“faith freely expressed equals works”

Download discussion questions:  James 2:14-26
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I encourage you to look at the passage in James before you read this Blog entry.  What do you see in the text yourself?  What questions come to your mind?  How would you interpret what the writer says?  After even a few minutes examining and thinking about the text you will be much better prepared to evaluate the comments in the Blog.

This may be the passage that the letter of James is most known for (see some of the thoughts of learned commentators below).  Misinterpreting this passage can (and has) led some believers to despair or to never-ending efforts to reach an undefined goal of enough works.  In spite of the challenges (or maybe because of the challenges), our group wrestled with this passage.

Warnings

Nothing in the letter of James (or for that matter, anywhere in Scripture) should be read superficially.  This passage requires especially careful study since some of the author’s brief statements can be taken out of context by readers looking for simple, uncomplicated rules to follow.  Several scholars offer advice on the complexity of the passage as well as its doctrinal importance.

This paragraph [James 2:14-26] is the most theologically significant, as well as the most controversial, in the letter of James.”^[1]

The passage has even been described as “one of the most difficult New Testament passages in general.”[2]  The careful interpretation of the passage is important to avoid the “inordinate attention given to the apparent contradiction between vv. 20-26 and Paul’s principle of justification by faith alone.”[3]

James’s Starting Point

One of the first questions in our discussion was, “Why doesn’t James start with the example of Abraham?”  If his point was faith and works, the father of the Jewish nation (v. 21) seems the place to start.  As someone else pointed out, James must have had a reason for his seemingly circuitous setup.

A person pointed out from a previous study that James has just focused on mercy (three times in v. 13) and the law of liberty (v. 12, first mentioned in 1:25).  Certainly it would be helpful if the intervening verses help us to connect mercy and liberty with faith and works.

James calls out those who would be self-deceptive hearers without being doers of the word (1:22-23). He rebukes self-professed religion that talks without helping the helpless (1:26-27).  Then he grows more specific about the sin of partiality, especially in the Christian assembly (2:1-9).  The first mention of faith and works (v. 14) appears in the context of those relational sins, the failure of community.

We spent some time discussing how such a failure of community happens.  Community takes effort.  “Feeling” close to others and words without actions avoid the cost of that effort.  People commented that we can be indifferent to others’ needs even when we have the capacity to help.  We can assume that “someone else will take care of it,” shifting responsibility away from ourselves.  We can justify our failure to act because of a lack of resources, “I have to take care of my own family first.”  All of the excuses we listed avoid showing the mercy to others that James illustrated in vv. 15-16.

Someone pointed out that James even indicates that proper social conventions are not a cause for withholding help.  In his example he explicitly mentions “brother or sister” (v. 15).  Various modern “inclusive” translations often expand the Greek word for brother (ἀδελφὸς, adelphos) to include sisters.  However, in this passage, James very intentionally uses both words, including “sister” (ἀδελφὴ, adelphē), only used twenty-five times[4] in the New Testament.  Apparently, James wanted to avoid the excuse that helping a woman would be socially awkward or even unacceptable.  (Remember the “surprise” or “amazement” of the disciples when they found Jesus talking to a woman at the well in Samaria in John 4:27.)

Show Me

Another question that came into our discussion was James’s hypothetical challenge in v. 18: “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”  Is there some requirement to display or exhibit our faith to each other?  Or as someone suggested, the outward demonstration is the true indication of what is going on inside of us.  James’s examples and exhortations to impartial treatment and generous help mark the Christian life as an expression of radical selflessness.  Those outward acts express Jesus’ second greatest commandment, to love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).  In every relational encounter, with Christians or with the outside world, we have opportunities do display the reality of the gospel and the transforming power of God’s work in us through our works toward others.  Those works demonstrate in practical ways the relational heart of the Christian faith that goes far beyond orthodox beliefs and moral restrictions.  Those outward expressions of the reality of the life of Christ in us can provide encouragement to other believers in their struggles.

Those outward expressions can also provide evidence of the truth of the gospel.  We shared our experiences in relating to those who don’t meet our expectations, such as impatience with retail clerks.  Two of our participants had worked as retail clerks on the receiving end of that impatience and worse.  They confirmed that the rudest and most inconsiderate customers seemed to be the Sunday afternoon crowd of Christians after church.  Several people mentioned struggles with self-righteous faith, either judging or being judged by other Christians with different behavioral standards or different doctrinal beliefs.  In all these instances we saw the opportunity for Christians to display to one another or to the watching world the reality of God’s transforming work.  James emphasizes that such a display of faith is only possible by external, observable works.

