As I read this section of scripture this morning, I couldn't help but to keep thinking I couldn't say it any better myself. I read this in four different translations of the Bible, and this version, The Message, just seemed to sum it all up. For an even greater understanding, I would encourage you to read it in the NIV or some other translation as well. With each translation, I always find an even deeper understanding.
"14-17Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
18I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
19-20Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
21-24Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
25-26The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse."
And so I had to ask myself, "How am I doing?" Do my actions match this faith I claim to have? One way I have learned to test this over the years is to ask: How am I spending my time AND how am I spending my money? If a stranger knew nothing about me, but had to judge my faith by watching me for a week, would he find me guilty of being a Christ-follower?
I think this can be a great reminder to us -- just going to church and reading the Bible is not enough. Or at least it shouldn't be enough for us if we are truly wanting to follow Christ. We must "do what it says. " "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do," (James 1:22-24).
Pray that God would provide you opportunities to demonstrate your faith today. I am sure that He will do it.
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