James 2:14-26
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 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. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 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? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. This week, we're finishing up our series on raising children in the faith with the third sermon in our series. So I chose readings that are a little different. The reading for this upcoming Sunday, October 15, for the Epistle reading is from James chapter two, verses 14 through 26. It reads, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 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. You believe that God is one you do? Well, even the belief, demons believe and shutter Do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works. And faith was completed by his works. 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. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 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. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also, faith apart from works is dead. Here is the reading. This is a tough one for us, Lutherans, brothers and sisters in Christ. faith apart from works is dead. Let's take a look. So he begins with a question. What happens if your faith does not have works? And it goes, What good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If her brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. I think this is a fascinating look at what it means to have faith. I think for for many of us, Faith seems to be having an idea in our heads or a warm feeling in our hearts. And that kind of faith isn't really a faithfulness so much as just sort of having an inkling about Jesus. But James is doing here is he's saying faith leads to works. And if you don't see the works, maybe we have to ask some questions about the faith. So the example he uses is if a member of the congregation a brother or sister doesn't have food, what does faith do? Does faith say? I'll pray for you? Or does faith say I'll help you? Well, hopefully it actually says both. And what James is saying is that a faithful Christian who's filled with faith in Christ will then go out and give someone who is hungry or cold, warmth, or food. So faith all by itself? Well, it's hard to see. So he says later, but someone will say you have faith and I have work. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. What does that mean? Well, what I think he's doing is again, the works show in the life of a Christian is evidence of their faith. He wants you to go out and be like, point to my faith. Can we do that? Can we point to faith? I'm not sure. But we can point to things that are evidence, things by the works that we do, that faith genuinely leads towards. And that's what I think it means when it says faith without works is dead, is that a Christian who has faith will lead towards the works that are good towards good works towards our brothers and sisters in Christ towards the world and towards God. God, do these works save us? Well, you also see he has like, you have faith. And I have works. Like works apart from faith don't mean anything either. Right. And so the key component is faith that leads to works. Now one of the real challenges is when he goes through this, this big thing about Abraham being justified by works, he says in verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up his son Isaac on the altar, you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. So here is showing a bit of a of an example how Abraham's faith was lived out, by actually trusting in God, Abraham, his faith, he trusted God, which meant then, that he did the work of offering up Isaac on the altar. He believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, who was willing to offer him as a sacrifice, which means that the faith he had had a chance to be lived out in his works. And similarly, Rahab, the prostitute, when the spies came in, she knew who the God of Israel was. And she knew that he was coming on the march. And she was, well, she knew that he was going to win. And so her knowledge, her faith, was completed. By doing works. From her faith came the act of trusting God, to protect her when the armies came. It's an interesting way of seeing how faith produces the works that that God calls on us to do. Now, what's interesting is when I talk in our Bible studies, and I talk with members about what it means to be justified by grace through faith on account of Christ, and that our works don't save us. I almost always get someone from the group who will raise their hands and say, But Pastor, we have to do works, right. And I go absolutely, Christians, that our faith causes us to do works, they're the natural result of works. And so it flows out of us into the world. What's funny is then when I turn us around, and we start to do the faith without works is dead thing. And people tend to get a little nervous, because when we say things like, well, you know, the historic church would excommunicate people who didn't go to church once a year. We don't do that. I mean, that's pushing it a little far for us, but saying, maybe if you are despising preaching in His Word, and not coming to the church and not receiving Communion and not asking for the sacraments, maybe that is a demonstration about where our faith is. Faith without works is dead. And I think that's where we're going with this. This passage from James, is that when we have faith, we see the works in action. And so faith without works is dead. And James says, show me your faith, you can't see it, right? No, we when we we live out our faith, that faith shows the world and shows goes out into the world in works. You know, I had a professor at an college actually, who talked about this relationship. You said that when you when you look at a car, and it's running, you can't actually see the engine running. What do you do? Well, you listen, and you can hear the engine rumbling. And you can see smoke coming out of the back. Well, hopefully not too much smoke, hopefully just a little smoke. So you know, the engine is running. And that's kind of how this faith and works thing is going on. So that sometimes we see the things that we do and that's the sign of the faith that's in us. And that's I think what James is getting at here. Well, that's it for us today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai