Today we’re going to look at a very famous passage from James 2, where James makes a point that seems to contradict what Paul taught about grace. If we are justified by faith, how can faith without works be dead ? Doesn’t that mean we have to do works to be saved ?
Someone please count the number of times I have to use the word « but » today !
James was one of Jesus’s younger brothers, did James have an inside track on Jesus that we may have missed ?
My brothers and sisters, do not show prejudice if you possess faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. For if someone comes into your assembly wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, and a poor person enters in filthy clothes, do you pay attention to the one who is finely dressed and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and to the poor person, “You stand over there,” or “Sit on the floor”? If so, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
But you have dishonored the poor! Are not the rich oppressing you and dragging you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme the good name of the one you belong to? But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, “ You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators. For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “ Do not commit adultery,” also said, “ Do not murder .” Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law.
Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom. For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment. What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works.
You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear. But would you like evidence, you empty fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “ Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend . You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2
A lot of what James wrote about in this chapter can be found in Leviticus 19, and the key verse in that chapter is 18 which says;
You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:18
Love your neighbour as yourself !
That’s easier said than done isn’t it ! In this interconnected global village, that seems harder than ever. Have you felt guilty at reading the latest disaster appeal in your daily news feed. Does anybody still think they are a good person ?
Now someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to gain eternal life?” He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, “ Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But when the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he was very rich.
Matthew 19:16-22
Let’s summarise those commandments Jesus mentions and put them into the order written in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5
5. Honour your father and mother (comes with a promise of long life)
6. Do not murder
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not give false testimony
10. Love your neighbour as yourself
You could assume that to « love your neighbour as yourself » equates to the 10th commandment;
“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.”
Exodus 20:17
Because if you love your neighbour you won’t be envious of him but rather feel happy for his success.
But you could also presume that « love your neighbour as yourself » summarises commandments 5-10.
Because if you love your neighbour you won’t even want to take anything from them - their life, their wife, their goods, or trust because you love them, are happy for their success and want to honour them.
To love your neighbour as you love yourself is called the 2nd greatest commandment and Jesus is quoting from Leviticus 19:18. You can look that up ! Of all the laws in Leviticus, Jesus picked that one as the 2nd greatest.
The really interesting thing is Jesus quotes the part of the law that relates to man, not God, in other words Commandments 5-10.
Remember it says that the LORD wrote the commandments on two tablets of stone. According to traditional teachings of Judaism in the Talmud, they were made of blue sapphire stone as a symbolic reminder of the sky, the heavens, and ultimately of God's throne.
Actually the LORD had to write them twice in stone because Moses had an anger problem and broke the first set when he went down the mountain to meet the people and saw what they were up to.
Today Moses would be sent to anger management or Yoga class to calm his emotions down.
But the Lord didn’t get upset with Moses over it. There is nothing wrong with righteous anger. It wouldn’t hurt for a few more fire and brimstone preachers in our world today, we are too nice.
Nevertheless, losing our rag and breaking things is costly. You’ll have to fix that hole in the wall when you’ve calmed down.
But
The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love.
Psalm 103:8
The Lord said to Moses, “Cut out two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.
Exodus 34:1
The Lord made another set of tablets showing Moses how patient he is and how we have to persevere in preaching the Gospel message to others.
My guess is commandments 1-4 which relate to God were on the first tablet and 5-10 relating to man were on the second.
Now going back to our earlier story about the man who came to Jesus. If Commandments 1-4 relate to God, why didn’t Jesus remind the man of those do you think ?
Jesus didn’t quote those ones but he did ask the man to sell everything, give it to the poor and to come follow him. If the man had done that he would have fulfilled the 10 completely because he would’ve have loved the LORD with all his heart, soul strength and mind but he couldn’t do it. He loved money more than he loved the LORD, in other words more than he loved Jesus.
I have noticed that the main religions always only teach part of the law, not the whole law. They especially apply the laws relating to man, and diminish the ones related to God. Buddha didn’t teach us to love the Lord with all our heart, soul strength and mind. Mohammed taught us to fearfully obey but not love the Lord and kill the infidel. The Hindus taught us to embrace idols not forsake them. Only the Jews and the Seventh Day Adventist’s keep the Sabbath. Most people think they are a good person because they haven’t murdered someone, or committed adultery or stolen anything. They don’t see the need to love the LORD more than anything else just like the lawyer.
We need to put that right first before any of the other things. That’s why we need grace because no one can do that. No one loves the LORD without an encounter with Jesus, the only one who is good. Once you meet Jesus, you’ll love the LORD ! Have you met him yet ?
