2 posts tagged “james 2”

The teaching this Saturday was on the second part of James 2, the part which caused Martin Luther to say

St. James' Epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to [Paul's epistles], for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.

What rubbed Luther the wrong way was the emphasis James puts on works: Faith is dead without works, we show our faith by our works, and he even goes so far as to say "a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (v. 24) - seemingly a direct contradiction to Romans 3:28 "we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

Something I noticed while we went through the passage is that in verses 21-23 he talks about how Abraham proved and validated his faith by sacrificing Isaac. This exact story is used by Paul in Romans 4 to prove the point that Abraham was saved apart from works!

It seems to me some people in the churches James was writing to were taking Paul's teaching of faith apart from works so far as to say faith was possible without works. James' point is loud and clear: Faith without works is not faith! Faith is completed by works.

I was challenged once again by the fact that we are told so often in the New Testament that one of the main reasons we are created is to do good works (which God in fact prepares for us to do!). Salvation does not come by good works, and James never says otherwise - but he does say if I look at my life and I don't see myself giving myself for others, helping others, serving others, doing good deeds - something is seriously very wrong.

Living a life of good works is as natural a consequence of true faith as a beating heart is to a living body - our bodies are not alive because our hearts are beating, rather our hearts should be beating if we are alive.

Oh Lord, freely give me true faith in you, that I may walk in the works you are preparing for me even as I write these words.

On Saturday, our Unplugged service was about James 2, where James talks about favoritism and judgmentalism and how it shows itself in the church and in our lives. We had a great discussion with tons of people sharing out of their own lives how easy it is to keep too much of a distance from people you don't get along with or who are difficult.

I realized that seemingly everyone has tough relationships like that in their lives. It seems like those relationships are specifically the ones where we should pay most attention to what God is doing there, because they create the most emotional friction and heat in our lives, and therefore can be used greatly by God to mold and shape us. Those relationships are really often the heart of where God is trying to work on my heart.

For me, a challenge is dealing with a couple of guys at work, since we're worlds apart when it comes to our interests, our values and ethics, our politics (or in my case, lack thereof), and our way of thinking. But God challenges me in James 2 to not love or value them any less than myself - to be merciful rather than to judge them. When I say "merciful" I don't mean it in the sense of an almost prideful mercy, but more as a humble attitude and way of thinking - that is, not being self-righteous, not focusing on what I dislike or disagree with, rather being loving, accepting, and focusing on what I appreciate.

Another thought I was reminded of during the time was how Jesus' Golden Rule is pro-active rather than prohibitive. All other major world religions have the Golden Rule in a negative form "Don't do to others what you don't what them to do to you." And that's the way most people take Jesus' version of it. But let's never forget Jesus is not telling us what not to do, but rather actually challenging us to initiate and to take action: "Do to others what you'd have them do to you."