Sermon Tone Analysis

James 2:14-26

 

! Introduction

            While searching on the internet this week, I came across the following letter written by a high school student.

". . .

My school was so gossipy and judgmental.

All these students and teachers who claimed they were Christians were always gossiping about people.

And there were so many times that a person would make a mistake, and all the “Christians” would basically shun them.

To me, it all seemed very wrong.

There were also a lot of students who were "role models" in the school who didn't "walk the talk".

A girl who was on student council for two years, was our chaplain (for chapels, worship, etc.), is now a lesbian!

There were others on stage leading worship, and raising their arms, and praising God, and then later you find out they are pregnant, after they have claimed they are abstaining for God! And, so many of these people are so rude and snotty!

I can't explain it.”

Sometimes it appears that there is little difference between those who identify themselves as Christians and the general population.

Christians have emphasized that one is saved by God’s grace through faith and there are many people who claim that they are “born again” and going to heaven, but who change very little after that.

Is this true faith?

In many churches, people grow up in the community and because being part of the church is being part of the community, when they get to be a certain age, it is expected that they will become members of the church and so they do.

They want to belong and so they are baptized and become church members.

We sometimes level this accusation against mainline churches where people are baptized as infants, but the same thing happens in churches which practice adult baptism.

As a result, their life is not really changed all that much.

Is this true faith?

Last week, we were challenged that “as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ”… we must “speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.”

We talked about how love must be a part of our life if we are people who belong to Jesus.

In the passage which we are looking at today, this idea is further expanded and we learn that if you believe in God, it must show in how you live!

!

I. Faith Alone Is Empty 14-17

            If a farmer is out seeding his field with wheat and the gauge which tells him how much grain is in the hopper gets stuck, he would know after a while that he hadn’t seeded part of the field, but, if he didn’t reseed the whole field, he wouldn’t know for sure where the seed ran out until the grain came up.

The absence of the fruit would show the absence of seed.

The empty harvest would reveal the empty hopper.

James asks us two questions which lead us to the same kind of a conclusion about faith.

He asks “14” The answer to these questions is “it does no good” and “no, it can’t save him.”

In other words, if there is a claim to faith, but no harvest of good deeds, it is evidence that such faith is empty, it is useless.

He uses an example to demonstrate what he is talking about.

When anyone, even a pagan person would read this illustration, he would be shocked at the callous nature of the person’s response.

Instead of doing the obvious, the person in need is dismissed with friendly words.

Does the person need kind words?

Sure, they are great, but words will not fill the gnawing hunger or cover the nakedness.

Such words are empty.

The person expresses warmth and caring with his words, but empty coldness with his actions demonstrating that his words are empty words.

These are the same empty words of the person who claims to have faith, but whose life does not show it.

We have sometimes planted potatoes and the growth looked just great and we were hoping for lots of potatoes, but as we dug them up, there was nothing there and we were quite disappointed.

Those of you who are farming have told me that the crops have not been very good this year.

The growth looked good, the stalks of grain looked abundant, but when you harvested, you found that there was not much grain there.

How disappointing!

When a person claims to have faith and the words all sound so good, but the life that is lived is empty of fruit, that too is disappointing.

As we study this passage, we will note that James comes to a similar conclusion five times.

His first conclusion is found in verse 17, “faith by itself (empty faith)…is dead.”

!

II.

It Isn’t Faith Or Deeds 18, 19

            But lets be realistic.

Not everyone has the same faith and not everyone has the same ability to do good deeds.

Some people have a tremendous capacity for believing, but are not so good at doing.

Others struggle with faith, but excel at deeds of kindness.

We may know people who are generous and giving and live good lives, but struggle greatly with many truths of the Bible.

Perhaps it is like spiritual gifts.

Perhaps some people have the gift of faith (there is such a gift) and others have the gift of mercy or deeds.

This seems to be the reasoning of the person, who is introduced in verses 18-19, who objects to what James is saying.

The straw man James presents, suggests in verse 18, “you have faith, I have deeds.”

“The attitude seems to be that each person should live life as they are inclined to live it, you doing what you are comfortable doing and I doing what I am comfortable doing.

So let it lie in peace.”

There are different ways of interpreting this passage, but the one that makes the most sense is that someone is objecting to the statement of James and is suggesting that not everyone needs to have deeds to show faith.

James demonstrates the folly of such a point of view.

He affirms the importance of belief.

We must believe!

Last week, there was an article in the Free Press in which the writer vehemently expressed that he did not believe the Bible to be the Word of God.

If we are followers of God, we need to understand and believe that God has spoken to us in His word and even though we may not understand everything, we must believe that God has spoken.

We must believe that God is one, that He is the creator of the world.

We must believe that Jesus came to earth to call people to God, that he died on the cross and rose again from the dead.

Accuracy of belief in the Christian faith is very important, but believing these things is not enough.

James points out that even the demons believe that there is a God, but that does them no good.

In fact, they shudder even though they know that they stand condemned.

They know who God is and still refuse Him.

They know that they are doomed, but still don’t follow Him.

John Calvin said, “Knowledge of God, can no more connect a man with God, than the sight of the sun can carry him to heaven.”

The second conclusion is in verse 18b, “I will show you my faith by what I do.”

It can’t be faith alone.

It is faith and works, not faith instead of works or works instead of faith.

!

III.

Faith Is Made Complete By Deeds 20-24

            But as we read this, a question comes to mind.

Doesn’t the Bible say that we are not saved by works of righteousness which we have done?

In Romans 4:2,3 we read, “If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God.

What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Yet in James 2:21, we read, “was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?”

What is going on here?

Do we have a contradiction in the Bible?

Are we being told two totally opposite things?

Many have thought so and even Martin Luther, the instigator of the protestant reformation thought James to be an epistle of straw exactly because of these words.

Is there a contradiction here or is this an opportunity to understand accurately the relationship of works and faith and so better understand what James is saying?

What is the relationship of faith and deeds?

If we are saved by faith, why are deeds so important?

The apparent contradiction can be easily cleared up when we understand that Paul and James are answering completely different questions.

Paul was asking, “how is a person made right with God?” Paul was demonstrating that we are not saved by works.

He was refuting the perspective that acceptance with God comes only by complete and absolute obedience to all the laws of the Old Testament.

He was reminding us that we have been freed from the burden of the law which demanded perfection but was impossible to do.

He has given us the good news that God has been gracious enough to forgive all our shortcomings and accept us on the basis of the work which Jesus did on the cross.

Paul says that it is by faith in Jesus that we receive this forgiveness and acceptance.

So Paul teaches that we are saved by faith and not by works.

James, however, is asking a different question.

He asks, “How does a person who has been made right with God live that faith?” James goes on from salvation by faith to teach us what kind of faith it is that saves.

It is not the faith of mental assent or academic understanding.

What is the kind of faith which makes us acceptable to God?

It is a faith which acts.