Shuddering Faith

Someone suggested that our impatient or judgmental attitudes reveal our self obsession, our preoccupation with our own comfort or convenience.  We are distracted from God obsession, the passion for God’s glory.  Looking at the text in verse 19, someone commented, “We don’t shudder.”  The demons’ belief causes them to shudder (a word used only here in the New Testament).  Another person commented that the demons never lose sight of God’s awesome holiness, both His moral purity and His transcendent Otherness.  As the fictional devil Screwtape lamented, “The humans do not start from that direct perception of Him which we [demons], unhappily, cannot avoid.”[5]  They have a permanent, more complete, and more constant recognition of God’s divine reality.  They never take Him for granted or minimize Him.

The use of “believe” in the example of demons begins to show the distinction James is making about faith with or without works.  We considered the belief of demons:  no love, no action, no trust.  In summary, their belief is completely without any relational component.  One person commented that the demons see no value in God or what He offers.  In contrast, as James has just emphasized, our belief is motivated by God’s mercy and the law of liberty.

The Law of Liberty

Then the question came up again:  How does James’s principle of faith and works in this passage relate to the context of the law of liberty (v. 12)?  This discussion began with the freedom from the bondage of the law and life under the New Covenant.  Instead of self-protective efforts to make life work by following rules (the Old Covenant), the law of liberty frees us from that self obsession.  We have the freedom to draw near to God so we can freely love people.  To quote C. S. Lewis once again

I think those are drawing near to heaven who in this life find that they need men less and love men more and delight more in being loved without being needed.[6]

That freedom enables us to share food and shelter with the brother or sister in need (v. 15) without worrying about our own supplies.  That freedom enables us to care for the orphan and widow who can offer nothing in return (1:27).  That freedom enables us to show the same love for the rich man or the poor brother without judgmental partiality (2:2).  James doesn’t describe those efforts as artificial attempts to show our faith, but as the natural, spontaneous expression of that faith.  Another comment pointed out the examples Jesus used to mark genuine faith by providing clothing and company and care and food and drink and welcome to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:31-45).  As someone summarized, “faith freely expressed equals works.”

Works?

Then the natural question becomes, “What are works? What fits the category that James specifies as the essential expression of genuine faith?”

In this case, the original vocabulary offers little insight.  The word that occurs fourteen times in this passage (ἔργον, ergon) is common in the New Testament, variously translated “work”, “deeds”, “actions”, and occasionally “miracles.”[7]

Our group offered suggestions about what might constitute “works” in our culture, such as good deeds, feeding the homeless, caring for orphans, looking out for the most vulnerable around us.  These were all variations on what James has already mentioned.  As someone suggested, concentrating on works can even become a distraction from the Lord Himself as demonstrated by the diligent Martha in John 11.  We are especially susceptible to the “Martha syndrome” when we feel an obligation to perform works, and the works we do are never enough.  Another member pointed out that our list could all be general, “big-ticket” items.  Are there more day-to-day, down to earth ways that “works” express our faith?  And how do we avoid the Martha syndrome and allow those works to flow graciously rather than as obligatory?

Perhaps anticipating this need for more definition, James provides some helpful examples to clarify his intended meaning of “works.”

Patriarch and Prostitute

James himself notes the sharp contrast between his two examples:  Abraham “our father” (v. 21) and Rahab “the prostitute” (v. 25).

The two exemplars of James’s principle of works completing or vindicating one’s faith – Abraham and Rahab – contrast with each other in several respects, creating a powerful merismus, a figure of speech ‘which makes equal the most extreme members of a whole and therefore all the other members who fall in between.’[8]

Just as James included “sisters” (v. 15) to cover all social interactions, here he uses that powerful contrast to include anyone between the two extremes: the patriarch of a people and a pagan prostitute.  The principle of faith and works applies universally.

If Abraham and Rahab are James’s examples of works demonstrating faith, what works did they do?  Or more specifically, what works does James hold up as proof of genuine faith?  Our group summarized.  The faith of each was demonstrated when:

• • Abraham was willing to kill his son (v. 21).
  • Rahab betrayed her country (v. 25).

Abraham and Rahab may have also fed the hungry or cared for orphans during their lives, but if so, James doesn’t mention it.  He uses only these two unusual actions to illustrate his principle:

• • You see that faith was active along with [Abraham’s] works, and faith was completed by his works (v. 22).
  • And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works… (v. 25).

We considered that the meaning James intends when he uses the word “works” must be broader than our usual concept of good deeds.  One person pointed out that the trait shared by both Abraham and Rahab was trust.  Abraham trusted God to fulfill His promise in Isaac, by miracle if necessary (Hebrews 11:17-19).  Rahab trusted God and God’s people to rescue her and her family from the imminent destruction of their city (Joshua 2:1-3; 6:17-25).

