James 2:15-26 Part 1 Bible Teaching

JAMES 2.end – Part I
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March 15 2015
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So here we are – one of the most controversial, debated, I think abused and misunderstood sections of the entire New Testament.

Faith and Works by James. It goes without saying that as human beings we like things tidy, simple, and easy to comprehend and live.

So we have a tendency – especially in matters of faith to reduce everything down to some basic elements rather than include all the nuanced issues that are part of the recipe.

The recipe we are speaking about here is salvation. Due to Paul’s teachings we are rather inclined to say that we are saved by grace through faith and this is entirely true.

It is interesting how the Holy Spirit, working on different men, moved them to teach certain principles independent of others and so when we read them, having the proclivity to simmer, we glom onto, say, Paul’s core message while ignoring the message of Hebrews or the input of James.

As we pointed out last week, James is speaking of faith here. He’s talking about the type of faith – the quality or level of faith here – that has the capacity to bring a person into the gift of salvation.

And he launched us into the topic by asking (last week)

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can (such a faith – such a type or level of faith) save him?

We noted last week that almost everything in this life demands faith to some extent or another.

We care for and feed and teach our children believing that our efforts will produce something in them (unseen when they are young) in terms of a future.

We exercise, eat well trusting we will extend our health, save money by placing our faith in the financial institutions where it is held.

On and on and on. All expressions of faith.

When it comes to those involved in religion we take our faith and choose where and what we will focus it upon – Mohammed and the Quaran, the Revelations of Joseph Smith, and in Christianity, on Jesus . . . to some extent or another.

In Christianity, James seems to be saying that while we are indeed saved by faith – and his subject (AGAIN) is faith – can we be saved by the type of faith that does not work (with the works being love).

The question is NOT are we saved by faith and love. The question is, “Does a faith that does not produce love in its possessor save a person?”

In the Christian sense, James concludes rather emphatically that this faith is dead, which I would interpret as such a faith is not living and therefore is incapable of giving new life. More on that later.

Now prior to addressing this issue, James has addressed an issue these converted Jews were having – they were respecting the rich while disrespecting the poor.

And in so doing they were failing to live the Royal Law, which he pointed is “to love neighbor as self.”

So after asking his question about “faith that does not love” having the capacity to save, he gives a very fitting example, asking:

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.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James epistle is very practical. Because of this it has been esteemed by some as being too Jewish and not Christian enough – giving appearances that Christians have duties and these duties must be fulfilled.

I don’t agree with this assessment in the least. Remember, James is speaking of faith here – the kind of faith that arrives hand in hand with Christian love.

If it doesn’t, his purpose is to show there is a problem with the faith rather than moving people to fulfill what they believe are religious duties through obligation.

In Christianity there are no duties. In the New Covenant the rule of action is not duty but love.

Formerly the Law written in stone carried with it obligation, debt, duty.

But we read In John 1:17

John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

See the Law written in stone, while perfect, had a problem in its relation to human beings – it was quite capable of bringing death but it could NOT produce or bring life.

It promised life – it was given to give life but in the end (because of Man) it only produced death.

This is why Paul wrote

Roman 7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

The reason, as we’ve learned from James 2:10 and Galatians 3:10, is that the Law comes as a whole and must be kept perfectly and entirely – throughout the entirety of a human life. Break one bit and the law brings death.

So under the Law there is an abiding sentence of death. Always. For everyone who attempts to justify themselves in any way by obedience to it – whether in its entirety or just part of it – the conviction is LAWBREAKING and the sentence is death.

We cannot mix grace and law – in fact Paul says in Galatians 5:1-5

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Romans 11:6 makes it even more plain, saying:

“And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

It is really important to realize that one LEGAL system did not replace another.

Again, John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Grace and truth are not a system that replace the Old – again, God did not send another set of laws and rules, He sent His Son.

So we look to Him in faith – on Him entirely and not of ourselves.

