James Chapter 2 vv. 18-26

What did James know that will help us

There should be no doubt in a modern Christians belief and faith, and note, belief is held here separate from faith, you can believe in Christ, that's a mental event, yet have no faith, which is an exercise of all you are, based upon that belief.  Today's human is approximately 30% smarter overall than they were a century ago.  The average intelligence quotient is approximately 120 some slightly higher some slightly lower, but a century ago 100 was a good average.  Nearly all read, a century ago, very few did.  Nearly all know how to use some form of technology, a century ago that technology did not exist- in fact, for the most part wasn't even dreampt of yet.  What is about to happen, however, to Homo Sapiens, which is what we are, classification wise, whether you believe we are created or not, I happen to believe we are created, but I also believe it is totally possible to understand we are created and hold on to true scientific facts of existence, such as children with blue eyed grandmothers, tend overwhelmingly to have children who when they have children will have blue eyes- we're saying the trait tract misses a generation.  Lots of folks say that, "You have your mothers kind nature," wouldn't be an unusual statement at all, and yet it's a loud testimony to genetic predisposition, and God created us thus.  What's about to happen is exceptional in human history, we're about to make a singular advent into tying technology, learning and the human existence, into one singular and spectacular result.  The question that James asks in chapter two, therefore, becomes all the more important, because the very real possibility is, we'll gain the world and lose our souls.

18But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ^d ?21Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^e and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Two times in my life my faith has come under fire, once, when we were challenged to do missionary work for those who existed on the streets of a major city.  The second time was more subtle, it was after I'd failed at a ministry, left the pastorate, and went into the most miserable state of recluse one can imagine.  Both times it wasn't my faith that got me through, it was Christ in supernatural intervention not allowing me to end it all.  Yes it's true, there are times in even the strongest faith, when they wonder if heaven isn't so much nicer, why wait?  The why wait is in service, that's why we wait, we stay here to fight, and fight, and love and love and fight some more, and love some more, and, you get it.  

We stay to live and to live more abundantly, as our Lord promised.  It's hilarious but my friends complain about their cell phones; "The service is terrible,"  "I don't know why we can't get better..."  You've heard it, you know exactly what I'm talking about, someone reading this in fifty years may laugh that we actually used such archaic forms of limited communication, might compare us to cave people making drawings with blood- but until then, we are holding in our hand more computing power than existed on the entire globe, in one phone, on November 23 1963 when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated.  We have gained and gained and benefited from technological advancement as never before in human history, and what do we do with that, do we turn it into a tool for making disciples?  Wow wouldn't that be cool? But instead what do we do?

It's a great question that James is discoursing on because it goes to the root issue of why we do what we do, do we do it for bragging rights, to reassert to ourselves that we've got it together and the rest don't, that's a kind of divisive behavior and reasoning that the enemy of Christ and God, Satan, loves.  Or do we do things for others based on the fact that we believe that Jesus would want it done?  That's a trickier proposition than one might believe, and yet, it's been tried, many times.  We're about to start exploring the many ways that Christ's teachings can be applied to our lives today, and in that application, we're about to drive ourselves to the edge of what faith and belief and in fact tolerate and operate within.  James' asked the pivotal question, but in it lies several interesting challenges, for example, why would someone say, " “You have faith; I have deeds.”  Oh oh bit different approach to it, I can see, you're actually sitting back thinking, that's good, that's where we want to go.  Let's go!

James Chapter Two verses 14-17 (Cont.)

What did James know that will help us

Once upon a time there was a Christian who felt that what was needed in the church was more members, felt it so acutely that this Christian decided they needed to go out and invite others to come to church.  It was at that point that this Christian began to hear about the church, things that were unbelievable, and, that this Christian had never known about.  That the church was ugly in the way it treated it's people, well, that certainly hadn't been this Christian's experience.  That the church was money hungry just wanting it's people's money, which this Christian found hard to believe since rarely did they go above a tithe?  They heard the church was prejudiced and only liked certain folks to attend and so they couldn't.  The Christian thought this was odd, because they'd been accepted, long hair and all, back in the day?  So finally they couldn't take the perplexing difference between what they had felt and experienced and what they were hearing so they went to the pastor to talk about it, but the pastor wasn't in.  They tried for a week to get to see the busy pastor, but the pastor was never available until finally Sunday came, and as they were passing by in line to shake the pastors hand, they asked when they might visit only to hear the pastor say, "Have my secretary put it on my calendar."  Sometimes our conduct and the circumstances of being a modern Christian get tested in all kinds of ways we didn't expect.