Although they shared the characteristic of trust in God, we noted that the source of the faith was very different for each of them.  Abraham had received a direct and detailed direction from God to offer his son (Genesis 22:1, ff).  Rahab had only hearsay reports of God’s greatness and miraculous support of His people, but she believed He was the true God (Joshua 2:9-11).  Abraham was willing to risk the life of Isaac.  Rahab was willing to risk her own life by committing treason and lying to the king.  Yet each one trusted God based on the knowledge they had.  Their belief was expressed in trusting God in terrible circumstances.

James’s two extreme examples suggest that the “works” that express genuine faith are the acts and attitudes that affirm our trust and confidence in God.  For the practical examples our group discussed earlier, such as impatience with a retail clerk or judging others, a “work” that expresses faith might be simply a kind response to a rude remark or a caring curiosity about a difference in doctrine.  Our trust can be expressed by not having to protect our reputation after a rude remark or to defend our doctrine against a different view.  We can display God obsession in our trust without resorting to the protective posture of self obsession.  Those kinds of works are certainly in line with what James has already said about “bridling” the tongue (1:26) and about which he will have much more to say (3:2, ff).

Certainly James intends to include practical works to meet physical needs, especially to his original audience of the dispersed Jewish people (1:1).  Lives had been disrupted and the support system of family and Jewish neighbors had been destroyed.  Likewise, as our culture becomes increasingly hostile to Christianity, there will be increasing needs for physical and financial and material support for brothers and sisters who may lose their job.  We must be ready to display our faith in practical works to support them.  But we also need to recognize that James’s principle, illustrated by Abraham and Rahab, ultimately is about demonstrating our trust in God.

What About Paul?

Any discussion of James and his comments about faith and works will eventually get to Paul.  Does James contradict Paul?  They both quote the same verse in Genesis 15:6, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  Did Paul and James come to different and opposite conclusions?

One member of our group offered the helpful distinction as a possibility:

• • Paul explains how the sinner becomes right with God
    (e.g., Romans 3:38; For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.)
  • James describes what faith should look like, the evidence of faith
    (e.g., James 2:22; You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.)

It is not as if James minimizes faith.  After all, as mentioned above, he explains his principle on Abraham’s belief from Genesis 15:6.  James has a lot to say about faith before he ever mentions works.

St. James has already told us that trials are sent to test and confirm our faith (i. 3), that without faith prayer is of no avail (i. 6, cf. v.15, 16), that Christianity consists in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (ii. 1), that those who are rich in faith are heirs of the promised kingdom (ii. 5). By this faith he means trust in the loving will of God revealed to us in Christ, and the reception of His word into our souls, as seed into a good soil (i. 17, 18, 21). If we retain our trust in God’s all-wise, just and loving Providence, in spite of the trials which He permits, the habit of endurance is strengthened in us and thus we grow up to the full stature of Christian manhood (1. 4).[9]

James is certainly an advocate of faith.  He repeatedly mentions faith from the beginning of his letter, emphasizing the importance of strengthening faith because of its centrality in the Christian life.

It is precisely because faith is central that the quality of faith is critical.  As the expression says, talk is cheap.  Claiming to have faith is easy and may impress people, but if it is shallow and not a genuine dependence on God, as James asks, “Can that faith save him?”  The Greek construction expects an answer of “No.”  Because faith is so critical, James wants his audience (then and now) to understand that salvation depends on the authenticity, the genuineness of faith.  James signals the distinction by “the use of the word λέγῃ [“says”] in ver. 14: not faith in itself, but the profession of faith is declared to be of no avail.”[10]

“Justified”

Another suggestion was the different possible meanings of “justified” (δικαιόω, dikaioō).  The word can have the technical theological sense of “made right with God” or the colloquial “just as if I’d never sinned.”  It can also mean vindicated or proved right in a more general sense.[11]  Examples in the New Testament include the lawyer in Luke 10:25-29 trying to look good (“to justify himself”).  So it is possible that James uses dikaioō in the sense that works justified or verified faith as genuine.

However, a possible difficulty with this interpretation is the wording James uses.  In all three instances where the phrase “justified by works” is used, the subject of the sentence is not “faith” but a person:

• • Was not Abraham our father justified by works (v. 21)
  • You see that a person is justified by works (v. 24)
  • Was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works (v. 25)

James applies the result of justification to persons, not to their faith.  The conclusion that faith is vindicated by or confirmed by works is consistent with James’s point.  However, that suggestion is a necessary inference from his wording and not the direct statement of the text.  James’s emphasis in the text is that genuine faith, as evidenced by works, justifies an individual, i.e., enables a right relationship with God.  The works, the spontaneous expression of faith, validate the profession of one who “says” he has faith (v. 14; see λέγῃ [“says”] above).