Under the Law the relationship was one of legal obligation and duty. In Christ it is one of personal relationship of love.

All of it made possible by the Spirit (granted by God’s grace through faith) which makes us new creatures in Christ.

Romans 7:5-6 says:

“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”

We enter into this relationship (which again is NOT legal – and all that legal relationships demand – but is spiritual) the moment we are born from above or as the King James puts it, born-again.

Listen now – this is a covenantal relationship but not in the way some see covenants.

God made a covenant with Abraham and sealed it by physical circumcision. The term seal, in Hebrewm is KhoTham and means signet ring.

Later the law was given to guide God’s covenant people but this was not the covenant of promise neither did the Law written in stone make the Nation of Israel a covenant people.

A new covenant was given and it was sealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in Ephesians 1, speaking to believers, says

“after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. “

But remember, this new covenant is not a written code (though people often try to make the tenets of the New Testament a new written code).

Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 3:6 that God

“hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

Of course Hebrews 8:7-11 makes this position clear, saying:

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Romans 5:5 supports this by saying
“because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

So, now, HOW CAN LAW be written on on hearts if we are NOT under the Law?

First of all, to say that we are not under law is NOT to say that we are not under the Lordship of Jesus and the Sovereignty of God. We are.

Law has a number of applications and meanings in life. It certainly refers to rules and regulations of any legal system – civil or religious.

Law can also mean a universal order – like gravity. Law could relate to the way something has always been done, similar to a cultural tradition. There are also unwritten, even unspoken principles that all have rules of action associated with them.

For instance in healthy marriages the rules of action might be trust, respect, and love.

Under the Law written in stone we might say that the Rule of Actions is obedience.

Under the New Covenant of salvation by grace through faith what is the rule of Action then?

Love.

So if we were Jews under the Law James might have written

The law of Moses, without obedience, is dead (or leads to death, right?).

But since He is speaking to justified believers who are under the covenant of grace through faith” he says, “Faith without love is dead.”

Grace by faith is the New Covenant with the seal of the Holy Spirit and the New Commandment and the New Testament Rule of Action is love.

As a means to ensure that this love does not just become another mandate and therefore another appeal to dutiful law, scripture lets us know that the only reason we possess any love is because of Christ – and, like faith, it is not of ourselves.

1st John 4:19 then makes sense as it says:

“We love Him because He first loved us.”

Romans 5:5 says:

“And hope maketh not ashamed (listen); because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

So at this point before wandering more deeply into the text, I want to give you several reasons why we have to see the Work James is speaking of as love and as NO OTHER thing, demand, or activity.

First, look at the context of all he has said thus far.

Look into the Royal Law (which is love your neighbor as yourself) he has said.

Don’t treat others preferentially (which would not be loving) he has taught.

And now He has asked:

Can a faith that does not work or labor save.

The context prior to this part in chapter 2 has been all about love.

Secondly, in the New Testament we have references that speak to the works and labors of the Christian as being love.

For example, in

Galatians 5:6 Paul says

“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”

Here Paul clearly describes the type of faith that James wants us to have – “Faith which worketh (labors) by love.”

To the church at Thessalonica Paul wrote:

1st Thessalonians 1:2 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.

Notice the three pillars in that verse that are mentioned in 1st Corinthians 13 – Faith, Hope and Love?

Romans 13:8 says:

“Owe no man any thing, but (except) to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.”

Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Listen – throughout the ages God has sought to get human beings to love Him and to love each other. That is the purpose of the Law and the Prophets.

He has shown us how to express this love through warnings, commands, instructions and numerous examples.

Human beings have taken all these things and interpreted them as LAW and requirements but from the beginning they all pointed to God just trying to get us to love Him and others.

When we fight, and argue, and divide we defeat His purposed. And here’s the deal – to refrain from such things requires labor.

Effort, Work.

This is why James asks:

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

The works He is speaking of is unquestionably love, but agape love, in the presence of fleshly human beings, requires work, labor, toil to employ.

