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4 What good is
it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show
it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, 16 and
you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but
then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does
that do?
Our faith should show itself in our works, but we have to be careful (speaking from experiencing) not to let works go ahead of the faith. In some church traditions it's easy to get caught up in doing the right things without the right motives. We can't earn our way to heaven, Jesus did that for us on the cross, but he does expect us to reach out and do "works" because of our faith.
"8 Yes indeed, it is good when you obey the royal law as found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you favor some people over others, you are committing a sin. You are guilty of breaking the law."
ReplyDeleteTough one! Such challenges.
James 2
ReplyDelete19-20 You believe that there is one God. That’s fine! The demons also believe that, and they tremble with fear. You fool! Do you have to be shown that faith which does nothing is useless?
24-26 You see that a person receives God’s approval because of what he does, not only because of what he believes. The same is true of the prostitute Rahab who welcomed the spies and sent them away on another road. She received God’s approval because of what she did. A body that doesn’t breathe is dead. In the same way faith that does nothing is dead.