Working Together and Complete

James summarizes his correlation of faith and works in verse 22, introduced with “You see” to emphasize the clear conclusion: “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.”  James uses two words to connect faith and works.

• • Active (συνεργέω, synergeō), “working together with”[12]
  • Completed (τελειόω, teleioō), “finished, fulfilled, made perfect”[13]

Faith and the expression of that faith (trusting God, doing good deeds, etc.) are inseparable.  When faith is genuine, that belief and its expression constitute an organic whole.  Faith, what we believe, is actively combined with and expressed by our attitudes and actions, and is thereby completed. Paraphrasing verse 22, “You see that belief was active along with his works, and belief was completed by his works.”

Dead or Alive

James concludes the proof of his principle (for now) with another metaphor, this one about a dead body.  His summary is brief and graphic.

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
(James 2:26)

He had mentioned faith as “dead” before (v. 17), but that abstract expression was not as shocking as the image of a corpse.  Certainly the readers of his letter would remember that illustration.

We discussed the relationship between the human spirit and the body and how that relationship might illustrate faith and works.

• • The spirit animates the body.
  • The spirit gives the body identity – a corpse may be almost unrecognizable.
  • The spirit gives life to the body.
  • The spirit enables the body to move.
  • The spirit gives the body “heart,” in the sense of personality or temperament.
  • The spirit gives evidence that the body is alive.
  • The spirit makes the body whole, complete.

The last point seems key and exactly what James has been saying.  If the spirit-body unity is necessary for wholeness, likewise the faith-works unity is the mark of authenticity.  C. S. Lewis provides a helpful illustration of the problem with separating spirit and body.

It is idle to say that we dislike corpses because we are afraid of ghosts. You might say with equal truth that we fear ghosts because we dislike corpses—for the ghost owes much of its horror to the associated ideas of pallor, decay, coffins, shrouds, and worms. In reality we hate the division which makes possible the conception of either corpse or ghost. Because the thing ought not to be divided, each of the halves into which it falls by division is detestable.[14]

That division, like the division of faith and works, is unnatural.  Such division considers separately elements that were never intended individually but constitute an integrated whole.  In the words of another writer,

Just as a profession of philanthropy unaccompanied by kind actions is of ‘no good to the needy, so a profession of faith unaccompanied by righteous actions is of no good to ourselves; both are alike a mere hypocrisy in the sight of God. Such profession is indeed the dead carcass of genuine religion.[15]

The “carcass of genuine religion,” worthless religion (1:26), is just what James has been warning against.  He begins his letter with a startling exhortation to joy in trials with the goal for his readers to be “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (1:4).  That desirable condition depends on a genuine faith expressed in trust and obedience to God and not on empty words.  James will continue on that theme throughout his letter, especially in his exhortations to relational holiness in the Christian community.

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[1] Douglas Moo, The Letter of James (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2000), 118.

[2] Peter H. Davids, The Epistle of James, The New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC) (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982), 123 (quoting Dibelius).

[3] Craig L. Blomberg, and Mariam J. Kamell, James, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 125.

[4] John R. Kohlenberger III, Edward W. Goodrick, James A Swanson, The Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament With The New International Version (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1997), 81.

[5] C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York:  HarperCollins e-books, 2009. Kindle edition), 17, location 212.

[6] C. S. Lewis, “Agape” in The Four Loves Read by the Author (Dallas, Texas:  Word Audio, 1994), audio cassettes, tape 2, side 2, 20:12.  Note that the text of the printed versions of The Four Loves does not include the same wording as the audio production (a talk delivered by Lewis himself).

[7] John R. Kohlenberger III, Edward W. Goodrick, James A Swanson, The Greek-English Concordance to the New Testament With The New International Version (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1997),, 307.

[8] Craig L. Blomberg, and Mariam J. Kamell, James, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan:  Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 125.

[9] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James; The Greek Text with Introduction and Comments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 209-210.

[10] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James; The Greek Text with Introduction and Comments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 210; emphasis added.

[11] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/dikaioo

[12] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/synergeo

[13] https://www.billmounce.com/greek-dictionary/teleioo

[14] C. S. Lewis, Miracles (New York:  The Macmillan Company, 1968), 132-133.

[15] Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James; The Greek Text with Introduction and Comments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1978), 210