberty) and they continue in this mode, he is not just a hearer but a doer.

In the same vein that James speaks about what we say (with our tongues) James speaks about hearing (with our ears) and in both cases, making sure these sensory receptors are tied to actions of love – or the actions of “the perfect law of liberty.”

The conclusion is not easy and conversely it is quite easy to get mixed up but I am fairly confident this is the gist of his point.

He reiterates the import of verse 12, which again, says:

“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

By adding –

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

Contextually this verse relates directly to the fact that these believers were not having compassion on the poor and adding salt to the wound were actually preferring the rich.

James reminds them that if they view others by the “law of liberty” which is to love neighbor as self, they would have compassion and mercy on the unfortunate rather than indifference.

And then he warns them in verse 13 saying:

13 For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.

The principle is strewn throughout the Bible narrative in a bunch of different ways.

Literally, Proverbs 21:13 says:

“Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

Jesus said plainly in Matthew 7:2

“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

And in Luke 6:38 He said:

“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

2nd Samual 22:26-27 says,

“With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful, and with the froward thou wilt show thyself unsavoury”.

Psalm 18:25-26 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;
26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself forward.

Proverbs 3:34 Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.

Mark 11:26 carries this out into spiritual principles with Mark writing:

“But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Admittedly these passages are tough in the face of passages that maintain our salvation comes by grace and not works of righteousness, that we have been forgiven “past, present, and future” of our sins and continued forgiveness is mandated by faith not our righteousness.

So what gives?

I am of the opinion that the whole thrust of James message here, and what is behind the other messages from Christ, is (LISTEN)

“When a person truly has faith that person will truly love – with love being a verb and includes not being partial, forgiving, showing mercy.”

Where Paul’s profession that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works lest any person should boast I would suggest that all Paul is doing is describing only one side of the coin of salvation.

But as we all know, every coin has two sides and the other side of the coin of salvation is not blank.

There is a four letter word deeply engraved into its surface – love.

For the Christian saved by grace these reminders to love and forgive etc., are to assist us in embracing these things of the Spirit that come into our minds which our flesh will war against.

Because of this the things are often presented to us as didactic imperatives, like if you don’t forgive you won’t be forgiven,” when in reality such a line, in the face of a believing Christian might be rewritten to say:

Those who don’t forgive were never forgiven in the first place.

After saying:

“For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy” he adds:

“and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”

The term the King James uses here – rejoiceth might be translated, “boasts, glories, or exults over.”

“Has the victory over.”

Most translations outside the King James say: “Mercy Triumphs over judgment.”

The implications of this line are far reaching and applies both to God and His relationship to us and our relationship to others.

First, let’s talk about mercy.

It is often confused with grace. They are not the same thing. If you have been a Christian for any length of time you would recognize this approach to teaching mercy and grace

Mercy is not getting what you do deserve or a deserved punishment is not administered and Grace is getting what you don’t deserve or what we have come to say is, “unmerited favor.”
They are both founded on Agape love.
For example, when God so loved the words that he gave His only begotten Son it was an act of mercy (He sent His Son to pay for our sins instead of giving us his wrath) and grace (we did not deserve such a gift).
Mercy is like a judge finding you utterly guilty of a crime and then withholding any punishment.

Grace is being completely undeserving of a blessing or gift and then having one bestowed upon you anyway.

Combining the two situations it would be like a judge finding us utterly guilty of a crime and not only not punishing us but blessing us with a million dollars.

That is mercy and grace.
And it’s complete and perfected in Christ Jesus.

So in a sense mercy is sort of like the inverse of grace.

Often – especially in the King James – mercy is synonymously defined as having pity.

Someone is in a desperate situation and we bestow kindness upon them.

This is a bit of a fuzzy line because it’s not that the person in the desperate situation deserves punishment but in the end they given something they don’t appear to deserve (kindness) and so in this case there is a blurring of mercy and grace.

The Greek word is Hilayos and it means cheerfully, goodness, mercifully.

It is used in 2nd Corinthians 9 when Paul, explaining how Christians ought to give, says we should do it cheerfully.

Hilios – with hilarity.

Ephesians 2:3-5 says that God is “rich in mercy.”

Again, the principle is all over scripture. In fact, to me the sum of the entire Old Testament can be found in Micah 6:8, which says:

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

We could spend six months on the biblical notions of mercy alone, a year or more if we add in grace.

But for our purposes and in the context of what James has written here, the Christians are being challenged to view their world through the Royal Law, which is full of mercy and grace, and in doing so they would realize, from the hand of God, that mercy triumphs over judgment, fulfilling Christ’s words in Matthew that say:

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

And having obtained mercy, because we have been merciful and withheld punishment from those who deserve it, we will obtain mercy.

Remember, that mercy is not receiving that which we deserve. Therefore the essence of “being merciful” would be to refrain from giving others the punishment, or unforgiveness, or cold shoulder, or rejection that they deserve.

In my estimation there can be a want for mercy in this day and age of modern Christianity as it allows us to look at people with Aids, or at smokers with lung cancer, or at fat people with heart disease and sort of coldly think,

“They’re just reaping what they’ve sown.”

In my estimation it’s the same attitude that cries for the lives of those who have taken life or really any time when we rejoice when others “get theirs,” not realizing that before God we all deserve to “get ours.”

Just as mercy and grace are interrelated I am certain that where genuine love abounds mercy is abundant.

In fact all of these attributes tend to orbit in an around one another don’t they . . .?

Grace
Mercy
Faith
Hope
Love
Patience
Longsuffering
Forgiveness
Kindness
Gentleness

I wonder if there is a connection here between James opening comments of chapter two about treating the poor and rich with partiality and the concept of mercy.

I wonder if these believers were somehow looking upon the poor among them and mercilessly believing that they somehow deserved their plight.

It’s what runs through my head EVERYTIME I meet a person on the street.

Every time I immediately think – “they deserve to be where they are.” It’s frankly one of the most deplorable elements of my flesh.

In fact, I’m not so sure I am not correct in my assessment – I’m sure most of the homeless and indigent are in the place they are because they have taken actions and made choices to have landed them in such situations.

But the truly sinister nature of my perspective is not so much that they have gotten themselves in that state but that I callously and immediately also assume they deserve it forgetting that I deserve nothing better both in this life and in the life to come.

God wants something more from the hearts and minds of those He calls His own.

He wants us to be merciful toward all men – all – without fail. Admittedly, the deeper I have got into the Word over the past 18 years the closer I come to seeing my state and not one bit different than anyone elses, and concur with Sartre who once said:

“I have never met a man more evil than myself.” The more I honestly believe and see this, the more merciful I become toward those who could use a little mercy in their lives.

At this point James, having set the stage (because I believe all that he has taught this far is preparatory to what he is now about to say.

Ready?

At verse 14 James asks:

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Up to this point James has mentioned a number of things that I believe serve as preface material to the point he is about to make here in the rest of the chapter.

Let me rehearse them to you again.

In chapter 1 verses 1-8 he speaks about asking God in faith and summarizes the point by saying that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

That would be a person who is split on what he believes, or what he says and does, etc.

He then writes about temptation and adds at verse 19:

“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”

Appealing, in part to what comes out of our mouths as Christians. Then again he says at verse 22:

“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”

Remember, this is all the way back in the first chapter. So he has been building a case that clearly says:

Genuine faith is always displayed in activity – truly, in loving activity.

He wraps chapter one up by likening those who only hear the word to people who look in a mirror but walking away forget what they saw.

He then tells his reader to look instead into what he calls, “the perfect law of Liberty,” which I suggest can only be LOVE (which is a means to avoid such empty faith) and then he summarizes what he has said by pointing out that the PUREST expresssions of religious worship is visiting the widows and fatherless in their time of need (which is a verb, a loving action).

All this is obviously building and referring to what he is about to really hit hard now beginning at verse 14.

Then in chapter 2 he introduces what appears to be an actual problem in the churches – showing preferential treatment to the rich while treating the poor disparagingly.

Referring to this he reminds them in verses 8-9

“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.”

Then, again, he mentions this principle:

“So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.”

Again, he our actions and activities being in harmony with what we proclaim, what we say, what we profess.

Reversing this, verse 12 is merely saying, “If we say it, do it.”

This is really what he is repeating here at verse 14 through the rest of the chapter.

If we say or proclaim or attest to faith in Jesus we would then DO what our profession would suggest.

In the spirit of honesty and integrity this only makes perfect sense.

Forget Christianity. Use any other profession. We prove our allegiance and devotion and love to whatever we profess by ACTING in harmony with the tenets of the profession.

So let’s say someone professes vegetarianism.

“I believe in the tenets of VEGITARIANISM.” “I LOVE VEGETARIANISM.” “I AM A VEGETARIAN.”

If the claims are followed up by, “pass the steak,” the claim is called into question.

Again, to cement the point down.

“I believe in the tenets of Karl Marx. I love Marxism. I am a Marxist.”

But then such a person embraces elements of capitalism, including bourgeoisie attitudes and material conspicuous consumption her Marxist claims are in question.

The interesting things about this principle when it is assigned to Christianity is what is expected to come from people who claim His name and principles as their own.

James will tell us next week.

But for now this is his point, asking:

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

This is a question loaded for bear especially in light of Paul’s words. Listen to the question again, and as you do try and think of all the rhetoric you have heard on the subject.

