James 2:18 "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith..."

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. (James 2:18)

Question:

My thoughts are beginning to run away from me. God said I need to get alone with him and he will help me, but I need to start getting my works lined up with my faith.

Comment:

This passage—indeed, much of the sermon known as James—is directed to one of the earliest controversies of the early Christian church.

The church in Jerusalem retained the Jewish belief that what makes us acceptable to God is obedience to the many laws which God dictated to Moses—in other words, by our “works,” by what we do. Paul, on the other hand, taught that the law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ; obedience was no longer a sufficient measure. What mattered, Paul believed, was faith in the Christ Presence of God that is our true identity.

James here, I think, is defining what Buddha might call the Middle Path, suggesting that it’s really a false dispute. In the preceding verse he writes that “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” But the works he calls us to embrace are not blind obedience to ancient laws, but rather actions that express the Christ energy we have come to believe and embrace within ourselves. It must, indeed, begin with faith. But the way we express and affirm that faith is by making Christlike choices and taking Christlike actions: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love our neighbors as ourselves, and so on. We don’t do these things out of fear and simple obedience. We do them because, centered in our Christ selves, we would not choose to do less.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed