What Is a Dead Faith? (James 2:14–26)

You have observed my preaching style. You will notice that I have on my teaching shoes this morning. And this is what Arch observed in the classroom, for better or for worse. And if you notice in my teaching style any of the flaws that you might have, in all probability not, but might have detected in Arch, then I'm probably the source for that.

We want to talk this morning about the subject, What is a dead faith? And in particular we want to talk about the scriptural passage James 2:14-26.

However, in order to place this scripture in its proper context, I want to begin by talking to you about the book as a whole. I understand from Arch, as we were driving over this morning, that I've already done this. And if some of this is familiar, that is probably the reason. But I think it's important for us to get some kind of glimpse of the epistle as a whole before we can place this very crucial passage properly inside the epistle.

While we're doing all this, why don't you turn to the book of James, chapter 1. Let me suggest that the theme and subject matter of the epistle of James is the subject of testing, trouble, temptation.

I will have to admit to you that some of the elements on this overhead are in Greek, because this overhead was developed for Greek class. And you will just have to blot the Greek out of your mind. If you can see behind the word that I have up here, which is really the Greek word for testing, you'll notice some storm clouds and then there is supposed to be rain coming down from these storm clouds. So that represents trial and trouble and testing in our lives.

The epistle opens with an introduction that keys in on testing. Please notice it in James chapter 1 verse 2.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.

And then He goes on to say because trials produce positive results in your life.

I would say that the introduction to the epistle goes all the way down to verse 18. And then in chapter 1 verse 19, as well as chapter 1 verse 20, we have what I would describe as a thematic statement of the fundamental ideas of the epistle. Or to put it another way, given the fact that the readership either has gone through trial or will go through trial, what is James' basic advice to them?

Let's look at it in verses 19 and 20.

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Now once again you'll bump into a bunch of Greek here, but basically this first line of Greek expresses the command to be swift to hear. The second line represents to be slow to speak, and the third line represents slow to wrath.

James has three fundamental pieces of advice to give to people who are going through trouble. They should be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Now that's good advice at all times, but it is particularly good advice when we are undergoing trouble. One of the most important things that we can do when we are having problems is to listen, and to listen attentively and with the intention of carrying through on good advice, not only to other people, but above all to the word of God. Whatever God wishes to say to us through His word, we need to be swift to hear it.

We also need to be slow to speak. And one of the things that happens to most of us when we have troubles is we become very voluble, and we are looking for any and every ear on which to pour out our problems. Our tendency is to lay our problems in front of everybody over and over again. And so we need the counsel at all times, but particularly when we are in trouble, to be slow to speak.

And then of course we need to be slow to wrath. One of the things that almost always happens to us is that we get mad about the troubles, either about the troubles themselves and therefore we tend to be mad at God, or about the people who have caused the troubles as we perceive them, or the situations or circumstances that have caused the troubles.

So while this is very good practical advice for any period of our life, it is exceptionally pointed for those who are going through trouble.

Now it so happens that James 1:19 appears to form the frame of reference for the structure of the whole epistle. And I would subdivide the rest of the epistle into three major units.

The first unit is an explication, an explanation, an exposition of the idea of what it means to be swift to hear. And that this unit, which extends all the way from 1:21 to 2:26, can be further subdivided into subunits.

Unit number one, verses 1:21-25, carries over the theme of what it really means to hear. It means more than just to listen. It means readiness to do.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only.

Then in the second subunit, 1:26 to 2:13, he points out that doing is more than observing the religious rituals and routines that we may have. Doing is actually extending mercy to those who are in need.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Then He goes on to point out that this also involves not showing respect of persons, so that we treat the poor man who comes into the meeting with the same dignity that we treat the rich man.

And then the final unit is the one we will look at a little bit later in somewhat more detail. The final unit really tells the readership that faith cannot be a substitute for action. That when we are under trial, it is not enough to believe the right things. We must act on what we believe. And if we do not, our faith becomes a dead letter. That's the first major unit.

The second unit is chapter 3, the entirety of the third chapter, clearly an exposition of what it means to be slow to speak, or why we should be slow to speak, because this is the famous chapter on the tongue. And He warns us in the first part that using the tongue is using a very dangerous and potentially deadly instrument.

And then notice in 3:13, He says,

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.

Would you like to demonstrate your wisdom? Would you like to demonstrate your knowledge? Well, you don't do that with words. That's not really the best way to do it. The best way to demonstrate wisdom is by conduct, by behavior.

