Building a Faith that Works:  the Book of James

Having Faith and Using It

James 2:14-26

August 18, 2002

  "I bought a $400 membership at a health club and didn't lose any weight.  Then someone told me I had to actually go the club."

Genuine faith is a living faith.

1.  Two kinds of faith (2:14-19)

1.  Saving faith (2:14)

2.  Dead faith (2:15-19)

James 2:14-19 

14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

^{2.  Three Kinds of People (2:20-26)}

^{1.  The Good (2:20-24}

^{Abraham - Genesis 22:1-19}

^{2.  The Bad (2:25)}

^{Rahab - Joshua 2:1-22; Matthew 1:5}

^{3.  The Indifferent (2:26)}

20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.