Proclamation:
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims
to have faith but has no deeds? Can such
faith save them? Suppose a brother or
sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and well fed,’ but
does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is
not accompanied by action is dead.”
James 2:14-17 (NIV)
Explanation:
These words were written by James, the half brother of
Jesus, The Christ, (Galatians 1:19) under the influence of The Holy Spirit of
God, to the Jewish believers who were scattered after the crucifixion of Christ.
(James 1:1) He wrote to them to
encourage them to keep the faith in the face of all types of trials (James
1:2-4) but he told them that faith without works is dead and useless. He said that a person is considered righteous
by what he does and not by his faith alone. (James 2:24) Then he said, “As the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26)
Application:
It is not enough to believe that there is a God. It is good to believe in God, but if you
believe in Him and do not follow Him, obey His Word, and live by His teaching,
then your belief had accomplished nothing.
The devil and his demons know and believe that there is a God but they
don’t follow Him. (James 2:19) We must
exercise our faith and put it to work.
It is by our deeds that we will be blessed. (James 1:25) If all we do is say that we believe in
Christ, but our actions do not go along with our words, then our words are not
true. Our actions speak louder than our
words. If we profess to believe in
Christ but continue to live in sin as we did before our profession without
changing our lives, then our professed belief is basically counterfeit. We are not saved by our works, (Ephesians
2:9-10) but our works demonstrate our salvation and the indwelling of The Holy
Spirit of God as evidenced by the fruit of The Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23)
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