“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…For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith
apart from works is dead.” -James 2:18, 26 (ESV)
James
was the pastor of the Jerusalem Church. He was the “half” brother
of our Lord Jesus Christ. During James’s ministry at the early
church, Christians were being dispersed abroad because persecution of
Christians was sever. Persecution first came from the Jews who did
not believe in “the new way” set up by Jesus and propounded by
James and other Christian leaders of the church. A little later, the
Roman government also waged severe persecution against Christian
believers. Works were very vital to the early church’s ministry,
because many lost jobs because of being Christians; men were stoned
and killed (recall that Stephen was one of these (see Acts 7); and
Paul, before his conversion, stood holding the cloaks of those Jews
who stoned Stephen to death.) There were many widows and children
starving, homeless and under grave danger of losing their own lives
if Christians did not try to help them with getting food, clothing
and shelter. Acts of compassion resulted from having faith and love.
James
believed very strongly that Christians should “produce works worthy
of repentance and belief.” We know that salvation is by grace
through faith, not of works. Although the Judaizers were proponents
of faith and still keeping the Law to the letter, They argued that
Gentile (or non-Jewish persons) who became Christians and joined in
the early church movement should still keep the Jewish law strictly.
Many held that Gentile men believers should be circumcised. This was
a great contention in the early church and a “Jerusalem Conference”
was held in the early years of the spreading church’s ministry to
try to make a decision on “faith plus works” for salvation, or
“faith alone.”
James
was not advocating that salvation came through faith plus works.
Rather, in this letter to the scattered, persecuted Christians, he
said if people did not do good works, such as missions, teaching the
word, caring for orphans and widows and others in need, and loving
and helping each other, their faith was “dead.” Faith should
motivate a Christian to do the works Christ told us to do when he
lived, taught and ministered to people’s needs. With love and
compassion, one who is saved by God’s grace should be motivated by
his/her faith to work faithfully in the Kingdom of God. Even one’s
every-day work, whatever the occupation one follows, whether
teaching, farming, being a clerk in a store, a doctor, a road
builder, a seamstress—whatever the work that occupies one’s time
and brings in money for the family to live on—should be done to the
glory of God. Persons with faith should ask: “Lord, what will You
have me do today?” And that job should be done with sincerity,
dedication and a sincere thought of helping one’s fellow man. This
seems to be what James’s doctrine of “Faith plus Works” means.
Works do not bring us salvation from sin. But works benefit the doers
of the works and lends needed aid to recipients of the kindness and
graciousness of the workers.
Prayer:
Holy God, thank your for my salvation: I learn in Ephesians 2:8-9:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God; Not of works, lest any man should
boast.” But as James stated in his letter “For as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
-James 2:26 (KJV) Help me to seek and do Your will, Father, and may I
engage sincerely in good works to help my fellowman. In Jesus’
name. Amen. November 04, 2018.
