Originally posted on the Electric Gospel on June 23, 2018.
Faith must act
by David Sellnow
This installment of The Electric Gospel is an excerpt from the recently released book, Faith Lives in Our Actions: God’s Message in James chapter 2. The full book is available through Kindle Direct Publishing.
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It is a central Christian truth that we are made right with God through faith, not by keeping commandments (cf. Romans 3:28, Galatians 3:11, Ephesians 2:8,9). Yet it is also true that where faith exists, doing good is to be expected. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? … Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself” (James 2:14,17).
Faith that generates no works isn’t really faith. True faith always has actions flowing from it. For example, the thief on the cross next to Jesus had only a few moments of life as a believer. Yet he was moved to confess Christ aloud and rebuke another man’s mockery. An elderly grandmother in a nursing home may not have ability or opportunity to do community service, but her heart regularly offers prayers from where she lies in bed.
Most of us are not confined by bodily frailty. None of us are being held down by nails through our feet. There is so much good that we can be doing. Why is it that at times we seem so inactive in serving the Lord and loving our neighbor? Is there some sort of glue that has us stuck in our recliners in front of wall-sized TV screens?
James said faith by itself—without actions accompanying it—is dead. It no longer exists. That’s because faith never exists by itself. Faith always acts. A man with faith would never say, “Look at me! I have no deeds!” He would be ashamed of his inaction. A person of faith is always seeking opportunities to put faith into practice. Having faith without works is like having fire without heat. It just doesn’t happen.
James gave a specific example of how faith connects with works. He challenged us about our attitude toward the poor and called us to a greater love. James asked, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? And if a brother or sister is naked and in lack of daily food, and one of you tells them, ‘Go in peace. Be warmed and filled;’ yet you didn’t give them the things the body needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16).
Ask yourself the uncomfortable sort of question James is asking you. What do you do if you encounter someone who is destitute? That’s an uncomfortable question for many of us because we seek to avoid such encounters. We build our homes in the suburbs, out of sight of urban poverty. We teach our children that there are certain parts of town you just don’t go to. We say this in the interest of safety. But are we inferring that the poor are inescapably criminal and utterly beyond hope? Might it also be that, underneath it all, we have an aversion to dealing with the poor?
James’ example demonstrates how our aversion works. We are pious about it. We say we’ll pray for people whom we see struggling. We wish them well … but are eager to send them on their way. We are reluctant to get our hands dirty and get into the ghettos and get involved. We say to the person who can’t afford food or clothes, “God bless you, you poor dear! I hope you will be okay.” What good is that? God puts needy persons in front of us for a reason. How will their needs be met if we don’t respond to their needs?
In James’ time, a common farewell was to say “Go in peace.” It is similar to our “goodbye,” which derived from the phrase, “God be with ye.” Most of the time we speak expressions like “farewell” and “goodbye” as trifling slogans—indeed, how many of us even recall their original meaning? We even say “God bless” as a parting word in a similarly empty way. We don’t utter these words as true prayers, for that would lead to our personal involvement. We prefer to remain detached. To say, “I’ll pray for you,” is often a dodge to avoid doing something concrete. Yes, we should pray for the less fortunate, and prayer is “powerfully effective” (James 5:16). But God also wants to use us as an answer to others’ prayers, to be his agents to bring mercy into their lives. “Let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:18).
Let’s look at the full picture. We have Christians in our congregations who could use assistance. There are persons across town or in nearby cities whose need cries out to us in our affluence. And the world has grown closer within our reach in the centuries since James’ time. If we ask ourselves now, “Who is my neighbor?” we must include the throngs of humanity crowded into impoverished regions all around the globe. When I was a child, my mother said I should eat my vegetables because starving children in China would be glad to have such food. (I suspect everybody’s mother used some similar admonishment!) I don’t recall, though, that we ever tried to send a care package to the starving in China or India or Africa or wherever. Maybe a plateful of one kid’s green beans wouldn’t make much global impact. But in our world today, we have access and ability, through missionaries and other charitable organizations, to share shiploads of necessities with neighbors all over the world who are “naked and in lack of daily food” (James 2:15), or who need medical care or other basic humanitarian services. Do we think much about them? Do we do much to help them? James’ powerful urging is: Do something! The world’s poor are not to be viewed as a drain on the world’s economy, but as opportunities for us to put faith into action.
