The Word of God
The word of God in James 2:14-26, clearly speaks about a vital issue in Christian spiritual life. In these passages, the word of God speaks about faith and actions. Faith, in itself, is an essential virtue for anybody seeking God favor and righteousness. Every Christian in the world today gets encouraged by men of God to maintain their faith. However, most Christians fail to understand and remember that faith at all times should be accompanied by action.
In James 2:17, the bible says, “in that way, faith by itself, if not shown by action, is dead” (New International Version (NIV)), the Bible talks of a “dead” faith without action. Many people claim to have faith in God and Jesus Christ but forget that, faith should come out clearly from them by their action. In this passage, the word of God tries to give us the exact meaning of faith by giving the relevant example of Abraham and the story of sacrifice, in James 2:21, the Bible reminds us of how Abraham demonstrated that, faith through actions. The Bible warns us that even the devil has faith, but his deeds do not correspond to that of a righteous person.
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Many Christians believe that they have faith in God. However, they have what the Bible speaks of dead faith. In society, today, there are many people facing difficulties. Among these people, there are a lot of Christians who do nothing to save their situations. These are the people who go round the world preaching about the issue of faith. The Bible, in this passage, calls this people “foolish” in verse 20. This passage is highly relevant to the modern society where everyone is busy fighting for his or her own needs. Many Christians are in the run today trying to find a way to prosper in these days of economic crunch at the expense of the works of God.
An example of dead faith is when someone cannot help a dying neighbor in hospital to clear bills yet one claims to have faith in God. Why is it hard for one to help your neighbor yet one claims to have faith in God? This is ridiculous, even the bible reminds us of the prostitute, Rahab in verse 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? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (Red Letter Living | Living by the words of Jesus Christ, http://redletterliving.net/ (accessed February 16, 2012)).
The Bible reminds that even if we consider ourselves faithful, without action even the dirtiest people in society can demonstrate faith more than us by their righteous actions.
The passage reminds modern day Christians that in order to demonstrate faith in God, one should be able at all times to bring out their actions. The passage encourages everyone that faith with actions speaks more than just keeping faith. One should understand that actions are responsible for creating a difference and not just “keeping faith”. James 2:14 gives an excellent example that most people today do. They just speak but do not act accordingly. Every one of us must consider actions. This helps to be in line with these teachings of God. That will enable to follow the word of God according to His teachings. We should make it a must, that we help build one another in building faith, in God. One can do to demonstrate actual faith in God, for example, by helping the needy and making sure that we obey all God’s commandments every day.
