Kevin Taylor's Bible Study
Title:
The Book Of James, Part Four
by Kevin Taylor
God bless all of you. This week we will continue with our study
of the book of James, and look at James chapter two verses 14-26, so without
further adieu, lets get into the word of God.
James 2 v 14-26 what good
is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds. Can such
faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily
food. If one of you says to him “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well
fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is that? In the
same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead. But
some will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without
deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there
is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that, and they shudder. You foolish
man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our
ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his
son Isaac on the alter? You see that his faith and his actions were working
together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture
was fulfilled that says “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him
as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person
is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was
not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when
she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off on a different direction?
As the the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
What a challenging piece of scripture. Can you spot the theme running through
these verses? The theme is simple; our faith in God should produce fruit.
As we say over here in England, “put your money where your mouth is,” or
put it another way, “see a need, meet It.” It is important to understand
what James is on about when he says, “If a man claims to have faith but
has no deeds. Can such faith save him?” He is not saying that you have to
work for your salvation, because salvation is a gift, it is not wages for
services rendered, and it says in the book of Ephesians chapter two verses
8-9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is
not from yourselves, it is a gift from God, not by works, so that no-one
can boast.”
What James is saying can be put another way. Let's say for example that you
decide to go parachuting. You are up in the aircraft, you arrive over the
drop zone, the green light comes on and out you go! You have total faith
that the parachute will save you. Well; it will only save you if you pull
the rip cord. You see, pulling the rip-cord would be the “faith and your
actions working together.”
Sometimes we Christians can become too ‘super
spiritual’ for our own good, I’ve often thought that if God told us to ‘build
an ark’ we would Pray one in.’ If God says “Build an ark” he means “Build
an ark” not ‘pray for someone else to do it’ and that is what James is trying
to get across in this teaching, ‘Faith without works is dead’ Think about
it, it would be crazy if we met someone who had not eaten for days and we
sent them on their way without feeding them, especially when we have a freezer
full of goodies. There are countless applications for this verse and we
have to guard against over-looking the obvious in peoples needs. I will
finish by telling you a short story I once heard:
There was this Christian at sea when his boat capsized and sank. He was
there in the water and he started to pray earnestly and all of a sudden
a boat came by, the captain shouted out “Do you need any help?” the Christian
replied “No, God will save me.” Some time later, a submarine surfaced nearby,
the captain shouted out “Need any help?” the Christian replied, “No, the
Lord will save me.” Some time later, a helicopter came by and lowered a
man down on a winch rope and he asked the Christian, “Do you need any help?”
the Christian replied “No thank you, The Lord will save me.” Anyway, the
Christian drowns and he is standing before God in heaven and he says to
God “Lord, why didn’t you save me?” and the Lord replied, “What do you mean,
why didn’t I save you, I sent you a boat, a submarine and a helicopter.
What more do you want?” bye for now, lots of love, Kev!
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