So His admonition is, first, the tongue is dangerous and potentially deadly. Secondly, use it little and do good works, and thereby demonstrate that you have true wisdom from above.

Chapter 4:1 starts a new section which is the exposition of the idea of being slow to wrath. Notice how appropriately it opens.

Where do wars and fights come from among you?

Why is there anger and hostility and jealousy and all of these things in your Christian churches? Says the writer, don't they come from your lusts?

And that unit, though not indicated on the overhead here, goes down in my opinion through chapter 5 verse 6. And basically what He says is the antidote to wars and fightings is humility and a realization that our temporal material assets are fleeting. That the source of the difficulties in the church came from pride, and particularly materialistic pride. And so He urges His readers to put those things away.

Then there follows in 5:7 to the end, I think what we would call a conclusion. And you will notice that in this conclusion He comes back immediately to the subject of testing.

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. You also be patient. Do not grumble. My brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

So notice that the direct discussions of the subject of testing are bookends: introduction 1:2 to 18, conclusion 5:7 to the end. In between there is an exposition of the three pieces of advice that He gives to all His readers: be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

Now I want to pause for just a minute or two to take maybe one or two questions about the overhead. If possible, don't jump ahead of me on this. But if there's something on the overhead that you would like to ask about or something about the structure of the book, let me give you a brief minute or two to ask that.

In the classroom I always decided if there were no questions I'd either made it perfectly clear or completely unclear. And I never knew which one wasn't in fact the case. Anything at all? Very well.

That's the structure within which we're going to try and fit this passage in James.

Let's look more particularly at the question of sufferings. Can you see this at all? Who cannot? Okay. Good.

As we've said, the central subject matter of the epistle is sufferings. Once again, we got our storm clouds here and the rain coming down. And if we ask the question, what kinds of testings or trials might James have in mind? The text of James itself offers at least several suggestions. We may be thinking of persecution as indicated by 2:6 and 7. We might be thinking of sickness as indicated in 5:14. Maybe also of misfortune as indicated in 5:13.

Now turn back just a moment to chapter 1 of James. James is not only thinking of the troubles themselves but within these troubles there is almost always what we would call strictly speaking a temptation to do wrong. Now it so happens that the same word is used in the original language for troubles generally and for solicitation to evil which we call temptation to do wrong.

Remember this was the case with Job. Job had all these calamities sweep over him. They were Satan's way of preparing him for temptation because the temptation that He wanted to place in Job's path was curse God and die. And while Job endures the sufferings, he refuses the temptation.

Now look at chapter 1 and you will notice that we have a discussion of trouble or trial in general from chapter 1 verse 2 to verse 12. But notice now we get inside of the trouble in verse 13 with the statement,

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He himself tempt anyone.

James takes for granted that in the midst of trials and troubles, there will be temptation. I'm having it so hard that I am tempted to do this. My experience is so rough that I am tempted to do that. We understand that kind of experience. We've all been in it, have we not? The temptation to do a moral shortcut, a financial shortcut, to deny God, to do any number of other things. Within the larger trouble, there is a temptation.

And James is saying among other things in this passage, don't you ever say that in the midst of your troubles that God is tempting you to do these things because God doesn't tempt people with evil things. When a man is tempted, he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

And so it is necessary by way of laying down the introduction to suffering for Him to relate troubles and trials to temptations.

Now James has a hopeful view of things. Notice verse 12.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, When he has become approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to him.

The aim of the trouble is not to destroy us by getting us to cave in to some temptation to do evil. The aim of the trouble is to develop us and to bring us through the trouble with the approval of God upon our lives. And when that happens, says James, the crown of life is available. I think that probably He means here a more abundant experience of life and this is the reward that the individual gets.

Now there's one element on the overhead which we haven't talked about yet. Notice that we put down here next to each other James 1:22 because very shortly He will say receive the implanted word which is able to save your lives but be hearers of the word and not doers only.

But James, it turns out, has been heavily influenced by the Sermon on the Mount. Many, many ties between the epistle of James and the Sermon on the Mount. And the one place in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus also relates hearing and doing. You probably all know it is in the passage that we have turned into the little song about the wise man building his house upon the rock and the foolish man building his house upon the sand. The wise man is the man who hears the words of Jesus and does them. The foolish man is the man who hears the words of Jesus and does not do them.

So in the midst of our troubles, the important thing for us is to hear God's word and do it. And that is the way to come through the trouble with God's approval and to receive the crown of life.

Any questions about this overhead and the general principles at least that are being enunciated here?

