PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

Can we have faith without works? That’s the apparent and common understanding of what James is saying in James 2. But could James be using sarcasm to show that if you actually say you have faith but works, you actually do not even have faith? Notice the language James uses and does not use:
• James 2:14: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims (lit., says) to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?” (CSB)
James does not say, “if someone has faith but does not have works.” James is not affirming they have faith without works; he is saying a workless faith is a worthless faith because it is a dead faith and therefore a non-existent faith!
Notice another similar thought process in James:
• James 1:23-24: “Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror. For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.” (CSB)
I’m wondering, have you actually looked in a mirror and that quickly forgot? Possibly, but not regularly. Therefore common-sense hearing is doing; as is common-sense faith leads to common-sense works.
Notice another:
• James 3:9-12: “With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in God’s likeness. Blessing and cursing come out of the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring pour out sweet and bitter water from the same opening? Can a fig tree produce olives, my brothers and sisters, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a saltwater spring yield fresh water.” (CSB)
James is saying they are deceiving themselves if they think they are actually living faithfully. It is as impossible as picking oranges from a strawberry bush!
Let’s go back to James 2:
• James 2:19: “You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe — and they shudder.”
Is James saying these demons have faith but no works? Not at all! Their “work” is shuddering! If they had no faith, they wouldn’t fear.
So can we have faith without works? No, because as the spirit gives life to the body, so does faith give life to works.
• James 2:26: “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (CSB)

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This entry was posted by PHall on Friday, May 31st, 2019 at 10:08 am and is filed under James. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.