True Faith Does Something [James Study Week 6, James 2:14-26]
This is a meaty passage of Scripture, one that’s given Christians some trouble. Doesn’t James contradict what Paul says? Paul says we’re justified by grace alone through faith (Ephesians 2:8), but yet here James seems to say the exact opposite (James 2:24). So what’s going on?
In these verses, James clearly argues that true faith results in us doing something. If our faith is inactive, it’s like a dead body without a spirit (James 2:17). He repeats this in some form four different times, and the structure of his argument drives his point home.[1]
“An inactive faith is really no faith at all. True faith does something.”
But does our faith really require works? What does he mean, and how can we hold this to be true if we also hold what Paul says to be true?
We’re going to look at three aspects of James’ argument—first, his example of how we treat the poor, second, his argument about demons, and third, what he means by “justified.” As we look at each of these components of his argument, I think we’ll see clearly that James doesn’t disagree with Paul. Both agree that an inactive faith is really no faith at all. True faith does something.
Faith Without Works is Dead: James 2:14-17
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.
James 2:14-17
For the Jewish people, providing and caring for the poor was fundamental for living out the command to love God and love others. We covered this a bit last week, and here again, James reminds his readers that true faith acts on behalf of the poor and oppressed. If all we do is say, “Good luck! I hope you find what you need!” but we don’t help, that shows an anemic—and even a dead—faith.
In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks about the final judgment. He says:
Then the King will say to those on his right, ”Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, ”Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:34-40).
Then Jesus continues on, showing the reverse of that scenario. There were those who didn’t feed, clothe, and show compassion to the “least of these.” There were those who failed to demonstrate the kingdom of God through the way they treated others, especially the vulnerable. Jesus isn’t saying that our acts toward the poor and needy are what save us. But if our hearts have truly been transformed, we will demonstrate that by being compassionate, welcoming, loving, and generous to others—especially the “least of these.”
God in his grace “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Psalm 113:7). And as we’ve been talking about for the last couple weeks, as followers of God, we are to demonstrate his character and his kingdom and recognize that we ourselves are needy. God has been so good and generous to us. Who are we to be anything else to others?
All through Scripture, God demonstrates his heart for the needy—and his judgment on those whose hearts are hard toward them. He rejects empty religious rituals that are all about show. What really demonstrates our faith is how we love God and love our neighbor.
Isaiah 58 gets at this idea so beautifully. Verses 6-7 say, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Isaiah, Jesus, James, and others throughout the Bible remind us that true faith loves the poor—and that love is shown through action. We don’t wish the poor well and go back into our comfortable homes. We help provide, we serve, we feed, we clothe, not with a “top down” attitude, but a humble heart that knows that our God has done the same for us.
True faith means our hearts have been changed, and a changed heart is demonstrated through action. Faith with no demonstrable action is no real faith at all. It’s dead, James tells us, like a body without a spirit.
But what about…?: James 2:18-20
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?
James 2:18-20
James anticipates a rebuttal to his argument. He knows people will bristle at his strong exhortation. So he reminds his readers that even if they adhere to the most fundamental of Jewish confessions, the belief that God is one, they’re not in the clear. They haven’t shown true faith. “The confession that God is One was the most basic confession of Judaism, found in the Shema and taken up into earliest Christianity.”[2]
The Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6. Shema is the Hebrew word for “hear.” Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Yahweh (the personal name for God often shown in English Bibles as “LORD” with all capitals) is the one true God and there is no other. James reminds his readers that even the demons believe this—and they shudder. Are we living differently than the demons? Are we actually putting that confession of faith into action?
The passage in Deuteronomy continues, commanding the Israelites to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:5). The following verses and chapters lay out for Israel who their God is and what it looked like to live as his chosen people. In other words, even in Deuteronomy, they weren’t just to admit that there is only one God. They were to follow his commands in the way they lived.
