James 2:20-24

Passage

And do you desire to know, O man without understanding, that faith apart from works is useless?  Was not our father Abraham proven righteous out of works while offering up Isaac his son upon the altar?  You see that faith was at work together with his works and out of works faith was being completed.  And the scripture that was written is fulfilled, “And Abraham believed by God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  And he was being called a friend of God.  You all see that a man is being declared righteous out of works, and not out of faith only.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

At the close of this passage we see once again James’ point.  James is not making the argument of “faith or works.”  James is making the argument “faith and works.”  James is saying that both are important and one cannot exist without the other.  This is fundamentally in agreement with Jesus when He Himself teaches that you shall know people by their works.  It isn’t necessarily only their works that save them.  But their works are evidence of that which saves.

Do you have works that are evidence of your faith?  Are people seeing your faith at work through your actions?

Second Thought:

Now we return to the beginning of this passage.  James says that faith apart from works is useless.  It isn’t that faith is bad – or even incapable.  It is that if our faith never does anything inside of us then there is no point to it at all!  It is like a man who spends all his life earning and saving money but dies before any of it can be spent.  What’s the point?  James is telling us that faith is best when it is conjunction with works.  Faith is best when it has an outlet.  Faith is best when it is allowed to be paired with works.  As James says, faith is completed by our works.

Is there a moment in your life where you were able to respond out of your faith?  How did your works help bolster the faith that is inside of you?  Would you agree that faith is better when combined with works than when it has no outlet?  Why?

Third Thought:

James also talks about an interesting passage of scripture.  Abraham was asked by God to sacrifice His own son.  We know that he did follow the request, but at the last moment God brought a ram to take the place of Isaac so that Abraham didn’t actually need to kill his son.  This story shows us an interesting dynamic brought out by works.  Any of us can tell ourselves things in our minds; yet we only know truth when the rubber meets the road.  All of us can say we love God; but none of us really know that is true until we act upon that love and live it out.  Any of us can say we follow Christ; but none of us know if that is true until we actually do something and demonstrate our following Christ.  Like Abraham, we never know how much we do truly love God until we put it into practice.

How much do you love God?  How much are you willing to follow Him?  Are you as obedient in action as you are in confession?

Passage for Tomorrow: James 2:25-26