People have asked:

Why didn’t James say:

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not love? But instead uses the Greek terms for works here (which is ERGON) and which means a toil, labor, effort, doing.”

I would suggest that if He HAD written What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not love, then LOVE would have been used as a new law AND James meaning could be translated by some as a person MUST LOVE PERFECTLY in order for their faith to merit salvation.

By saying Faith without Works, (meaning faith that is lacking at least the labor or toiling toward love) believers are then permitted to fail in love (the same way we might work on a math problem but fail to reach a correct answer) and the willingness to labor in and for love escapes becoming law.

Again – and by the time we are done with the chapter, you will know that the labors James says that come with saving faith are labors in the fields of love – but more on this later.

Let’s get back to love requiring toil, effort and labor.

Where faith requires some acquiescence of the human will (a death to what we think we know, what we want to believe, the benefits of believing what we have always believed, real agape love – which is best defined as selfless, unconditional love often requires the total sacrifice of self on behalf of God and others.

Feelings and emotions and love pangs for God and Man are irrelevant IF they are not supported by acts as love is a verb.

It is a verb that includes giving.

“For God so loved the World He gave . . .”

Our love for God and Man includes the same – giving of our bread, giving of our time, giving of our attentions, giving encouragement, giving whatever the other requires (in the case of God) or needs (in the case of neighbor).

And giving almost always involves what we perceive as losing.

When we give bread we lose some of the bread we have.

When we give time we lose some of the life we’ve been blessed with. etc., etc.

From these examples we can see that the love that comes through faith is selfless, is not opportunistic, and is always based in action (of some sort or another).

At this point James provides a living example for us to consider and says:

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?

And then he ties the example to his question in verse 14 and says:

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

So when James says:

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

He, in my opinion, seems to be tapping back into the complaint he hit them with at the beginning of the chapter about giving preference to the rich and ignoring the poor.

In this way we can actually see that chapters one and two are really one long idea being fleshed out.

Anyway, the sense seems to be (from what He says in verse 15) that instead of looking at people who are in need and setting them aside, treating others who are not in need preferentially, the Christian, from the heart would see the needy as needing the MOST attention not the least.

When we allow ourselves to really think about it we typically see the world around us as cool and hip and with it and benefiting us or we see it as failing and hurting and lacking and it needing us.

We seem to have these attitudes in us to some degree at a very young age.

We are in grade school or better yet junior high and its lunch time.

Most of us are or long to be in the popular group that seems to have it all together.

We want to sit at the table with the group that will benefit us most – and fear being at the table that is noticeably lower on the food chain.

But every now and again there are people who, fully qualified to sit at the best table, seek out the ones who are totally alienated and shunned and sit with them instead.

The situation carries out into adult life as well – and more to the point into the Christian life.

This is the point James is making – if you are a Christian and you say you believe and follow the King of the lost and alienated and broken but prefer to associate and give attention to those that benefit you (instead of giving time and attention to those who truly need you) does your profession carry weight?

Remember these are insights on the heart NOT mandates for the hands. We cannot ever legislate love. The real question he is getting to is does the faith we express translate into a view for others that seeks to serve (act) on behalf of those who need.

Why? Because this is the heart of Christ – reaching, serving and loving those who need it most.

Anyone can hobnob with the healthy and wealthy and whole. And this is NOT a prohibition against it.

But such associations typically benefit us rather than benefit others.

It’s really fun and enjoyable to get invited to the playboy mansion (in terms to the pool and the food and seeing all the stars – who wouldn’t enjoy and evening being totally catered to.

We can even have friends and associates and a social life that includes those who are accomplished or well to do.

But does our faith reflect His love – with His LOVE being a verb – when it comes to the rest of the world and in day to day life?

The way James presents his scenario brings the point back to the things we say verses the things we do.

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
(verse 16)
16 And one of you say (there’s that word again) 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?”

Again we have James telling us – illustrating for us – that what we say is meaningless in the Christian walk (“I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus”) if what we do does not reflect our professions.

