James 2:18-26 – “Rabbi, I Want to See”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁸And someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works. Show me that faith without the works, and I will show you my faith out of my works.”  ¹⁹You believe that God is one? You do well. The demons also believe and tremble. ²⁰And, O empty man, do you wish to know that the faith without the works is worthless? ²¹Was not Abraham our father justified out of works offering Isaac his son upon the altar? ²²You see that the faith worked together with his works and the faith was completed out of the works. ²³The Scripture was fulfilled, the one saying “Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him into righteousness,” and “He was called a friend of God.” ²⁴You see that a man is justified out of works and not only out of faith. ²⁵Likewise was not Rahab the prostitute also justified out of works, welcoming the messengers and sending [them] out a different way? ²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, thus also the faith without works is dead.

This is going to be another one of my “I don’t know” posts. I have been studying this passage and pondering over it pretty much this entire month. I keep hoping some lights will come on but alas, here I am, and I don’t think I know any more than I did. So in this post, I’ll try to summarize my ignorance.

As I recorded in my last post, to me this matter of “faith and works” is patently obvious. To be born again is to live again and to live is to move and breathe. Action always accompanies life. Action doesn’t impart life, it is the expression of it. Works don’t give life. It is genuine faith that imparts life to the soul. The works are simply the expression of that living faith. And so, Abraham, being alive, lived his faith and obeyed God. Rahab, having come to faith and become alive, started making decisions consistent with that living faith.

The key words repeated all through this passage are “show me/show you” (v18), “you see” (v22), and “you see” (v24). James’ whole discussion is centered around this idea of what you “see.” You can’t “see” faith. But a faith that is real will produce a life which can be seen, which I believe is his point.

All well and good. James isn’t contradicting Paul. He isn’t “adding works to faith” in a soteriological sense. He’s making the rather obvious assertion that real faith lives.

This is my rub. I’m not sure who he’s talking to or why. If he is addressing genuinely born again people, I’m thinking they already know this. As I quoted from Ezekiel in my last post, the Lord said,

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes …” (36:26-27).

Genuinely born again people are indwelt by the Spirit and God Himself “causes us to walk in His statutes.” From the second I became alive in Christ, I was aware I was alive. I had something totally different going on inside of me. I wanted to know God. I wanted to follow Jesus. I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but it was all there.

So … do you need to tell born again people that their faith should be accompanied by works? Obviously Jesus seemed to think so:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (John 15:5,6).

John himself says,

“If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we

lie and do not practice the truth” (I John 1:6).

Clearly, we need to be told that real faith produces works, produces a changed life, produces observable action.

But then, in v20, he addresses “you foolish man” and seems to be making his point to people who want to assert that they can have faith without works. Can genuine believers really think that someone can have faith and it produce no change in their life? Or is he talking to the many people who sit in the pews and claim faith but obviously don’t live it (of which there are many, of course). My problem with thinking James is addressing them is first of all that I know by experience that those people aren’t listening to a word you say, so why address them at all? Also, that would imply James is addressing this book to unbelievers, which would seem contradictory.

If he’s addressing believers, it seems unnecessary. If he’s addressing unbelievers, it seems pointless.

I suppose it comes down to the problem that the visible church will always (in this world) be comprised of tares and wheat, and Jesus specifically said the tares would not be plucked out lest the wheat be damaged. The whole Bible is full of warnings against “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” and people who say, “Lord, Lord.” Paul had to admonish the Corinthians to “examine yourselves and see if you be in the faith” (II Cor 13:5).

Perhaps that is the key here. Somehow we need the Lord to make the matter clear. Perhaps believers need to know this so they aren’t discouraged by all the people who claim faith then don’t live Jesus. Perhaps we need to know this so we don’t listen to everyone who gets up and claims to have faith. Perhaps it needs to be said on the chance that someone really would ask themselves whether the “faith” they claim is actually changing their life?

Perhaps all of this is true – it just doesn’t seem to tell me anything I didn’t already know.

And that is what bothers me. How can I read and study a passage of Scripture and come away feeling I didn’t learn anything? That usually means I didn’t “get it.” What bothers me too is reading those words, “You foolish man,” and wanting to believe he is talking to someone else, while the voice way down deep inside of me is saying, “Don, you’re the man!”

If David didn’t see that he was “the man” in Nathan’s story, he would have missed Nathan’s point and gone on blindly in his sin. If I can’t see when I’m “the man” I fear I’m missing the point … with the frightening implication that, in some way, I’m going on blindly in my sin. The whole point of studying the Bible is to see my sins so I can be different. To have studied a whole passage and walk away unchanged is a sad disappointment. But if I am “the man,” I still don’t see it.

His point is clearly that “faith without works is dead.” That I think I understand. I just feel there’s something more going on that I’m missing.

Hmmmmmm. Well, the good news is that the Lord is still on His throne. He sees all things clearly. He knows that I’ve sincerely (albeit with my evil self-deceptive heart) tried to understand. Perhaps I’m just not ready to see something here. Time for another Habakkuk. I’ll just stand at my post and watch and see what He will tell me.

I guess I’ll just leave this with the prayer, “Lord, help me let my faith live. Help me to do the “works” that accompany faith, whatever and wherever  You wish to be. If I’m missing something, please help me to see it. Rabbi, I want to see.”

With that, it’s time to go back to the OT and continue my study in Ruth. I’ll study a chapter or two there and, Lord willing, come back to continue on in James.