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 
15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 
16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 
17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Here's a weird paradox of the modern busy church- are we too busy for what we're supposed to be doing?  "Dana, this is a commentary, aren't you supposed to be taking us deeper into the Greek language and history of the writings...instead of staying all light weight - and contemporary?  What kind of question is that which you're asking us?"  One which we need to hear, is my thinking, and, while we certainly could go into the Greek, there are apps available, such as one I find useful beyond belief, "My Sword," wow what an app, gives you the Greek right there on touch available verses as the ones above.  But in our contemporary church, we're busy- we are, and yet I can't help but wonder how James would view what we're doing?

James begins in verse 14 with what it appears is a question, "What good is it?"  "Ti to ophelos" (roughly Tie-2-Ofellows ) it is not so much a question as it pertains to something being more abundant than- so James in some sense is wondering as much as directly questioning to those who he knows, and who haven't been killed.

To get as close to the original text as possible, it is to see that the next statement is -"Brothers of me," now this is a Novum Tesamentum Graece, 1983, so it is translated differently by Dr. Mounce and the International Greek New Testament team- they have it as "...my brothers," slight difference, to the point that it would become semantic.  So the idea conveyed is a measuring stance about the abundant quality of a brothers something.  Here James moves into the realm of proclaiming Christians, versus, Christians who might not even feel worthy to proclaim themselves such, but nonetheless are labeled as following Jesus.  Let's use the NIV group, "if someone claims to have faith but has no works?"  It is structurally different in the older main order text but again, the only difference is semantic, the meaning- is clear.  James is talking to those who profess or are identified by others as brothers in Christ, and then he asks the pointed remark- so, what's our answer? 

Then we go to the "Phrase that pays," don't know if any of you are old enough to remember "The 64 thousand dollar question," but the answer was in "The phrase that pays."  Here James just becomes inquisitive, almost philosophical about the matter, NIV "Can that kind of faith save him?"  Why would anyone want to end up in such a position?  Especially in the times James writes to?  And so we will leave this question for the next entry, but it is something to wonder at, isn't it?

May God add his blessings to the readings of his word- and since you are going- make disciples.  

OH I see, you have it together! James Chapter 2 vv. 14 plus

What did James know that will help us

My appreciation for folks who want me to do better has grown over the years.  When someone used to tell me that my writing was "Too deep," my ego would take that as a compliment, not realizing, I'd wasted God's gift to us in the form of time.  So that led to my suffering a dire lack of God's gift to us in the form of money.  That led to a suffering from God's people over a lack of resources.  God's time, God's money, God's resources, see we don't have any of those my friend, they are given to us, and the closer you walk with Jesus the more you realize, He's a gentleman we aren't.  Do we need help, well it would appear so...

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

So that you won't feel slighted, your writer is deliberately leaving in two paragraphs from the previous entry, why(?)- for emphasis and for staying on the point, James uses language as he now realizes, seems to me later in life, that words can and should move faith- think about the essence of faith, my sense is, it's a primal sentence - "Follow Jesus." 

We focus on the wrong aspect of what we believe is worshiping God all the time, and not because we want to, it's not deliberate, rather it is subtle, very subtle, and respectfully, the Devil who wants you to buy that he doesn't exist, hasn't stopped working on that artful lying.  

Sometimes you just have to say something over again, and the nature of Satan is to suggest that such won't help with getting your message across.  Trust me to share with you, mercy, is far from my heart most days- and I love Jesus, so you have to ask, "How can that be?"  It is that I am human - a sinner, saved not by being exceptional, saved not by being a witness, saved not by anything, ANYTHING, that I would be able to say I did- saved only by God's grace.  Some very quickly add, that you must have faith- and I'd quickly insert that there is no additive to grace, once you've been saved, by grace, trust me, faith is not nearly the struggle it used to be.  Mercy, on the other hand, well, that's a tad bit more complicated, as we'll discuss in pursuant writings.  

So James begins what may be one of the most important points about following his brother that's ever been made- we see the issue as faith, James was meaning the issue as what we do in our lives.

We want to separate faith into a compartment that operates when we open it.  Jesus fully makes it apparent, there is no compartment, once you choose to ask Him to forgive you of your sins, you belong to Him, and His sheep hear His voice.  Does the sheep who has found a nice clump of grass want to do anything but eat it?  Does the sheep standing by still waters and enjoying a nice cool drink when it's hotter than hell, want to quit drinking?  Little wonder the Psalmist then made it clear that we were to move, that he walked not in comfort and gracious nice castles, he walked in the valley of the shadow of death.  Jesus calls us to understand we are changed, and that change is gonna do His will, ultimately that can be by becoming a gracious and loving and forgiving and understanding follower, or it can be by being chastised, but it will be.

May God add his blessings to the reading of this.  Amen