This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
In an effort to explain why his previous instruction about favoritism and discrimination is of the utmost importance, even beyond the prior notice that doing so is breaking the royal law of loving our neighbor and thus rebelling against God, James follows those thoughts up with a stark example of inactive faith that does not lead to action. The conclusion about such "faith", of a kind that could watch a fellow Christian in a near-death scenario of need and do nothing in response, is that it is dead. James doesn't call such "faith" weak or diseased, he flat out labels it dead. Without actions being produced by faith, actions of righteousness, the only conclusion we can reach is that the person in question has no real faith at all.
Intellectual assent to the idea of God is not enough. Saying that you believe in Jesus is not enough. If these words are not matched by actions derived from faith, then the words in questions are just words, and not life changing professions of repentance. We cannot be saved by works, James agrees with Paul on that (sorry Martin Luther, you were mistaken on this one), but we must have works once we are saved, works that show that we are in possession of a living and active faith.
The book of James has at times been viewed, most famously by Martin Luther, as being in opposition to the message of salvation by grace alone preached by the Apostle Paul. While this misunderstanding of James has been explained and the reconciliation of James and Paul made clear by theologians long in generations past, an interesting bit of serendipity has occurred to me of late. I have been preaching verse by verse through James on Sunday morning, and at the same time, working through Romans, verse by verse, in my Wednesday morning Bible Study. Working on the two of them together, I have been impressed by how many times I have been able to explain something in Romans using a reference to what I had previously preached in James.
Paul's message of salvation by faith, through grace alone, is in no way opposed to James' emphasis on a living and active faith that demonstrates its viability through works of righteousness. Paul is explaining how a person canbecome a Christian when he insists upon sola fide and sola gratia, James is showing instead how a person who already is a Christian needs to be living in order to prove it (A theme that the Apostle John takes up in I John as well). We cannot be saved by our works, but she had better have them once we are saved. This same point was made again and again by Jesus in the Gospels when he demanded "fruit" from God's people lest they be uprooted and tossed aside as worthless.
To put works before faith is to put the cart before the horse, but to preach a faith that never asks for works as a demonstration of that it is alive and well is empty and foolish. If you want to quote Ephesians 2:8-9 to talk about salvation by grace through faith, that's the right place to start, but don't forget to keep reading through verse 10, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." God saved us by grace, we couldn't do it ourselves, but don't let the necessary emphasis on grace fool you into thinking you don't have work to do for the Kingdom of God.
In order to impress upon his readers the seriousness of their willingness to show favoritism (and thus discriminate), James connects this misdeed to the "royal law" of Leviticus 19:18, "Love your neighbor as yourself". Jesus taught that this was the second most important commandment, now James adds to the weight given to this commandment by pointing out that breaking one of God's laws is akin to breaking all of them. Why? Because breaking the Law of God is not simply a trespass against the Law, it is also an act of rebellion against God. The Law of God reflects the nature of God, and tells us the will of our Creator, to ignore it is to reject God's authority over us.
In light of the gravity of breaking the Law of God, which all of humanity is guilty of, as a people who have been forgiven by God for our sins, it is incumbent upon us to live our lives now with mercy toward everyone, knowing that one day we will all give an account before God for the use to which we put the grace that he bestowed upon us.
Favoritism, and its ugly flip-side, discrimination, is a facet of life we all deal with. There are endless reasons why someone or some group of people might be shown favoritism or be discriminated against, all of which are unacceptable for the people of God. The basis of our relationship with God is grace, unmerited favor, given to us freely by God. How can we turn around and treat other people as if their poverty, race, gender, age, or any other factor makes them less deserving of the kindness we are supposed to show all people?
The example that James focuses upon is favoritism shown to someone with wealth coupled with disregard shown to someone who is poor. The passage reminds us of the false promises of wealth, fame, power, and other pursuits that pull us away from the fruit of the spirit by exalting pride and pushing people away from a humble pursuit of God.
In the end, the Church needs to be a place where favoritism and discrimination are unknown. The doors need to be open for all to come and hear the Gospel's call to repentance and promise of forgiveness, and everyone who walks through them needs to be treated like God treated us, as a lost child coming home to a Father's tear filled embrace.
The modern trend toward labeling oneself "spiritual, but not religious" is in many ways a rebuttal of the failures of organized religion. If the practice of our collective faith in Jesus, i.e. the Church, was pleasing to God, as James calls it, "pure and faultless", it would certainly be worthy of joining. What do we need to do, as a church locally and as a Church universally to earn God's favor? The answer is simple, although it requires much work. The way in which a church (or The Church) can be judged for its effectiveness is by how it treats the least among us. James refers to "widows and orphans", the most vulnerable segments of his society, in ours those in need may be different, but our imperative to help those in need remains the same. As individual Christians, as a local church, as a denomination, and as a universal Church, we must be seriously about the business of helping those in need. This is not an optional part of Christianity, it is the heart of the fruit that the Gospel produces in us. It is not simply what we do, it must be who we are.
The second indicator of genuine religion offered by James is for us to keep from being polluted by the world. Moral filth exists in every society, for all mankind is in rebellion against God. How do we, as Christians, avoid this pollution? It isn't by avoiding society, how can we be helping those in need if we're hiding from the world? That method is of limited value anyway, for temptation comes from within, we take it with us wherever we go. The only effective means of avoiding moral pollution is to fill one's life with acts of righteousness, which will become righteous habits, and not allow sin the opportunity for a foothold.
When we as a church, locally or universally, are truly living our lives together in service to those in need and free from the pollution of immorality, we will not only attract those who need God's grace to us to hear the Gospel, we will by God's power at work in us, change our world.
