Faith Without Works
This year I have been leading the middle school students of our academy in a chapel time on Tuesday mornings. When our administrator, Jeannie Thompson, approached me with the idea last spring, I was eager to do it. Part of my reasoning was that I remembered the experience of my daughter, Lori, when she was in middle school. Her class had an in-depth Bible study that really made an impression on her. Therefore, I told Mrs. Thompson that I would do it, if I could do a Bible study with them. She agreed.
I prayed about a book for us to study, and the Lord led me to James, because it is so practical. Now, we are on James 2 and the famous passage about faith without works. We are spending a few weeks on this passage, because it is so pivotal for us to grasp. I feel that it goes to the very essence of faith. That is what I was trying to explain this morning. I gave the students two illustrations about faith. First, I explained that faith means to "trust" another person. Therefore, if I gave a student $20 and sent him to the store across the street for some breath mints, I would be showing my trust in him to buy the right thing and bring me the change. If all I did was tell the student that I trusted him, I would not have really put any faith in him. The faith is shown by the action. The same is true of going to a doctor. You might think the doctor is smart. You may trust the doctor's judgment, but if you did not follow the doctor's instructions, you didn't really trust the doctor.
James is saying the same thing about trusting the Lord. If our faith does not have action connected to it, there is no living faith. It may be mental assent, but that is not faith. It may be a good feeling, but that is not faith. The only real faith is when we trust the Lord enough to do what He says to us. We show that our faith is real. We commit ourselves to Him. All true faith is connected to action. It is not salvation by works, as some have misunderstood. It is active faith like the faith of Abraham. Without that kind of faith, we cannot be saved.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Leviticus 20-22.
I prayed about a book for us to study, and the Lord led me to James, because it is so practical. Now, we are on James 2 and the famous passage about faith without works. We are spending a few weeks on this passage, because it is so pivotal for us to grasp. I feel that it goes to the very essence of faith. That is what I was trying to explain this morning. I gave the students two illustrations about faith. First, I explained that faith means to "trust" another person. Therefore, if I gave a student $20 and sent him to the store across the street for some breath mints, I would be showing my trust in him to buy the right thing and bring me the change. If all I did was tell the student that I trusted him, I would not have really put any faith in him. The faith is shown by the action. The same is true of going to a doctor. You might think the doctor is smart. You may trust the doctor's judgment, but if you did not follow the doctor's instructions, you didn't really trust the doctor.
James is saying the same thing about trusting the Lord. If our faith does not have action connected to it, there is no living faith. It may be mental assent, but that is not faith. It may be a good feeling, but that is not faith. The only real faith is when we trust the Lord enough to do what He says to us. We show that our faith is real. We commit ourselves to Him. All true faith is connected to action. It is not salvation by works, as some have misunderstood. It is active faith like the faith of Abraham. Without that kind of faith, we cannot be saved.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Leviticus 20-22.