Scripture: James 2.14-26
Translation: 14What is the
benefit/what good does it do, my brothers, if someone would say he had faith,
but wouldn’t have actions? That kind of faith can’t save him, can it? 15If
a brother or sister really were naked and in need of their daily food, 16but
anyone of you would say to them, “Go peace, warm yourselves up and feed
yourselves until you’re full,” but you all wouldn’t give them the things the
body needs, what good is it? 17So too the faith, if he wouldn’t have
actions, is dead by definition.
18But someone will say you have faith, and I
have actions. Prove to me your faith without actions, and I will prove to you
the faith from my actions! 19You believe that God is One, good job,
even the demons believe [that] and so they shake in fear! 20But do
you want to know, o empty man, that the faith without actions is
useless/inactive/doesn’t work! 21Wasn’t Abraham our father proved
righteous by actions by offering up Isaac his son on the altar? 22You
see that the faith acts together with his actions and by the actions the faith
was made complete. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says “And
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness and he was
called God’s friend. 24See that by actions a man proved righteous
and by faith alone! 25But also in the same way wasn’t Rahab the prostitute
by actions proved righteous by welcoming the messenger as guests and sending
them out on another road? 26For just as the body without a spirit is
dead, so too the faith without actions is dead!
The Point I’m Stressing: A faith
that doesn’t work doesn’t work. Real faith takes actions that prove their faith
in God, fake faith thinks that someone can believe in God, but not live for
God!
Interpretation
1.
Structure
a.
Hypothetical
statements/Statement of the Thesis
i.
Thesis: It doesn't do any
good to believe the right stuff if it doesn’t lead to you doing the right stuff
ii.
Analogy (perhaps related to
how James wants their faith to work itself out): It doesn’t do any good if
someone is starving and cold, and you just say eat something and feel better
but don’t actually give them some clothes or food; concern for others results
in actions, if it doesn’t it is not real concern
iii.
Thesis Reasserted: Faith
without Actions is dead by definition!
b.
Answering Objections by
Appealing to Scripture
i.
Answering the first
objection:
1.
Objection: I just need to
believe the right things
2.
Answer: There’s no proof of
your faith without actions, even demons know what the truth is and respond in
fear, but that doesn’t count as saving faith
ii.
Answering the second
objection
1.
Objection: I do I know that
faith without is useless
2.
Answer: 1) When Abraham
sacrificed his son on the altar, he was proven righteous, which was a
fulfillment of when he was considered righteous by faith; 2) Rahab was proven
righteous when she offered hospitality to the spies and sent them away safely;
3) faith and works is like a body and a soul, if you don’t have a soul, you’re
body is dead.
iii.
Thesis Reasserted: Thus,
faith without actions is dead
2.
Themes
a. Faith [πιστις] (vv.14[2x], 17, 18[3x], 19[2x πιστευειν],
20, 22[2x], 23[πιστευειν],
24, 26)
i.
This is part 1 of the main
theme of the passage. In all but 2 of the instances (v.14 and v.23), faith is
collocated in the same clause or sentence with actions.
ii.
The author is really
stressing that you can’t have faith without actions coming with it, it always
results in a person doing something because of what they believe. However, the
author is not saying that faith in unimportant or unnecessary. No, he sees it
as absolutely vital, and that is why he is so concerned that it results in
actions, because that is how one knows if the faith is real or not
b.
Actions [εργα] (vv.14, 17, 18[3x], 19[ποιεις], 20, 21, 22[2x], 24, 25, 26)
i.
This is part 2 of the main
theme of the passage. In all but 2 of the instances (v.21 and v.25), it is used
with faith being mentioned in the same clause or sentence.
ii.
The author is really
focusing on the need of a person to act out their faith in their actions.
Actions are vital to real faith, if they are missing then the faith is likely
not genuine
c.
Dead/Inactive
i.
Dead (νεκρος) occurs 3 times at key junctures
(vv.17, 26[2x]), which is used in the formula: something – something is dead
ii.
Inactive/not-working occurs
only once, but in the middle of the passage and in the same collocation used
for dead (v.20), thus, it explains the key feature of death that is important
to understand, namely that faith without works like a body without a soul
doesn’t do anything, its inactive, and as a concept doesn’t work,
iii.
but the point of dead is
that in the same way that a dead body does not any longer constitute a person,
so too faith without works does not constitute faith
iv.
one needs to remember that
the common New Testament understanding is that faith is integrally connected to
having eternal life, so saying that the faith that doesn’t do anything is dead
is saying that it is not the faith that the New Testament is talking about, it
is the kind of faith that will not result in the life of the person who has it,
but the eternal death of that person, which is what the open verse suggests
“can that kind of faith save him?” NO, is the implied answer, and so the sense
in which faith is dead is that it is not real faith that leads to real life,
rather it is a faith that doesn’t work and doesn’t count as real faith, and so
it results in the death of the person who has that, which is why James is so
concerned
d.
Saying
i.
Much of the passage is
structured or moves via dialogue or speaking, which foreshadows where the
author will go in the verses following after the present passage
ii.
It appears in v.14, 16, and
18
e.
Examples/Analogies
i.
The author uses examples
and analogies to argue his case
ii.
Analogy to Christian who
sees another Christian in need and does nothing as an analogy of a faith that
lacks the needed actions, and as an analogous example of a something that does
not result in the kind of actions that it should, such that however much that
something may be claimed by someone, it clearly doesn’t mean anything or count
as anything:
iii.