I had one question on James 1:13. It says God, are we praying, we call the Lord's Prayer “lead us not into temptation.” The Lord does not tempt us when He does lead us into temptation but we're not “lead us not into temptation.”

Well again I would say in the Lord's Prayer that the word temptation there, you understand the English often uses the word temptation in situations where the Greek word could be translated by troubles and that's the way I would interpret the word in the Lord's Prayer. Into temptation in the larger sense, not in the narrow sense of being solicited to do evil but in the larger sense of trouble. And I think one of the things that the Lord's Prayer is teaching, and in my judgment one of the most neglected types of prayer, is that we pray for things that may lie ahead in the day that may be trouble and we are saying, subject to the will of God of course, please don't lead us into difficulties.

Anything else? Trial. Well let's put it this way. The Greek word is peirasmos and depending on the context it can be translated either trial or temptation to do evil. James, what James is doing in this passage, He's using one and the same word from 1:12 to 1:18 but starting at verse 13 as He makes clear by what He says about it that He's using it in the narrow sense whereas in the opening verses in the broader sense. So the word was capable of this range of meaning and that's where this comes from. Good question.

One more overhead closely related to the one we've just looked at. Look in your Bibles at James 1:21.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

I'm betting that there are many people in this audience who when they read the phrase able to save your souls think automatically of saving a soul from eternal damnation. Isn't that what we first think of when we read that verse? A nod here or there. Yes, that's what we think of when we hear the expression to save the soul.

Now I will shock you. As far as I can tell, no reader of the original Greek would have gotten that idea out of it at all. You know why? The Greek expression that is used here was in common use for to save the life. And I do not know of any example of this phrase in the Greek Bible, Old Testament Greek Bible, the translation of the Hebrew or the New Testament where the expression to save the soul does not relate to saving the life. As far as I know, there are no examples, zero examples of this phrase meaning to save somebody from hell. Did you all get that?

We're going to understand James 2. We got to start the understanding here. He's not talking here about being saved from hell. Look at the preceding verses. Verse 18.

Of his own will He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.

Look says James to His readers. God has regenerated us. He has regenerated us by His word that we might be a first fruits of His creatures.

So what should you do? Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save you but you're already saved. Obviously that's not what He's talking about. So I maintain that this phrase can only be correctly understood if we read it this way. Let's read verse 21 again.

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your lives.

This brings us back to our Lord's image of building a house on the rock or building a house on the sand. Have you ever asked yourself what did the house stand for in either case? Well, the song that we often sing in Sunday school, by the way, do you sing that song in Sunday school here? Wise man build his house upon a rock. You're all you all know this song then, right? So, build your what? Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Very good image because a house is where we live, right? So the house becomes a symbol of our life. Now as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, our life should be built on His word. But it is only built on His word when we not only hear but do. And when we really receive the word, the implanted word with meekness, when we act upon it and are not mere hearers but doers also, then that word is capable of saving our lives.

Where does this idea emerge from the context? Slip your eye back up to verse 14.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin when it is full grown brings forth death.

I have sometimes said to classes, death is the granddaughter of lust. First lust. And when lust brings forth a child, the child is sin. Then sin grows to maturity and its full consequences are reaped in the next generation. Not of the individual but in the next generation of the experience with death.

At this point the writer of this epistle is completely within the ethos of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament. If you will read the book of Proverbs sometime, you will be surprised how frequently an idea like this occurs. As righteousness is a tree of life, so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death.

I was watching maybe about 10 years ago a television program about the prominent rock stars of the preceding decade. And I was amazed at how many of them were dead at young ages. They lived fast. They fulfilled their desires. They committed sins. They die. He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. The wages of sin is death.

What antidote can we take to the death-dealing consequences of sin? The antidote is the word heard and obeyed.

So now we think of this house that is founded on the rock and you can ignore the Greek there. Now Jesus indicates to us that trouble will eventually come. The winds came up and the floods came up and beat against both houses and one of them collapsed.

May I suggest as we were saying a moment ago that within the wind of trouble and trial that beats upon our life, there also is a current of temptation to evil. So this larger wind carries with it this interwoven current of temptation to commit sin and to disobey God and to take the easy way out and take the wrong way out and all of this.

But the idea that Jesus has is that if your life is solidly built on obedience to God, it can survive the troubles and it can resist the temptations.

So we have two consequences from the standpoint of James. First of all, the one who endures temptations will have the crown of life. That's what this Greek up here means. And then obedience of the word of God can save the life. Can save the life.

Turn to chapter 5 and verse 20 to show us that this concept is very present in the mind of James. Verse 19 of chapter 5.

Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.

Same Greek expression here, by the way. Shall save a soul. But now we have the explicit words from death. You see a sinner going the wrong direction, you turn him away. You turn him back from the ultimate consequences of his sin, which is death. He that turns a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.

Now these concepts that I've talked about here, not only the structure but the concept of testing and temptation within testing, the necessity of building our life on obedience to God in order that we might not only win the crown of life but also might preserve the physical life from the death-dealing consequences of sin. All of these are concepts which inform our understanding of James 2.

Let me pause just a minute for a question or two if any of you have one. Crown of life. Yes, I am taking the expression crown of life here in a temporal sense although some expositors take it in the sense of a reward and the key word here in terms of reward would be the word crown. We have eternal life as a free gift from God. So that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we get eternal life freely. But we can after receiving eternal life freely, we can also earn rewards. We can earn a fuller life in the future. There are passages that teach that. I'm inclined to think the general context of James argues, however, that by the crown of life, He means an enriched life, an enhanced life, a crowning experience of life. Death is avoided and life is enriched and enhanced by the consequences of persevering and enduring in temptation.

Okay, with these things in the background, let's go to James chapter 2 here. What I want to do within the background of the introduction we've given is to go rather quickly through James 2:14-26 and to try to give you an overview of it here.

Unfortunately, I don't have any of the fine work that was done by our audiovisual departments in Dallas Seminary which you were looking at previously. This is the scribblings of ex-professor Hodges. So bear with me.

Okay, we're talking about James 2:14-26. We begin with what I would like to call a prologue. And this would be 2:14 through 17. Let's read it. Can you even see that? No wonder I'm not writing on a substantive overhead here. I'm writing on the screen apparently. Let's try that over, shall we? That's going to work. Yeah, that'll be fine.

Okay. Prologue 2:14 to 17. Let's read it together.

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

It seems to me that we have two things here in this section. Question. Can faith minus works save the life? Why did I say save the life? Has He referred to that? No. What about 1:21? Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save the life. I know you got soul there but remember we went over this and said that this phrase means in ordinary Greek to save the life.

Everybody jumps ship with 2:14 because they assume that when they meet the word save they are talking about what we mean by the word saved almost all the time which is regeneration, justification and so on. I maintain that's not in the context. That's not in the flow of the structure of the book. That's reading into the text something that ain't there.

And then if we want to go back to the previous reference to save in the epistle, we will go back to 1:21 and find that we are talking about saving the life. So under trial, can you save your life by mere faith? No. The answer is no. Such faith is dead.

This faith that you do not act on will not save your life any more than you can save the life of a brother or sister who comes to you that is naked and destitute of daily food. If their lives are going to be saved, what have they got to get? Food or clothes? And if I say to them, Bye, God bless you. Be warmed and filled. What have I accomplished? Have I saved their life? Most certainly not.

In the time of trouble, I need to help substantially. Your greetings and your wishes for them are dead letters, ineffective, inoperative, accomplishing nothing. In the same way, in times of trial, if you do not act on your faith, your faith is a dead letter.

May I submit to you, this has nothing to do with the issue of eternal salvation. The issue is what do we need in the hour of trial? I'll tell you what we need in the hour of trial. We need a faith that works. That's what James 2 is about. That's all James 2 is about.

Okay. Now, at this point, we get an objection. And this section extends from 2:18 to let's say here 2:23. And first of all we get an objector who speaks and I think this is 18 and 19. Let's read the objection in chapter 2 verses 18 and 19.

But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith by your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith by your works. And I will show you by my works my faith. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble.

To keep us from going too long on this, let me suggest that the meaning of the objector is something like this. He's saying, James, you are saying that there's an internal connection between what we believe and what we do in times of trial. But really, there's no connection between what you believe and what you do.

Let's suppose, James, that you have faith and I have works. You start with your faith. You tell me what you believe and you show me in your faith what you believe and I'll do the harder thing. I'll start with my works and show you from my works what I believe.

His point is you can't do that anymore than I can do this. You can't even show me your faith when you tell me what you believe. You can't even show it to me in your works when I know what you believe any more than I can show you faith what I believe in the works that I do if I start with my works.

His example is verse 19. He says, You believe that there is one God. Every Jew in the Roman world who was Orthodox at all believed that there was one God. And by the way, nobody is saved by believing that God is one. You believe that there is one God. You do well. So you think you've proved your case since you believe in the one God and you behave well. That shows your belief in the one God.

No, it doesn't, James, because the demons believe exactly the same thing as you do. They don't do well. They simply tremble.

His point boiled down in its finest mold is simply this. You cannot demonstrate the connection between faith and works.

James' answer to this takes the form of an exposition of the life of Abraham. Oh yes you can, says James. Notice verse 20.

But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

I'm going to show you that it is in fact dead without works. Look at Abraham. Look at him when He was offering His son Isaac on the altar. Can't you see the cooperation between faith and works in that?

Notice His words.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? By works faith was matured and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.

It has been often said ever since the days of Calvin that there are basically in the second chapter of James two kinds of justification. There is obviously He consents to it and quotes Paul's famous proof text justification by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But there is also a justification by works. And this is not before God but before men.

And so the ultimate outcome of Abraham's cooperation between his faith and works was that men regarded him as the friend of God. There's a man who knows God. There's a man whose faith is at work in his life. He took his son and took him up the hill and was ready to plunge the knife into him just because his God said so. Then God didn't require it of him.

Can't you see the cooperation between faith and works in this wonderful experience of Abraham, says James? Oh, foolish man. How can you say there's no connection between faith and works? And don't you see that Abraham's faith was matured and perfected by this? And he was justified by works. He was vindicated before men as a man who knew God and was on friendly terms with God.

Very quickly, we end the section with a resume. And this is 2:24-26. Let's read it quickly.

You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. You see that a man is justified by works and not only by faith. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

The English is a little ambiguous here, but the Greek is clearer. I think I can clear it up by switching the English word or follow closely. You see that a man is justified by works and not only supply the word justified by faith.

This is an important statement here. Neither James nor Paul knows anything about justification by faith plus works. Can I repeat that? There is no such thing as justification by faith plus works.

There is a justification by faith and that's before God. And there is a justification by works and that's before men. Remember chapter 4 of Romans. If Abraham was justified by works, the apostle uses a form of the Greek condition that permits us to say, And maybe he was. He does not deny that he was. If Abraham was justified by works, he has whereof to boast, but not before God. Not before God.

All right, James and Paul are at one here. Paul undoubtedly aware that James and no doubt those taught by James taught that a man could be justified before men by works. And he had no problem with that. And he says, If we grant that Abraham was justified by works, well fine, but it's not before God. That's not the way you get justified before God.

And then He goes on to expound His great doctrine of justification by faith. So you see, says James, a man isn't just justified by faith. There's another kind of justification, too. And that's justified by works.

Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

Remember that the book of Hebrews tells us that Rahab acted in faith when she received the messengers. She knew that God was on the side of the Israelites. That's why she invited them in. But at any point, she could have betrayed them. When the knock came at the door, she could have said, Yeah, they're upstairs under the bales of hay. They think I'm protecting them, but I'm not. Go up and get them. Or when they left her house and the pursuers came after the spies, she could have said they went that way and that would have been the way they went. But instead, she said they went that way and in fact they had gone that way and she sent them out another way. That's what she did.

And remember the spies before they left said, We'll save you and your whole family if you don't give us away. Because the spies had to wonder, you know, here's this immoral woman in Jericho. Is she going to shaft us or is she really on our side? They didn't know for sure until they got away scot-free.

God saw her faith the moment she let the spies in the door, but the spies only saw her faith when she protected them throughout. And therefore, Rahab was justified by her works before the spies, before Israel, and before all generations that have followed. This has nothing to do with eternal salvation.

Bottom line,

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

I walk up to a body on the street. It has the shape of a man. It has no pulse and no heartbeat. Do I draw the conclusion this body has never been alive? I don't know a thing about medical science or life or death. If I draw that conclusion, my conclusion is the life-giving spirit within this body is gone and the body is dead.

That is the real analogy between dead faith and living faith. It's not that dead faith has always been dead. But when we stop acting on what we believe, our faith dies. It becomes a dead letter. It becomes, if you will permit the terminology, a spiritual corpse. It isn't producing anything.

How do we keep our faith alive? Very simply, by acting on what we believe. And when we keep our faith alive by works, people around us will look at us and say, Hey, there's a real Christian. And guess what? We'll be justified by works.

No doubt you'll have some questions for me tonight on this, but that's the basic presentation. Let's close my section here with a brief word of prayer.

Father, we thank you that you have given us salvation freely by faith and by faith alone. But we thank you that we have the opportunity to keep that faith vital and active every day of our lives and that we have the privilege of manifesting our relationship to you by our works and by our obedience to your commands. Help us not only to know the theology of this but the reality of it as well in our personal lives. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.