International Lesson Series: free slide study: http://2424u.org

1. James 2:14-26
Faith and Works

2. James 2:14-26
Some Bible teachers suggest that Paul and
James disagree with each other about the
place of faith and works in a person’s
salvation. They don’t. In today’s text James
did not attack Paul’s teaching that a Christian
is saved by God’s grace. Instead he
corrected what A. T. Robertson called “the
ceremonial ritualism of the Pharisees.”

3. James 2:14-26
But James has to walk a fine line. He is
writing primarily to Jewish Christians who cut
their teeth on the law and its obedience.
James could not deny that responsibility but
had to reteach them how God viewed and
used our works.

4. James 2:14-26
Israelites in Isaiah's day imagined they could
be treacherous and disloyal as long as they
offered worship to God. Many, though not all,
Jews in James's day assumed they could be
halfhearted and double minded as long as
they attended synagogue and observed a
few ceremonies.

5. James 2:14-26
Wrong priorities can ruin the character of a
church. Straining at gnats by emphasizing
merely formal observances such as church
attendance is one way churches fail to
produce genuine, Christ like people.

6. James 2:14-26
James’s readers struggled to reflect God’s
mercy toward the poor (James 2:1–13, last
week’s lesson). The readers’ faith in the God
who graciously met their needs was not
being expressed in their meeting the needs
of others (compare 1 John 3:17, 18).

7. James 2:14
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if
you say you have faith but do not have
works? Can faith save you?

8. James 2:14
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as truly “our
Lord” benefits us and should also benefit
others. If someone claims to have faith in
Jesus, but a faith in Jesus that does not
benefit others, he does not have true faith
and his faith does not benefit anyone.

9. James 2:14
A traditional understanding of "works of the
law" in Paul's teaching was that Jews were
trying to earn salvation by merit. James was
not talking about works as a sufficient basis
to merit salvation. Many commentators have
come to think "works of the law" means the
idea that Jews are saved by being Jewish.

10. James 2:14
Isaiah said God was tired of the sacrifices
and worship of false believers (lsa. 1:11-15).
What God wanted was works of mercy, doing
good (vs. 17). This is almost exactly the
same message as in James 2.

11. James 2:15,16
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily
food, and one of you says to them, “Go in
peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet
you do not supply their bodily needs, what is
the good of that?

12. James 2:15,16
The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have heard of
your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
toward all the saints” (Ephesians 1:15). True
faith in Jesus as Lord results in “love toward
all the saints” (that is, “all Christians”).

13. James 2:15,16
Whenever true Christians see a brother or
sister in Christ who needs clothing or food or
has other needs, Jesus has a plan for His
followers to meet their needs.
In faith, His followers will seek to follow His
plans to benefit others.

14. James 2:15,16
James showed how unreasonable it is to say
to a needy brother or sister in Christ, “keep
warm and eat your fill,” when they have no
clothes or food. A true faith in Jesus Christ
will lead a true Christian to respond
reasonably in love.

15. James 2:15,16
James showed how unreasonable it is to say
to a needy brother or sister in Christ, “keep
warm and eat your fill,” when they have no
clothes or food. A true faith in Jesus Christ
will lead a true Christian to respond
reasonably in love.

16. James 2:17
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

17. James 2:17
One definition of faith is mere “intellectual
belief,” the definition of faith that James is
using. The problem with such faith is that
Christians make decisions and live daily with
the conscious commitment that Jesus is their
Lord and they want to do His will; this type of
faith is not enough by itself and so dead.

18. James 2:17
What makes this kind of faith "dead" is that it
is "alone." Just as there is no genuine
compassion without action (vs. 16), so there
is no real faith that is faithless toward God,
His commandments, and the needs of
brothers and sisters. Salvation is about life.

19. Question
What should be our personal policy for
addressing the needs of those who request
help?

20. James 2:18,19
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. You believe that God is one; you do
well. Even the demons believe--and shudder.

21. James 2:18,19
Mere intellectual belief without good choices
and helpful actions based on true faith will do
harm by sins of commission or sins of
omission. Doing good works in the name of
Jesus verifies our living faith to us and
others.

22. James 2:18,19
A person's beliefs can change, can be held
hypocritically and can be a mere figment of
the imagination. But deeds require effort and
over time show real character and belief.
Consistently wrong choices can indicate a
wrong intellectual belief or misplaced trust,
no matter how much a person says he is a
Christian.