James asks:

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

I’ve appealed to other translations to try and get my arms around how they see this question.

Jas 2:14 (ASV) What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? can that faith save him?

Jas 2:14 (BBE) What use is it, my brothers, for a man to say that he has faith, if he does nothing? will such a faith give him salvation?

Jas 2:14 (WNT) What good is it, my brethren, if a man professes to have faith, and yet his actions do not correspond? Can such faith save him?

I think it is really important to remember that James is talking here about faith. This is the premise. Something we either refer to as faith all the way out to what is actually the best form of faith.

The other translators refer to this when they ask:

“Can such a faith save him,” meaning a faith that professes (speaks) but doesn’t have ANY corresponding activity to back it up or sidle up to it.”
Is this a type of faith? I suppose we could argue that genuine faith works so therefore faith that does not work is no faith at all.

But in light of Paul’s writings on faith and works it seems that faith is absolutely void of works.

Otherwise works would no more be works.

What I mean by this is I think FAITH must be seen for what it is – “the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen,” and that it bears absolutely no component of works, labors or actions.

In my estimation this must be understood right off the bat if we are going to have a reasonable argument or discussion on the matter.

The question THEN becomes can the type of faith that says “I believe, I trust, I love” save a person if it simultaneously does nothing to serve, help, or act?

James says not – this type of faith is held in vain. I could NOT agree more.

We have long tried to say that a faith which does nothing is really not faith at all but I think this is a misnomer. I think to believe in any sense of the word is faith.

Instead of quibbling over if a person REALLY has had faith or not the fight is whether the faith they possess is rich enough, deep enough, virulent enough, powerful enough to cause someone to act.

In other words the faith that saves (and remember it is by grace we are saved THROUGH faith) but the faith that saves is ALWAYS accompanied by activity.

Faith that fails to save fails to move a person to action.

We might liken faith in this sense to levels of love.

We love some people generally but often that love will only lead to a certain amount of devotion and activity.

For others we may have a far deeper level of love where our actions and devotions toward them are much deeper.

And finally there are usually a select few who we love so much we would serve their every need unconditionally, give our very lives for them, and sacrifice all we’ve got for their benefit.

In this comparative love in expressed at every level but only at the deepest levels is love best expressed.

I think it is a mistake to say that when sacrifice for another is at a minimum that love is absent. Not so. It’s just not abundant.

So when it comes to speaking of faith, faith is faith. But it appears faith can be present at such levels or powers that it is incapable of saving a person.

Therefore when Paul says we are saved by grace through faith he is absolutely correct. There is nothing else to the faith – it stands alone.

All James is pointing out is that type or kind of faith that saves always comes – to some extent or another – with the propensity to love.

Stay with me.

The two great commandments are to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and to Love your neighbor as yourself, right.

Whenever ANYONE comes to any amount of genuine salvivic faith, love is always attached.

Let’s me explain.

I am a sinful man who does not know the Lord at all and am alienated from Him. When I come to genuine faith and am saved I receive the COIN of SALVATION.

Here it is. God hands it to me and says, By my grace according to your faith you have been saved. Here is the coin of salvation.

“Wow,” you say, that is awesome. A free gift of grace granted to me by faith.”

Well the thing about coins is they typically have two sides. On the one side we read faith, but on the flip side of the genuine coin of salvation we read, love.

Whenever real saving faith is present, love in right around the corner on the other side.

Now, you might say, when I first believe I didn’t love. I would suggest otherwise.

In would suggest that when you first believed with faith unto salvation you simultaneously loved the Lord and because grateful (to some extent or another) for His sacrifice.

This is James point. He is saying that to possess the type of faith that does not come with some sort of love profits nobody . . . OR . . .

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

Such a faith cannot. Never could. Again, I don’t believe that such a faith is not faith – I think it is – but it is such a pathetic form it fails to move a person to the love that always comes with powerful faith.

We might liken this type of faith to the kind that says,

“Well yeah, I believe in Jesus. Sure.”

OR

“I have faith in God and think that whatever He wants he’ll get so I really don’t worry about it.”

There is, in these cases, a statement of faith, and acquiescence, but such a faith cannot save a person.
Instead saving faith always arrives hand in hand with love. Always.

And as saving faith “increases in size,” so does the love – in exact proportion.

We might think of the coin of salvation – again with faith on one side and love on the other – as starting off the size of a widows mite and over the course of our Christian lives growing to size of an American half dollar, a pancake, a platter, a man hole cover, a beach umbrella, a satellite dish, a country.

So, Paul is exactly right in his teaching of being saved by grace through faith alone.

And James is correct in teaching that the type of faith Paul alluded to always comes with love – or what he calls works.

More on this next week.