There will be continuity, in other words, between our professions of faith in the Lord who came to save sinners, and the lost, and the evil, and the fallen, and our actions toward the same.

Our actions toward the popular or healthy or wealthy or wise do NOT reflect our faith because such interactions tend to benefit our social, political, standing and lifestyles far more than we benefit them.

But when we give life – time, attention, money, support, encouragement – to the people and things that do not benefit us, better yet, might even hurt us socially or politically or in stature – that is the type of action that reflects someone who truly has faith in Jesus.

In my estimation James is pointing out that to say to a person in need of food or clothing:

Be filled. Be warm.

And doing nothing about filling them or warming them is akin to saying we believe and follow Jesus but DO nothing to reflect these claims.

Quite frankly, and at the end of the day, what people say (and I think James supports this in his argument) doesn’t mean a whole lot in the scheme of things – it’s what they actually do that proves their professions.

In some ways this has been lost in our day and age because of the myopic focus we place on the single line:

“If we confess with our mouths Jesus is Lord we will be saved.”

Because of the human tendency to discover and implement systems and formulas – in other words, to systematize matters in such a way that we can uniformly administer things like salvation – we create processes that will take care of the business of salvation in the lives of people.

It makes it so much more convenient and easy to demand.

Say the sinners prayer and you, sir, will be saved.

James here takes the time to explain that true salvation is not so lock-step. Certainly we believe in our heart and certainly we admit with our mouths our faith and devotion and allegiance.

But on the other side of that coin is real love that exudes hand in hand with real faith and it is not romanticized love, or eros love, or philos love, or stogay love – its agape love and it freaking acts.

As much as God acted in his love for the World in giving us His Son. As much as the Son acted in His love for the Father by refusing to embrace the principles of this world, and sin, and self and acted out His love for others.

It’s the love that drove the apostles to give up their nets and spend all the rest of their days sharing their witness (an act) with a world that was so hostile it would stone them and beat them and ultimately take their lives, and is the kind of faith that produces a kind of love that has existed in the hearts of all true believers that says

My hands do what my mouth says.

This is THAT TYPE OF FAITH that James is speaking about in verse 14.

We might flip the coin around on ourselves and say it this way:

Show me a person who tells a brother or sister in need that they do not have the time, or inclination to serve them and from their little expression of love we readily discover little faith.

James wants to know if such a faith has the ability to save a person.

Again, his point is NOT that the love or the loving actions save a person. Paul makes it clear that this is not the case.

But James is asking if a faith is so weak that those who possess it fail in love can that weak faith save them.

Actually, he goes further and says:

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

In James estimation a faith that does not move a person to “work their love,” to “labor in love,” to exert an effort to die to the self and to serve others in need, is not just weak or failing faith, it’s actually dead.

And he adds, Being alone.

This is really one of the most important elements of James propositions (relative to Paul):

Real faith never ever arrives alone. Faith, in essence, is more like a conjoined twin rather than a single standing individual.

I would go so far as to say that Faith is NOT faith unless love is present whenever it is expressed.

This can get dicey, but let me wrap today up with an attempt to describe what I mean.

Paul is clear that it is faith alone – no works (lest any man should boast) by which we are saved.

God’s grace (free gift) granted by faith alone. We cannot work or add works of any kind to please or appease God.

And where faith is, love is.

Simple as that.

We might put it this way:

Where God is, love is. Where Jesus is, love is. Where the Holy Spirit is, love is.

We can talk all we want about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can deliver grand theologies regarding them, we can praise them – shout to the Lord! – we can say, say, say all there is to say about them, but in the end IF LOVE is absent from any of these events or discussions or persons of God, then they are dead.

God is dead where love is dead.
Jesus is dead where love is absent.
The Holy Spirit is dead when love is not manifested.

Because they ARE love faith in them IS LOVE.

(beat)

More on this next week.

Q and A
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