Living Faith

James demonstrates near perfect exegetical form in James 2:14-26… He gives his main point in vs 14 and then illustrates it in vs 15-17. Verses 18-19 offer some constructive objections to his point and then in verses 20-26 he closes reiterating his point with two examples from the Old Testament. Finally closing restating his main point in vs 26. His teaching is echoed in the letters of Paul and in the very words of Christ...

The point that James makes is that faith that is not followed by actions is a lifeless faith.

Now to be clear -  James isn’t saying that you are saved by your works rather that if your actions are a result of where your faith is… remember our theme?

What you do = what you really believe! 

If you truly have placed your faith in Christ, good works are a natural outflow of that faith…

No good works? Check your faith…

Friends, I have no desire to be a hellfire and damnation preacher, but even more so I am terrified at the prospect that people could be sitting there lost as could be… deceived by their own minds… thinking that their knowledge of God, that their belief in a higher power is sufficient to save them...

It breaks my heart when I see people die right here in my own community, people with no fruit of faith in Christ, and yet our church-filled community concludes that surely they are with God in heaven…

We must stop this madness… We must tell the honest truth no matter how painful!

It’s just not true!

Now let me be clear on this – no one knows the innermost secrets of a person’s heart, nor are we the final judge… That is reserved for God alone…

But friends God’s word is clear: if you claim faith but there is no fruit is you are nothing more than a dead corpse…

There’s no life there… instead, there’s death in hell for all eternity…

Simply calling yourself a Christian, or simply having raised your hand years ago making a “decision” to follow Jesus is not worth anything…

A faith that does nothing is dead…

Growing up in a Christian home isn’t enough…

Going to church isn’t enough…

A real, vital, genuine faith in Jesus will express itself in a life of godly work.

What is your faith doing in your life today?

The problem of prosoplasia...

This week we are starting into James Chapter 2 and right off the bat we are confronted with a significant problem plaguing the church. That is the problem of prosoplasia (pros-o-pol-ape-see'-ah).

This problem is as bad as it sounds... It is like a cancer that has systematically infected and eaten away at the church over the past 2000 years. Really if you dig deeper you find God warning against this problem in Leviticus 19 so we know that the church is not unique in this struggle but that it is a plague on mankind... 

Prosoplasia is the Greek transliteration for the word partiality or favoritism... 

Now before you launch in on attacks let me say this - as with most things there is a time and a place for favoritism... We have our favorite sports teams... (Go Gators!) We have our favorite tv shows or movies... We have our favorite restaurants... 

That isn't the type of favoritism that I am talking about although if you allow it to it can turn into that... 

Now this text doesn’t just apply to poverty. The reason is because of the way this word “partiality” is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

This word in the New Testament literally means “receive according to the face,” or in other words, to make judgments about people based on external appearance.

If you look at Romans 2 you find Paul is dealing with an ethnic and racial (and religious) issue, namely Greeks and Jews.  He says that both are liable to judgment because of their sin. Then gives the reason in verse 11: “For God shows no partiality”—which is the same word as here in James 1.

James might be dealing with the issue in relation to wealth and poverty but we can see as Paul demonstrates we show favoritism in many other ways. Favoritism is present anytime we are making judgments on people based on external appearance…

This could be according to dress, general physical appearance, color of skin, or a host of other characteristics… 

We must guard our hearts against this type of favoritism... 

We are called to be set apart from the ways of this world this means that we must live out our faith and in doing so live out the Word. 

If we show favoritism, we are not showing mercy and if we are not willing to show mercy we are demonstrating that the mercy of Christ is not within us... 

Let's embrace the mercy of Christ today and extend that mercy to those around us! 

How we treat others is the evidence of our relation to Christ. 

Whether we like them or not… 

Whether they like us or not… 

We are called to hold the standard of Christ. The standard of mercy... 

If we have been set free from sin's condemnation and dominion by Christ, then we live in liberty. And in this liberty there is a law—the law of liberty, that is, the law of love. 

We will be judged under this law... 

Good treatment and bad treatment, honor and dishonor, rejection and acceptance should not be based on any earthly standard much less on riches or race.

Let's embrace His mercy and grace together!

See ya Sunday! 

Hurry up and Listen...

James 1:19-27 give us yet another list of commands laced in beautiful imagery seven in all.

We are commanded to (1) “understand this” we are to be (2) “quick to hear,” (3) slow to speak,” (4) and slow to anger.”

These first 4 commands are saying listen up! We need to stop being so quick to chime in… we should listen first and foremost and then when the time is right speak...

The next command we see is to (5) “rid ourselves” of all moral filth and evil. The Greek word for this is apotithemi (ap-ot-eeth’-ay-mee) and it literally means to lay aside, or renounce. It carries the idea of shedding a garment.

But as we “rid ourselves” of one we are instructed to (6) “receive” in simple humility God’s Word implanted in our hearts. When a seed is planted what is the expectation? That is always remain a seed? No! As the seed of an apple tree germinates it sheds its outer shell and life grows into a fruit bearing tree. Likewise, we at the hands of the Master Gardener shed our old selves and mature into a fruit bearing crown of creation.

The final command we see in this passage is to (7) “be doers” not just hearers…. Just coming to church week after week will leave you sorely disappointed one day when the Lord says your time here is done. James is instructing his readers to take the implanted word which they have heard, and apply it to their actions.

And it’s not just talking about doing… we are great at talking a good talk about our faith but James tells his readers at the end of the passage that real religion, religion that honors God, is religion that acts, a faith that cares for the homeless and the loveless where they are, not just offering them an encouraging word but truly caring for them.

Will you join us in being doer’s? Will you be implanted by the Living Word of God?

Don’t forget to read James this week!                                          

See ya Sunday!

James 1:19-27

My dearly loved brothers, understand this:

Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save you.

But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but one who does good works—this person will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself. Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

It’s not my fault…

Social media is sodden with people refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Not trying to be negative, just looking at the facts. The fact is, playing the blame game is one of the most destructive human pastimes. I wish I could say that this is unique to the culture today but if you look throughout the scriptures you see individuals and even nations trying to do just that shift the blame…

Right from the beginning we Adam and Eve in the garden and what happens? Adam blames Eve (the woman God gave him) and Eve blames the Serpent (whom God placed in the Garden…) Cain killed Abel because God didn’t honor his sacrifice… And this is just in the first few chapters… Notice who ultimately gets the blame when we shift it from ourselves? God…

James gives us some instruction regarding trying to shift blame in the second part of chapter one:

No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God.” For God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn’t tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. – James 1:13-15

God isn’t the one at fault when we make a mistake, we are… Now this doesn’t mean there are not outside influences that play a role in our falling to temptation, but look at what it says! We are drawn away and enticed not by Satan’s evil desires, not by the evil desires of our neighbor, or by the influence of anyone else… it is our own evil desires. “We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust…[1]”

If we are going to live out a gospel centered life, a life guided by the principles of the book of James we need to cease this madness.

Imagine the world if we each would own our own mistakes?

If we would only give up the idea that someone always has to be blamed and made to pay. We need to accept the fact that everyday life isn’t a court of law and we are not the judge and jury.

By accepting yourself and others unconditionally we live as Christ. This doesn’t mean you can’t negatively rate your own actions or those of others; but it does mean that you shouldn’t berate yourself or others.

Ultimately we only achieve victory in Christ. It is in Christ we can overcome this need to blame someone else for our failures and actually make progress towards the goal set forth for us in James 1:4 “…that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

Will you live a Gospel Centered James focused life?

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[1] The Message (James 1:14)