James knows that there will be people who say, you can’t judge my faith just because I don’t have outward works. Maybe not everyone’s relationship is outward.
Someone might say: Maybe for someone their relationship with God does leads to outward works or outward behavior. You feel led to care for orphans and widows. That is good for you. But maybe for someone else, their relationship is more rooted in their quiet faith. It is inward and personal. And that is good for them.
The argument that James knows he is going to hear is that not everyone’s faith is going to impact their outward life. For some it may, for some it may not.
And so James responds to that argument and says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2;18b).
James is saying, ‘how can you say you have faith in Christ if it does not impact or shape how you outwardly live?’
James goes on to write, my faith is evident in what I do. You can’t live a life that does not represent Christ but then say “well, my faith is inward and personal.” Genuine faith in Christ shapes all that we are. When we place our faith in Christ we move from death to life, we become a new creation that impacts all that we are.
Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me.” In other words, lay down your life and now live like I live, do what I do, speak like I speak, love like I love, serve like I serve. Follow me into my mission and into my works. When we have genuine faith in Christ, we begin to look like Christ.
That is what genuine faith does.
Do you look like Christ? Do you look like Christ in your marriage, in your parenting, in your neighborhood, in your school, workplace, community? Or do you have a faith that is hidden or as James said earlier a faith that is dead or inactive. So that people do not know that you are a follow of Christ.
When you are in your home and community do people see Christ in you because of your faith in Christ? James says they should – that is the evidence of a faith that is alive and active.
Verse 19
Remember that James is writing to Jewish Christians and one of the things that set both Jews and Christians apart is that they believe in ONE GOD. A significant verse for both Jews and Jewish Christians would have been Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one.”
Other cultures and nations had many gods who served many different purposes. The Jews were viewed as odd because they served only one God.. And this was a place of pride for the Jews. We don’t serve many gods, declared the Jews, we serve the one true God.
And so James says, “you believe that God is one.” And then he says that is good. It is good to have a right theology. But do you know who else has right theology? The demons. They also know there is only one true God. In fact, the reality that there is one true God causes them to shudder. The New Living Translation says, ‘Tremble with Fear.”
So what is the point that James is making?
Faith is not just an inward belief or knowledge of God. Genuine faith should change our life. Genuine faith should change how we live.
The demons have a right theology of God being the one true God. But that right theology did not lead to a life surrendered to Christ and therefore a life being transformed by Christ.
Genuine faith says, “Jesus, I give all that I am to you.” Genuine faith is a faith that will lay down their own life, take up their cross and follow Jesus to become like Jesus. That is the type of faith that produces the works of Christ. That is the type of faith in which your life will look different. It will look different from the world. And it will look different from Christians who are just going through the motions.