Written by: Steve Tilley - CPAS
James 1 v 26-27
People who think they are religious but say things they should not say are just fooling themselves. Their “religion” is worth nothing. Religion that God accepts as pure and without fault is this: caring for orphans or widows who need help, and keeping yourself free from the world’s evil influence.
Notes
James’ letter is dead practical. Not for him the hollow words of holiness alone. ‘Get off your backside and do something’, he would say. Or something like that. Worse, James’ main condemnation is for those who claim to be religious but don’t watch what they say. He has already said as much in v19 and there is more on the subject in chapter three.
Many people down the years have struggled with James’ emphasis on behaviour, pointing out that the Bible elsewhere gives a much higher priority to grace and faith. But it is a balance. There is no point in enjoying the benefits of God’s saving work if it makes no difference to our lives. Being a Sunday Christian is the worst type of hypocrisy, ‘worth nothing’.
So this short passage would challenge us:
What difference does the stuff we read in the Bible make to our lives?
Do we really mean the things we do and say in acts of corporate worship on a Sunday (church to you and me)?
How well do we watch what we say?
Do we listen to ourselves talking from time to time?
As a practical application of this passage take an hour sometime today to stop speaking altogether and just listen. Weird isn’t it?
And look out for someone who might need help or encouragement. We may not know many orphans or widows but care of the lonely is not just for the Social Services.
James 2 v 1-4
My dear brothers and sisters, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, never think some people are more important than others. Suppose someone comes into your church meeting wearing nice clothes and a gold ring. At the same time a poor person comes in wearing old, dirty clothes. You show special attention to the one wearing nice clothes and say, “Please, sit here in this good seat.” But you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or, “Sit on the floor by my feet.” What are you doing? You are making some people more important than others, and with evil thoughts you are deciding that one person is better.
Notes
It is very easy to agree that we should not judge people by appearances. It is harder to avoid doing it. The background to this passage is the social understanding, in those days, that seating at formal meetings would be allocated according to status. Jesus spoke of this when he said:
‘When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited.’ (Luke 14:8)
It follows that we ought to have a low opinion of our own importance and a high opinion of everyone else’s. I have a very wealthy friend who cares nothing for fashion. His clothes are, if anything, slightly scruffy. However a lift home in his Mercedes and a meal in his wonderful house soon reminds me of his business success. The trick, on meeting such a person is to show him no less courtesy for being scruffy and no more for being well-to-do.
Remember that you cannot see inside anyone’s heart. Be impartial and remain so. The next time a multi-pierced, shaven headed youth wanders into your church meeting see them as a potential church leader. And if you are that youth spend time enjoying the benefits of older people’s wisdom. And if you’re a multi-pierced, shaven headed church leader, good on
yer.
James 2 v 5-7
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! God chose the poor in the world to be rich with faith and to receive the kingdom God promised to those who love him. But you show no respect to the poor. The rich are always trying to control your lives. They are the ones who take you to court. And they are the ones who speak against Jesus, who owns you.
Notes
In the first four verses of this chapter we read of condemnation for those who showed favouritism to the apparently rich over the apparently poor. To ram the point home James reminds his readers that even in terms of pure logic it was daft to be nice to the rich over the poor.
If there is any exploitation going on James says it is probably the rich who are doing it. Furthermore their status means they have the potential to use the courts to their advantage. It is true today. Poor people can’t afford to defend themselves with the finest solicitors. They will not get legal aid if they are libelled.
Yet we are told God shows special favour to the poor, ‘…to receive the kingdom (he) promised.’ (v5) Bishop David Sheppard wrote a book about ministry to the disadvantaged called ‘Bias to the Poor’. For too many years the church has, at minimum, given the impression that it sided with the rich. Ostentatious buildings and expensive ceremonial robes run the risk of enforcing this stereotype unless our behaviour when unrobed and surrounded by less spectacular architecture is above criticism.
Note that James says ‘Listen’. It happens again on two occasions later in the letter. Was this originally spoken not written?
James 2 v 8-13
This royal law is found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” If you obey this law, you are doing right. But if you treat one person as being more important than another, you are sinning. You are guilty of breaking God’s law. A person who follows all of God’s law but fails to obey even one command is guilty of breaking all the commands in that law. The same God who said, “You must not be guilty of adultery,” also said, “You must not murder anyone.” So if you do not take part in adultery but you murder someone, you are guilty of breaking all of God’s law. In everything you say and do, remember that you will be judged by the law that makes people free. So you must show mercy to others, or God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the person who shows mercy can stand without fear at the judgment.
Notes
If the pass mark is 40 then 39 out of 100 and 1 out of 100 have this in common – they both represent failure. ‘I failed less spectacularly than you’ is scarcely consultation. So with the commandments. They are all to be kept. If you break one you are a sinner; if you break them all you are a sinner.
