Rev Jack Bryant The Epistle of James Triangle Bible Institute 1

◦ 14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?  The Jews placed all the emphasis on works, on a rigid observance of the rites and rules of religion. Some Christians went along with all that. Other went to the other extreme, insisting on no works at all. Such view turned liberty into license. James brings thing back into balance.  James uses the concepts of righteousness and justification in the sense of actual measurable, perceivable goodness. Not in mind imputed righteousness (Rom. 3-4; Gal.3).  More practical not theological. 2

 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, ◦ James had in mind real need. The Jerusalem church was full of poor people. ◦ The first major squabble in the church was related to this practice of communal living (Acts 6:1-6). ◦ Large number of poor with the situation aggravated by the persecution of the Jerusalem church. ◦ The situation so critical that, by the time of the Jerusalem conference, the Jerusalem church urged on Paul the importance of remembering the poor (Gal. 2:9-10)  9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do. 3

 16 and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? ◦ The need is first discerned and now is dismissed. ◦ Some believers pray for the world's starving millions, but all of their concern ceases with the "Amen" at the end of the prayer. ◦ A time for action – the example of Moses (Exod. 14:15). Second example of Israel's defeat at the hands of an insignificant army at Ai. God spoke to Joshua during his lamentations (Joshua 7:10-11):  10 So the L ORD said to Joshua: “Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? 11 Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. 4

 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. ◦ The Hebrew writer warns against dead works (Heb. 6:1; 9:14); James warns against dead faith. He insists that we must have a believe that behaves. He deplores the kind of faith that merely gives intellectual assent to various doctrines of the Bible – the kind of faith that claims to believe in the Lord Jesus, who went about doing good (Acts 10:38), and who was tireless in the service of hurting people – but at the same time ignores the needs of those around them. This is dead faith 5

 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. ◦ A pragmatic conclusion. ◦ In effect James says "All some people do is say that they have faith with nothing tangible to back it up. But I", he continues, "can show by what I do that my faith is real." ◦ Review the work of George Verwer as an example of faith that is real and not dead. 6

 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. ◦ James put it: "So! You say that you believe! So what? The demons believe. More! They believe and tremble!" ◦ They believe in God and are terrified. Theirs is no mere intellectual assent to a theological proposition. They are very well aware of the doom that awaits them (Matt. 8:29).  20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? ◦ The word for "vain" can be translated "empty". James has already said that "faith without works is dead" (v.17). Previously an exclamation; here, however, it is an interrogation, as though to say, "God said it! Did you get it?" ◦ James was not asking his readers to make a decision based on intellectual assent to know truth – to do good because it was the coldly logical thing to do. What he wanted was for them to respond because they had a natural, emotional impulsive realization that faith without works was dead. ◦ The person who truly believes the gospel will instinctively reach out to others. 7

 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?  23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.  24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. ◦ A great triumph, a great trust, a great testimony. ◦ Abraham's life was a series of surrenders. God first called upon him to give up his father and his old way of life. Then he was called upon to give up the well-watered plains of Jordan. Next he was told to give up Hagar and Ishmael. Finally, he was called to upon by God to give up his beloved Isaac. ◦ Other references to Abraham as a believer: Romans 4:1-3, 9-25, Abraham as father of all them that believe (Romans 4:16). ◦ We see Abraham's works in action all through this story. 8

 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ◦ Rahab's act was an expression of her believe in the power of Israel's God, both to doom and to save. ◦ She was justified by works, the point that James makes – just as she was justified by faith, the point that the Hebrew writer makes (Heb. 11:31). ◦ James makes the obvious application: The Spirit of God is not in that kind of "faith." That is not "a believe that behaves." 9