The Un-Series: Week 5 Day 6

James 2:14-26

14What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 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. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. 25 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 in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

HOW YOU LIVE YOUR LIFE TODAY MATTERS!

Real life imitates the Bible, mainly because the Bible was written by, to, and about real people! It is not enough to know where to look in the Bible when the group leader says, “Turn to Zechariah 2,” or all the words to the worship songs we sing at The Foundry. If how we live does not match what we say we believe and does not match Jesus’ teachings on how we are to live, then woe to us! If our faith does not change how we live our daily lives, then one has to wonder if our faith is real. I know that may seem harsh, but not compared to a statement by James in James 2:17: In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Rahab was an outsider, a woman, a Gentile, working a shameful trade, but because of God’s great grace and mercy, and because of Rahab’s great faith revealed through how she lived her life after coming to know the Lord, the outsider became not only a role model, but a hero of the faith!

Would people say you live like Jesus? If not, what is one thing you can work to change today?