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James 2:15–17
“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
James opens his discussion regarding faith and works with two questions, asking first what good faith does if a person claiming it has no good works and then asking whether that mere claim of faith can save him (James 2:14). These two questions are related inasmuch as James will make clear that a claim of faith without the fruit of faith does not give the one professing faith the good of salvation (vv. 17, 26). It will be helpful as we work through this passage, however, to see that the two questions end up making a point about faith with relation to other people and a point about faith with relation to God. By the time that James is through, we will see that saving faith results in both horizontal and vertical benefits. Horizontally, true faith leads us to bless other people. Vertically, true faith secures friendship with God.
In today’s passage, James offers the example of a professing Christian’s seeing a brother or sister in Christ in true need and then giving him only good wishes. The individual gives the poor believer no tangible assistance in meeting his essential needs. James then asks what good has been done (vv. 15–16). This ties the example back to the first question that opens this section, in which James asks what good it is if a person has faith but does not have works. Repeating the question in the example indicates that James expects true faith to be a blessing not only to ourselves in our relationship to God but to others as well. If those who profess Christ are not a blessing to others who are in need, then the faith they claim is actually ineffectual to unite them to Jesus. It is a dead faith, having the appearance of belief but not living and active trust (v. 17). John makes a similar point when he says that we cannot really love God if we do not love our brothers in the faith and that we do not have the love of God in us if we close our hearts against fellow Christians in need (1 John 3:17; 4:20).
Matthew Henry warns us that “we are too apt to rest in a bare profession of faith, and to think that this will save us; it is a cheap and easy religion to say, ‘We believe the articles of the Christian faith;’ but it is a great delusion to imagine that this is enough to bring us to heaven.” A profession of faith that does not bear fruit in good works is as useless for salvation as well-wishes spoken to those in need without any tangible assistance in the form of food and clothing. No wonder, then, that James says that a mere claim of faith is a dead faith (James 2:17).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
When we think of faith, we usually think first of how it benefits us with respect to our relationship to God. This is good and proper, but we should also remember that genuine faith also leads us to bless other people. One measure of the strength and authenticity of our faith is the degree to which it has resulted in our blessing others who are in need.
For further study
- Leviticus 25:35–38
- Luke 10:25–37
- Galatians 5:6
- 1 John 4:21
The bible in a year
- Exodus 31–32
- Matthew 22:23–46