23. James 2:18,19
Demons know that God is one and because
of their choices and actions in spite of that
knowledge they shudder at the thought, but
they do not repent. Some with a faith that is
mere intellectual belief have far less faith
than demons because they neither shudder
nor repent.

24. Question
How has someone else’s deeds from faith
made a lasting difference in your life?

25. James 2:20,21
Do you want to be shown, you senseless
person, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by
works when he offered his son Isaac on the
altar?

26. James 2:20,21
Some of those he wrote to thought that all
they have needed to do was express and
maintain mere intellectual belief in some
facts about Jesus to be right with God
forever. James would have called a person
who believed this “senseless” or without
reason and commonsense. Their faith is
barren or vain and does not produce the
fruits or gifts of the Holy Spirit.

27. James 2:20,21
The vanity referred to here probably does not
carry the sense of "conceited." Rather, this
man is vain in the sense of Ecclesiastes 1:2:
"ail is vanity." In this usage, "vanity" means
something that appears to be real but is not.
It is null and empty.

28. James 2:20,21
God’s request and Abraham’s decision to
obey God showed his faith in God, and God
saved Isaac from death. Because Abraham
believed and did what God told him to do;,
“Abraham was justified by works;” his works
showed he had the right kind of faith in God
as his Lord.

29. James 2:22,23
True or living faith will produce works that
flow from love for God and others. When true
faith achieves God’s purpose in daily activity
and reasonable choices, that faith is “brought
to completion by works.”

30. James 2:22,23
It is important to remember that works here
means works of love, not what Paul referred
to in Romans 4:1-5 and Galatians 3:6.
Works complete faith, work together with
faith, and fulfill faith.

31. James 2:24
You see that a person is justified by works
and not by faith alone.

32. James 2:24
When Christians take the actions God asks
of them, they remain right with God and in a
right relationship with God. They do things
for God because they consider God their
friend.

33. James 2:24
Belief in Jesus does not excuse anyone from
finally appearing before the Judge. In that
court, works of love will be at the heart of a
verdict of righteousness. God "will render to
every man according to his deeds" and give
"glory, honor, and peace, to every man that
works good" (Rom. 2:6, 10).

34. James 2:25, 26
Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also
justified by works when she welcomed the
messengers and sent them out by another
road? For just as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is also dead.

35. James 2:25, 26
Works without love, works that only obey the
law with the hope of earning credit and
rewards from God, are not the works James
commended or commanded.

36. James 2:25, 26
The Holy Spirit inspired James to understand
that Rahab had come to believe in the true
God and she wanted to obey and serve God.
She had come to love God and so His
people; therefore, when God inspired her or
told her to save the messengers she acted in
faith and saved them.

37. James 2:25, 26
If she had merely said to the Israelite spies
that she believed in God, it would not have
resulted in deliverance. She demonstrated
her faith with the right action, and the
Israelites recognized genuine faith.

38. Question:
How does the example of Abraham’s nearsacrifice of Isaac effect how you act on what
you believe?

39. Conclusions
James was addressing people who claimed
to be Jewish followers of Jesus. Yet they had
been showing faithless deeds of wickedness
in their actions. They had been partaking in
the culture of favoritism in the synagogues
outside the land of Israel. They had cast
doubt on their claim of faith by acting
faithlessly.

40. Conclusions
One needs to be cautious when judging faith
in others for several reasons. First, it takes
time. As a tree needs time to produce fruit,
so it may be with a professing believer.
Second, not all works are done in public and
therefore may be invisible to others.

41. Conclusions
Still, true faith in the Lord will have evidence
that it is genuine faith (Jas. 2:14-17).
Faith without works is just knowledge; we are
to believe, or trust, in a way that works and
reject mental assent alone for salvation (vss.
18-20).

42. Conclusions
God called faithful Abraham His friend and
defined faith as a living relationship with Him.
(vss. 23-24).
Rahab had such faith in the Lord that she
risked her life. Our view of people is forever
changed when we look to see if they live
loving lives and do loving deeds. (vs. 25).

43. Conclusions
Perhaps we should remember that one of the
works of genuine faith is prayer. We pray to
God only if we know that we need His power
to help, only if we believe that He can and
will help. We begin by asking God to
strengthen our faith and enable us to put it
into action.