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Love

Teaching Text: James 2: 14-26

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

The Crown of Life: Meditations on the Book of James
Faith Without Deeds is Dead

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

Think of a person you might know who is clearly living very practically what they believe
Is it possible that you can see what everyone believes by their actions?

James is trying to write in a way that gets our attention.
He says faith without works is dead.
Paul said:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
– Ephesians 2: 8-9
Is James saying something utterly different here?
- James stayed in Jerusalem. He was talking to a specific group of believers who were at risk of their faith becoming only tradition, only a belief system.
- James is writing to combat any assumption that may have grown up that faith in Jesus was just about arranging thoughts about God in your head.
He is writing to make sure that his readers knew there was no place in Judaism or Christianity that simply involved an inner state with no outward expression.
James knew what Paul wrote to the Galatians…
- “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
  – Galatians 5: 6
- Phillip Maliagnon, the apprentice of the monk Martin Luther, said centuries later
  “We are saved by faith alone but not by faith that remains alone”
NT Wright commenting on this passage said…
“It won’t do simply to tick the box saying ‘I believe in one God’ and hope that will do. It won’t. Without a radical change of life, that ‘faith’ is worthless, and will not rescue someone from sin and death.”
– NT Wright
The Gospel invites us to active friendship with God
Active friendship with God matures through obedience
Friendship with God means God’s concerns become our concerns
James gives three examples in this short section to make his point…

How we treat the poor
How we are when God asks us something that seems impossible
How we are in God asks us to act on our faith when its dangerous

When the Gospel unites us to Jesus, we cannot ignore the poor or escape with just sentimentality.
Abraham’s faith led to a life of action that built a friendship with God.
Rahab took action that was a huge risk.
You cannot do enough to make yourself Holy like God is Holy, that would be a serious diminishment of God’s Holiness, but you can be brought in. Adopted in God’s family on the accomplishments of Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection.
But then you learn to live out your adoption. You learn to live the Way of Jesus.
Jesus promised His power - all authority in heaven and earth
And His presence - surely I am with you to the end of the age
If you say you trust Jesus but you don’t take the actions Jesus calls you to, it shows that you don’t really trust Jesus.
If you say I trust Jesus with my eternal soul, but not my Tuesday, something has gone wrong.
“ The Gospel is utterly free and it will cost you everything.”
Actions give definition to our faith, but we aren't defined by our worst moments or worst mistakes. Thank God.
What shape does unbelief take in your life? What does it look like on a monday morning?
What areas of your life does your belief and behavior divert from one another?