There is a link to the earlier passage where Jesus has discussed favouritism. Treating one person as more important than another is to break Jesus’ summary of the last six commandments – love your neighbour as yourself. This is a law so crucial Jesus describes it as ‘royal’. Favouritism breaks a commandment. To break one commandment is to break all of them. Favouritism is failure.
But notice that the person who shows mercy will be able to stand without fear at the judgement. Is this a get-out clause? Doesn’t matter how many commandments you break as long as you show mercy? No way. The person with a merciful attitude will not murder, steal, lie, covet, commit adultery or disrespect their parents. To fail in any of these areas is to be merciless and to fail to keep the law.
Thanks be to God that through Jesus our failures are forgiven. ‘…be those in whose every act mercy has the last laugh.’ (Alec Motyer, The Message of James, IVP 1985)
James 2 v 14-17
My brothers and sisters, if people say they have faith, but do nothing, their faith is worth nothing. Can faith like that save them? A brother or sister in Christ might need clothes or food. If you say to that person, “God be with you! I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,” but you do not give what that person needs, your words are worth nothing. In the same way, faith that is alone—that does nothing—is dead.
Notes
Complex paragraph warning. (Miss it out if you don’t like long words.)
The Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century was based on the important principle of justification by faith alone. Martin Luther and other theologian reformers demonstrated from Scripture that human beings could not earn their salvation. We are saved by faith – faith in what Christ has achieved for us on the cross and this by the grace of God. (See Ephesians 2:8,9 amongst many examples.)
The book of James was a nuisance to Luther who saw it as inconsistent with the big picture of Scripture. He would have preferred the letter not to be in his Bible.
He needn’t have worried so much, although I can’t believe I am reassuring one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. Whilst actions, deeds and works cannot earn salvation they ought to be consequent upon it. If your faith leads you to do nothing then it is as if you had no faith. Shame on you. You are saved by your faith but by showing no care to those in need you act unsaved.
‘Can faith like that save them?’ asks James. He wants to say that it cannot – it is as if it were dead. The person of faith without works attached is useless in this life and will have some explaining to do at the final judgement.
As the slogan goes, better to ‘Just do it!’
James 2 v 18-19
Someone might say, “You have faith, but I have deeds.” Show me your faith without doing anything, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one God. Good! But the demons believe that, too, and they tremble with fear.
Notes
James continues the argument he started earlier in the passage. Why not simply allow one’s faith in God to be enough? His answer - faith in God is only faith if it leads to a change of heart, some different actions. Even demons believe God exists. It causes them to ‘tremble with fear’ because of their behaviour in the light of their belief.
Leslie Mitton said, ‘…we have no way of knowing whether or not true faith is present apart from what it does…There is in fact no proof of the reality of faith other than the fruit it produces.’ (The Epistle of James, Marshall, Morgan and Scott 1966)
The evangelist J. John once talked of the time he met Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He said that, ‘…as I got nearer to her I was treading on fruit.’
You are not saved by the fruit of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control but the fruit are evidence that you believe you have been saved.
James suggests a contrast between one person who demonstrates their faith by not doing anything and another who does the opposite. He wonders who will be the better example. That’s the point. Works as a demonstration of faith are an evangelistic tool. Others will see our good works and will be more likely to be interested in the faith that generated them.
Look at Matthew 5:16. ‘…let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’
James 2 v 20-26
You foolish person! Must you be shown that faith that does nothing is worth nothing? Abraham, our ancestor, was made right with God by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. So you see that Abraham’s faith and the things he did worked together. His faith was made perfect by what he did. This shows the full meaning of the Scripture that says: “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.” And Abraham was called God’s friend. So you see that people are made right with God by what they do, not by faith only.
Another example is Rahab, a prostitute, who was made right with God by something she did. She welcomed the spies into her home and helped them escape by a different road.
Just as a person’s body that does not have a spirit is dead, so faith that does nothing is dead!
Notes
So here’s the problem. Paul, in Romans 4, says something along the lines of, ‘We’re justified by faith, look at Abraham.’ James, here, says, ‘We’re justified by works, look at Abraham.’
People today are more willing to live with contradiction than they used to be, but is this a contradiction? Fact is that James and Paul were dealing with different problems.
An illustration. A church needs to be disciplined and welcoming. There will therefore be times when church leaders rebuke in order to correct inappropriate behaviour. There will also be times when the need to welcome newcomers and outsiders regardless of their current behaviour is emphasized. You cannot read into the first occasion that non-Christians with dodgy behaviour are unwelcome. You cannot read into the second that anything goes in this church.
Paul in fact stresses, to a community that was over-fussy about the law, that being saved we should produce good works. James emphasizes works because he knew people who assented to articles of faith intellectually but allowed it to make no difference to their lives.
If I may summarise a week’s complex theology in a soundbite - you gotta know that Jesus saved you and it’s gotta make a difference to how you behave.
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the
Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word
Publishing Milton Keynes