Faith and Works

James 2:14-17, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (ESV)

Do you have 'faith', but not 'works'? If so then you are the "patient thinker" that Pastor Ruiz referred to in his recent study of Hebrews. You are the one who has made an intellectual ascent to the truths of scripture and the truths of the gospel, but those truths have never made it down into your heart. They are simply facts to be considered in your mind, not applicable truths to be lived out in your everyday life. 


The kind of faith that saves is a faith that is evidenced through works. James challenges his readers in verse 18 to "(s)how me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." A faith that is evidenced through works is a faith that saves because it is a genuine faith. It is not merely an intellectual faith that that sows no seed and reaps no fruit, but it is a faith that changes the life. James 1:22 tells us that the one who only hears the Word and does not act upon it deceives himself. 


Are you a hearer of the Word and not a doer? I urge you to become a doer of the Word, because the one who acts upon the Word "...will be blessed in his doing." (James 1:25) ESV