Analogy/example of a group
that believes the right stuff, but clearly are opposed to God and won’t be
saved, even though they may have some appropriate fear of God (which may be
implicitly saying that James’ readers don’t even have that much, i.e. they are
not as good as demons in their actions in response to what they believe)
iv.
Example of Abraham who
trusted God and proved that trust and the righteousness that comes with it by
what he did
v.
Example of Rahab who
trusted God and proved that trust and the righteousness that comes with it by
what she did
vi.
Analogy to a body without a
soul as an example of something that is dead without a critical component,
which is analogy to faith that doesn’t have its critical component, actions.
f.
Argument with Hypothetical
Dissenter
i.
This is part of the
structuring of the passage
ii.
Two times this occurs is in
v.18ff and v.20ff, such that James seeks to answer the objections, however, it
should be noted that it is very difficult to see where the quote of the
objector in v.18 ends, it could run all the way through v.19, or it could only
include the “you have faith and I have works” line, or it could end at the end
of v.18, but I have decided after a lot of praying and thinking that James is
answering the objection from his own perspective, so that the “you have faith”
actually is what the dissenter is saying, so that from his perspective the
statement is “I have faith, and you have works”
g.
Proof
i.
This is the underlying
theme of the passage, because the examples and analogies relate to whether
there is really proof of something being in someone’s life, so in the example
of a Christian who doesn’t care for other hungry and naked Christians, there is
no proof that the Christian really cares about his fellow Christians, and
Abraham and Rahab both relate to people who proved their
faith/righteousness-by-faith by means of their actions
ii.
However, James also uses
the word for proving twice in v.18, where he challenges the person who thinks
they can have faith without actions to prove their faith without actions (which
he rightly understands they will try to do by saying what they believe, but he
rightly counters that such knowledge or conviction won’t save demons), but says
that he will use actions to prove it, such that actions are almost more telling
that right doctrine, but that does not mean believing the right things is not
important, but that it is not enough proof on its own
h.
Righteousness
i.
The section of vv.20-26
interweaves the concepts of righteousness and faith, such that the author
actually assumes an understanding of justification by faith alone, so that
faith in God = the status of righteousness, but that that status and the faith
that is tied to it is proven by what the person does
ii.
So tight is this assumption
that James does not mention the faith of Rahab, but says she was proven to be
in that state of righteousness that comes from faith
iii.
Hence the same faith that
results in a righteous status before God, results also in right actions before
God and mankind.
3.
Key Doctrines
a.
Justification by Faith
Alone
b.
Proof/Assurance of
Justification by faith/true Faith by Actions
c.
True Faith Results in
Actions
d.
Unity of God: There is One
God/God is One
4.
Notes
a.
In v.20, note how James
defines the kind of faith that is without actions as useless/inaction/not doing
anything: η πιστις χωρις των εργων αργη εστιν. Useless actually is a
contraction of α + εργος = not
active, but the word clearly means more than just that it doesn’t work, but
that it doesn’t work, as in the idea doesn’t work, it’s logic is flawed, it may
sound good on paper but it doesn’t work in practice
Applications
1.
We need to check ourselves:
does our faith have actions that go with it? This does not mean that we live it
out perfectly, per se, but that we do actually live out our faith consistently
and even when it could cost us a lot
2.
Faith is not just about
knowing or believing the right things, but being impacted by those things to
such a degree that it changes our live. The question we need to ask is, “has
our faith in Jesus changed us?” has it made us look like Jesus?
3.
However, sometimes we are
tempted to say, well then I will just work like crazy and that will make me a
Christian, but that is not what James wants us to do. He wants us to trust in
God to save us, but to have that faith in God change us!
4.
A faith that changes us
implies that it more than just mere knowledge, just like you may know a lot
about another person, most of the things you know are good, they are not ugly
or rude or selfish generally speaking, but you can know all those things and just
be friends, but it is different if you know all those things they make you
start to crush on that person, which makes you act a certain way around them
and even when you’re not around them; or maybe it’s like when someone has a
crush on you, you can know that and care or know that an not care, if you care
you’ll either be happy because you have a crush on them or unhappy because you
don’t want them to like you, but if you don’t care, then that knowledge doesn’t
mean anything. in the same way, what you know and believe about God will either
just be something that you know or believe, but doesn’t change how you feel and
act, or it will, and if doesn’t effect how you feel or act, you should be
concerned, because that kind of faith is not really saving faith.
5.
But let’s say that we all
really do believe in Jesus to save us and give us eternal life, but we look at
how much impact that has on what we do, and while we see it having some impact
it doesn’t have very much impact, which makes us a little bit nervous about
whether our faith is living or dead, or if it is dying, then we should start
living out our faith more passionately. Instead of staying the way we are, if
we have real faith then it will start taking actions! We need to start living
out our faith more!
6.
Ok, but how do we really
live out our faith more, what do we do, where do we start? That’s a good
question, and perhaps next week we will answer that in greater detail, but for
today, I can say read the whole book of James this week and you will find out,
because James really is writing about a lot of different ways that our faith in
Jesus can work itself out in different actions. But for a little bit of
direction we can look at the part of chapter 2 that comes right before this,
where James tells them to treat other people the way you would treat yourself.
More specifically, he says not to treat rich Christians or rich people better
than poor people, which also means don’t treat one social group better than
another social group, which means that you shouldn’t treat one ethnic group
like their better than everyone else, like you should treat white people like
they are better than people from Japan, or like Hispanic people are worse than people
from India, or like Koreans are better than black people—or vice versa for all
those groups.
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