"What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself." - James 2:14-17 (NASB)
In the last post, we talked about how James is calling us to live in a holy way before God, not because this earns our salvation, but because it's the only reasonable response to the salvation we have been given. Keep in mind, that during these passages, James' focus is on urging believers, because of the love of Christ, to serve Christ.
The first thing that we must notice about this difficult passage in James is the statement "What use is it." In other translations, it may say, "what does it profit." This is the first and most important key to understanding what this passage is really talking about. However, I myself haven't fully decided what I believe about this passage so I want to present the two interpretations that I know of and hopefully you will be able to discern better than me.
The first and most popular interpretation of these verses is that James, by the words, "can that faith save him," is asking a rhetorical question to which the answer is no. Not only that, but this position would say that the question James is asking is a question of salvation; a question relating to a persons final destination: heaven or hell. However, this position does not go as far to say that salvation is through works, but merely that right actions, repentance of sin, and good works, are evidence of one's salvation. The basic idea is that when one becomes a believer, the Holy Spirit is given to that person and from that point on, it is not possible for that person to act the same as they did when they were an unbeliever; the Holy Spirit is faithful to change that person. If no change has occurred, than they must not have the Holy Spirit, which means they must not actually be saved. This is the first position and the principle here is that the Christian needs to examine his/her self to make sure he/she is really in the faith.
Position two, the position that I slightly favor over position one, holds that, when James says, "can that faith save him," he isn't talking about salvation in terms of heaven or hell, but instead in terms of saving from unrighteousness, bondage to sin, and in general, things that make it difficult to build a relationship with God. This position rests highly upon the statement "what use is it," or "what does it profit." From the very beginning, James' focus isn't on faith that sends a person to heaven or to hell, but on the usefulness of one's faith; the profitability of one's faith. This position would argue that James isn't saying that "dead" faith isn't saving faith, but more-so that "dead" faith is unprofitable and useless for the body of Christ. Have you ever wondered why James never comes and says "this kind of faith will send you to hell" or anything along those lines? He seems to beat around the bush with this idea of a "dead" faith sending someone to hell; to the extant that it seems this isn't actually his point.
Either way, there is a principle to take from these verses and to apply to our lives. And I believe its this: One's faith must be living in order to grow in relationship with Christ. What does living faith look like? Well think about these verses. James says that a dead faith is a faith that doesn't help people in there need, so a living faith must have something to do with loving people and helping people when they are in need. Think about it this way. People grow differently in different relationships. For example, you are going to grow in relationship with your boss differently than you are going to grow in relationship with your best friend. Both relationships can grow, but they must be treated differently in order to grow. So the question is, what kind of relationship are man and God in and what is our role in that relationship. Man is in a servant-master, creature-creator, child-father, wife-husband relationship with God. In all of these relationships, the lower-status person (us) is in submission to the higher-status person (God). Therefore, in order to grow in relationship with God, we must firstly submit our lives to him, and secondly do as he says. You want to grow in relationship with God? You want to transform your relationship from a dead faith to a living faith? Tell someone about Christ, feed the poor, love the lonely. This is what living faith looks like.
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