Fast forward a few hundred years. One of the scribes (a religious scholar) came up to Jesus and asked him what the greatest commandment was.
Jesus answered, “The most important is, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Last week, we looked at the original commandment to love one’s neighbor found in Leviticus 19, and Jesus affirms that and the Shema from Deuteronomy. These two things are what it all boils down. This is what it means to have faith—love God and love neighbor.
Of course some people wanted to get off the hook on a technicality about who their neighbor actually was. Jesus diffuses their argument with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Loving God and our neighbor looks like taking care of others, serving, giving, helping. It looks like doing something.
The demons don’t do that. They may know there’s only one God. But they don’t put their faith into action, demonstrating through the way they live their life that they love God and others.
Let’s not be like the demons.
Is a person really justified by works?: James 2:21-26
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.
James 2:21-26
This section can be confusing, and honestly it’s confused me quite a bit until I dug into the background of the text a little more. Are we really justified by works, as he says here? How do we reconcile that with what Paul says about being justified by faith?
Buckle up. There’s a lot to dig into here, and we’ll see that James’ use of justified, examples of Abraham and Rahab, the writings of Paul, and the ministry of Jesus show that faith does something. Inactive faith is no faith at all.
What Does James Mean by “Justified”?
James’ use of justification was different from Paul’s. He used the term in a more traditional definition, one his Jewish readers would probably have understood well. “In the traditional use of the concept, justification was an affirmation by God based on a person’s righteous actions. In other words, God proclaimed a person just based on his or her actions. But Paul sometimes used the term ‘justified’ to speak of a right standing conferred on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross (Ro 3:24; 5:1).”[3]
Clear as mud, right?
If this whole thing still makes your head spin, you’re not alone. My head is spinning right now as I write. But I think it’s especially helpful to understand the root of the problems that both Paul and James were trying to address. James writes to people whose faith was inactive. They said they believed something, but their life didn’t show it. They weren’t demonstrating love for God and love for neighbor in their everyday lives. “Paul’s primary nemeses, on the other hand, were those who held up certain religious practices, such as circumcise and food observances, as mandatory for Gentiles entering the new covenant.”[4]
We’re not justified by our religious rituals like circumcision or even agreeing with the statement that the LORD is One. We have right standing before God (as Paul says) by faith in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. And we show ourselves righteous by the way we live our actual lives.
Abraham and Rahab
James then refers back to the Old Testament and uses the examples of Abraham and Rahab. These polar opposites illustrate for James’ Jewish readers and for us that what matters is not what we intellectually assent to, but what we live our real, everyday lives based upon. True faith does something.
In Abraham’s case, he believed the promises that God gave him (Genesis 12). He believed God would be faithful, and he believed God despite the command to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. His belief was shown in how he acted. He didn’t just say, “Yes, God, I believe you. Yes, God, I’ll follow you,” and then stay put in the comfort of his tent. Instead, “Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). He moved. He acted. He did something. He showed in his real life that he believed God, even though God’s command seemed crazy.
God did make good on his promises, and from Abraham came the nation of Israel. Abraham is revered and respected (he was not without his flaws, though). Rahab, on the other hand, was a non-Israelite prostitute. The contrast between Abraham and Rahab could not be more stark, and I think James does that intentionally.
Joshua 2 records the story of Rahab hiding Israelite spies. She says to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all inhabitants of the land melt away before you...for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath” (Joshua 2:9,11).
Do you see how controversial this all is? She flat out lied to her king, the king of Jericho (Joshua 2:3-4) and told the Israelite spies that their God, Yahweh, was the true God. She put her life on the line, not knowing that she and her family would be spared.
This took incredible faith—faith that showed itself through the way she spoke and acted.
Abraham and Rahab are proclaimed just based on what they did. But the faith was there already, and it was demonstrated by the way they lived and the choices they made. James tells us that we show ourselves just by the way we actually live, and Paul asserts that it’s Christ who actually makes us just before God.
It’s as though we can look at Abraham and say, “Obviously he was justified, in the Pauline sense. Look at how he lived and what he did! So God publicly proclaimed him just (James’ sense of justified) because of the way he lived out his faith.” We can look at Rahab and say, “Of course she had true faith. She put her life on the line, because she believed the true God.” Her faith did something.
Paul Tells Us to Put our Faith to Work
Paul agrees with this. While he uses “justified” differently than James and addresses different issues within the church, he tells his readers and listeners to put their faith into action.
In Galatians 5:6, he says that it’s not about who is circumcised or uncircumcised. No. What counts is “faith working through love.” In Ephesians, he addresses theological issues (chapters 1-3), and then goes to great lengths to remind the church how they should live their lives and act in their everyday relationships (chapters 4-6). He tells the Philippian church to “work out their salvation” (Philippians 2:12) and in Romans 12 and following, he gives clear instructions for what the life of the Christian should look like (loving, patient, prayerful, generous, hospitable, etc.).
Paul clearly doesn't think we should just agree with his theological points and leave it at that. If we have real faith, if we believe the theology we say we do, then we will put it into practice.
Those Jesus Condemned and the Ones He Commended
Jesus often condemned the religious leaders who said they believed God, but their lives didn’t show it. On the flip side, he commended those who did something with their faith—even if their lives didn’t exactly look squeaky clean or they didn’t fit the mold of a good Jewish person.
“Our faith must actually move our hands, feet, minds, and bodies to demonstrate the character and kingdom of God. We serve the poor, we fight oppression, we feed the hungry, we invite people in our homes, we encourage one another with words, we love our neighbors.
We pick up our crosses and follow Jesus.”
The “sinful woman” anointed Jesus’ feet, and Jesus tells her, “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 7:50). But he rebukes the Pharisee, Simon, for the way he treated Jesus (Luke 7:36-50). Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Just a few paragraphs later, Matthew tells us of the faith of the centurion—a Roman officer who would have been hated by the Jews. Jesus “marveled” at his faith, which was shown by his bold confession and his action of asking Jesus to heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus goes toe to toe with the religious leaders, those who knew the Law and supposedly followed Yahweh. But so often, they’re the ones he called out for their lack of true faith.
This is what James is getting at. Our faith must actually move our hands, feet, minds, and bodies to demonstrate the character and kingdom of God. We serve the poor, we fight oppression, we feed the hungry, we invite people in our homes, we encourage one another with words, we love our neighbors.
We pick up our crosses and follow Jesus.
Let’s not be known for mere mental assent like the demons or many of the Pharisees. Let’s not be known for only impeccable theology but fail to love our neighbor. Let’s be known as people who believe God, love him, and relentlessly love our neighbor.
That is true faith.
Reflect
How can you demonstrate your faith this week in the way you love the poor?
What is your reaction when you read about how even the demons “believe” in one God?
This week, what does faith expressing itself in obedience look like in your life? Maybe it looks like taking bold, life-changing moves like Abraham and Rahab. Maybe it looks like one small, faithful step in the right direction. Maybe it’s a little bit of both. But how can you put your faith into action this week?
[1] G.M. Burge asserts that this passage uses a poetic structure with two parallel parts of two stanzas each. Part one includes James 2:14-17 and 18-20 (separate stanzas), and part two includes James 2:21-24 and 25-26 (two more stanzas). Each of these stanzas ends with some repetition of James’ key point that faith without works is dead: verse 17–“faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead,” verse 20, “faith apart from works is useless,” verse 24, “not by faith alone,” and verse 26, “faith apart from works is dead.” James is clearly making a point. For more on this structure, see Longman, Tremper, David E. Garland, et al. Hebrews—Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006, p 237-238.
[2] Longman, Tremper, David E. Garland, et al. Hebrews—Revelation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006, p 240.
[3] Ibid, 240.
[4] Ibid, 241.
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