DrIBEX Ideas

Here is an excerpt from my new devotional commentary on James, “To Love God and Others.” It is available on pre-order from Logos, as a digital book.

Martin Luther, the great Reformation champion of justification by faith, sometimes wrote despairingly of James (“an epistle of straw”). And yet he recognized, as in the quotation above, that biblical faith is not inactive but is displayed in actions. Those actions are exemplified in Jas 2:20-26.
“Do you want to be shown, O foolish person, that the faith that is not accompanied by actions is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by actions when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his actions, and faith was completed by his actions. In this way the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”- and he was called “friend of God.” You see that a person is justified by actions and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by actions when she received the scouts and sent them out by another way? For just as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also the faith not accompanied by actions is dead.”

Earlier in the chapter James has shown that faith practices impartiality (Jas 2:1-13) and charity (Jas 2:14-19). Here faith is shown by its activity (Jas 2:20-26). Faith is not something you only talk about. It is something that motivates your life so much that you think of others and serve them. Abraham was saved by faith (Gen 15:6), but he gave evidence of that faith by obeying God‘s command to offer his son (Gen 22). Rahab was saved by trusting God (Heb 11:31), but she showed the reality of her faith by protecting the spies (Josh 2:8-11; 6:17-27).

James and Paul do not contradict each other (Rom 4:1-5). In Paul works are the “works of the law,” like circumcision and Sabbath keeping, which his opponents were substituting for faith. In James the works are deeds of mercy and love, which demonstrate faith. James and Paul complement each other by looking at the issue of faith and works from different angles. We are justified (declared righteous) before God by faith, but we are justified before people by deeds. God sees our faith, but people can see only our actions. We do not need to reconcile James and Paul. Why should we need to reconcile friends? Paul also said that we are to display a “faith that works through love” (Gal 5:6). To that statement James would have uttered a hearty AMEN!

“O Lord, I thank You that Your word does not contradict itself. May I always have a faith that works from the source of a sincere love. And may I never turn my back on those in need. AMEN.”