And if you love the LORD, it’s going to change your world which is the base of what James was saying.
You will start to be like him
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.
Leviticus 19:1-2
You will see others differently
For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female —for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:26-29
For Christians, social justice goes without saying. We shouldn’t have a problem with Black Lives Matter or Me Too or Equal Rights. Anyone who says the Bible teaches slavery does not understand the heart of the law - to love your neighbour as yourself.
But loving your neighbour doesn’t mean turning a blind eye to sin. The Church has the right to speak against sin, in fact the LORD commands us to and we are both loving our neighbour and looking after ourselves in doing so !
You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him.
Leviticus 19:16-17
Of course we need to get the log out of our own eyes first. Judgement begins in the house of the LORD. But speaking out against sin is done in love
Brothers and sisters, if a person is discovered in some sin, you who are spiritual restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. Pay close attention to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.
Galatians 6:1
What I’m about to say, I hope you can hear me. A friend once taught me about faith. He said what we truly believe is reflected by how we live. This is what James means when he says faith without works is dead. If we love our neighbour as ourselves, we will be concerned if they are in a poor state. And we will do what we are able to help them. Sometimes that is simply taking the time to pray for them, to counsel. But often that means action, even sacrifice.
There is that very famous passage of scripture about Abraham’s faith.
The Lord took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars—if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.” Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him.
Genesis 15:5-6
That’s a relief isn’t it ! Paul showed us that we cannot be saved without faith, that is a foundation. We cannot work our way to heaven, we are all sinners, we cannot pay our debts.
Notice the word « credited » though. We have been credited with Christ’s righteousness which is sufficient to pay all our sins past, present and future, Amen.
But we know how credit works don’t we ! To use a modern analogy, suppose you go to the shop and you buy a big TV interest free. You sign the forms agreeing to pay the TV off over 36 months. You take the TV and you benefit from watching the movies and sport on the big screen. What will happen if you never pay a cent ?
What James is saying is that the faith Abraham had in believing God that he would have as many children as stars in the sky is the credit on his account but the payment was putting Isaac on the altar. If he hadn’t done that, would God still have been able to fulfil his promise to Abraham ?
Our faith is always tested to see if it’s real.
In worldly terms, the credit, the account must be paid to keep the goods. This is what James is saying. Faith without works is dead.
But our accounts with the LORD are so much bigger aren’t they ? A TV I can afford but a lifetime of things I’ve done or said or thought that are wrong is a huge account that I can never pay. To illustrate our situation, Jesus said;
“For this reason, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. As he began settling his accounts, a man who owed 10,000 talents was brought to him.
(A talent was equivalent to a 6000 denarii and one denarius equal to a days wages, therefore...
10000 x 6000 days wages =
60,000,000 days wages
1 Year = 46 weeks of work x 5 days = 224 days.
Therefore his debt was 267,857 years of work !)
Because he was not able to repay it, the lord ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, children, and whatever he possessed, and repayment to be made. Then the slave threw himself to the ground before him, saying, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you everything.’ The lord had compassion on that slave and released him, and forgave him the debt. After he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 silver coins. So he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’
Then his fellow slave threw himself down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will repay you.’
But he refused. Instead, he went out and threw him in prison until he repaid the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were very upset and went and told their lord everything that had taken place. Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me! Should you not have shown mercy to your fellow slave, just as I showed it to you?’ And in anger his lord turned him over to the prison guards to torture him until he repaid all he owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.”
Matthew 18:23-35
God doesn’t need your money to settle your account, there is no money in heaven. Jesus doesn’t need your money, he told the lawyer to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. Heaven has a different currency.
What does the Lord really want ?
“How can we make up to you for what we’ve done?” you ask. “Shall we bow before the Lord with offerings of yearling calves?” Oh no! For if you offered him thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of olive oil—would that please him? Would he be satisfied? If you sacrificed your oldest child, would that make him glad? Then would he forgive your sins? Of course not! No, he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is: to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:6-8
If that is how your life shows up in the light, then some higher laws take over
For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:13
Mercy triumphs over judgment is a higher law and love is a higher law also
Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8
But how much fairness, justice, mercy, humility and Love. About 10,000 talents worth I’d say.
In just over 2 weeks it will be Spring, regardless of the Pandemic. The flowers on our magnolia are in full bloom already and the sunny day today is a reminder of the beautiful days of Summer to come. Communion is an anchor. Even when Jesus was facing the horrors of betrayal and death, it didn’t shake him from keeping calm and carrying on. He didn’t take his eyes off caring for his disciples and reminding them that he would be coming again. We have one big Son-rise to look forward to.