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James 2:19
“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
Many people note the practicality of the book of James. The Apostle James clearly wants us to be Christian in word and in deed. For James, our religion is no good if we do not care for the widow and orphan, bridle our tongues, or keep ourselves unstained from the world (James 1:26–27). We are to be doers of the Word and not hearers only (vv. 22–25). The Apostle makes it plain that the Christian religion is not something to be affirmed merely with our minds, but it is a life to be lived.
Of course, all the biblical authors share James’ view, even if James has a particular fondness for this question: What good is the faith that you profess? He asks this even when discussing one of the most important of all doctrines, the doctrine of saving faith. James teaches that saving faith must be good for something with respect both to fellow men and to God. Thus far, his focus has been on how saving faith benefits other people, calling us to a faith that produces acts of service to those in need (2:14–18). In today’s passage, James stresses that saving faith does good for our relationship with God.
James starts out by mentioning the fundamental Christian and biblical confession—God is one—and he notes that one does well to affirm this (v. 19; see Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:6). He then calls his audience to account by stating that even the demons believe that God is one and shudder in so doing (James 2:19). Believing that there is only one God, the God of the Bible, is good, but if that’s all there is to our religious life, we are not any better off than the demons.
John Calvin comments that “from [James 2:19] it appears evident that the whole dispute is not about faith, but of the common knowledge of God, which can no more connect man with God, than the sight of the sun carry him up to heaven.” James does not contrast saving faith with good works, but he points out the uselessness of a faith that is mere mental assent to true propositions. Demons are not stupid; they almost certainly have a greater intellectual grasp of true doctrine than we do. They have been around longer than we have, after all. They do not trust their Creator, however, but seek to usurp His righteous and rightful rule. Their “faith” is simply to say “it is true that God is one,” but this does no good for their relationship to the Lord. They remain His enemies because they do not entrust themselves to Him, bearing no fruit of love for Him. That is precisely the kind of “faith” that we do not want to have.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Matthew Henry writes, “To rehearse that article of our creed . . . I believe in God the Father Almighty, will not distinguish us from devils at last, unless we now give up ourselves to God as the gospel directs, and love him, and delight ourselves in him, and serve him, which the devils do not, cannot do.” What separates our affirmation of the truth from what the demons believe is that we trust in the Lord and see the fruit of that trust in love for and service to Him.
For further study
- Deuteronomy 6:5
- Job 1:6–2:10
- Mark 5:1–13
- Luke 4:40–41
The bible in a year
- Exodus 35–36
- Matthew 23:23–39