James 2:14-26
1 Amens
James 2:14-26
Media-
Welcome- Chip
Time of thankfulness-
There are a number of things that we have to be thankful for this morning, a couple of things that I don’t want to let slip by without recognizing.
First, this community has been around for three years now- we hit that mark last month and didn’t really make a big deal about it- but that’s three years of God taking care of us, of taking care of each other, of learning together, growing together. I think we need to thank God for those three years.
And then, this space right here is Pub Number 3 for the evergreen community. And we’ve moved for the right reasons—outgrowing the spaces where we were. That deserves thankfulness. And we’ve maintained a relationship with the Lab that they have allowed us to do this crazy thing we do in every space they own. That deserves thankfulness. And even through moving all over town, we’ve managed to remain one community, together. And that deserves thankfulness.
And lastly- today is Mother’s Day- and I know that can be hard for some who have either lost a mom or had difficulty becoming a mom, or even had a tough and complicated relationship with Mom (and who doesn’t, yeah?). But whether we celebrate the fact that someone is a mom, or just celebrate all that our moms did for us, Mother’s Day is a good day to give thanks. So- let’s stand, I’ll pray for us and we’ll all give thanks to God.
Prayer- God, the source of all good things
Song-
We are in the middle of a journey through the New Testament book of James- a book probably written early in the 1st century by someone very close to Jesus- his half-brother, in fact. But whoever the writer is, he seems to flesh out much of what Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount, giving us what amounts to a very practical kick in the backside. James reads a bit like a lecture- “C’mon guys. Let’s get this right. Here’s what life in the way of Jesus looks like. It looks like being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, it looks like controlling your tongue, it looks like not favoring the rich over the poor…
And, as we’ll see today- it looks like letting your faith actually do something- actually move you to action. We generally try to have a lot of discussion on Sundays- I think most of that will happen towards the end today, so be patient…
I’d like to pray again before we start- can I do that?
(PRAYER)
We saw two weeks ago that James makes this very serious, very absolute statement: “If you claim to be religious, but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.”
What do you all think he means by worthless religion? What are the ways in which religion can be “worthless”?
Yes- worthless- of no real value to either the one holding that faith… or… to everyone else. Which does James mean? I have a feeling it’s a bit of both, but… I think we have good reason to believe from the context that James is talking more about the relationship of our faith, our “religion” to others… and that’s important because it helps us understand our passage for the morning, and kind of debunks the notion that Paul who writes we are saved by grace through faith and not by works and James who writes that faith without works is dead are somehow at odds. They aren’t.
He says (let’s read this together):
VS 14
This verse tends to be the biblical equivalent of a punch in the gut, doesn’t it? We read this and immediately think “Oh no- am I doing enough? AM I SAVED?”
And I think that’s partly what James wants us to ask. But maybe it should sound more like this: “Am I doing enough? Is anyone else being saved because of me?”
The problem is that we have tended to think of the Gospel, the good news about Jesus in such individualistic terms that we have trouble reading verses like this as talking about anyone BUT me.
And it seems like, in context, that James is talking about the fact that if I have a faith that doesn’t motivate action, I have a faith that is useless to all those around me, a faith that doesn’t save anyone, something James seems to assume we should be about. Let’s read this together:
VS 15-16
The statement “What good does it do” is parallel to, restating, meaning the same thing as “Can that faith save anyone?”
James, as he has been throughout the whole book, is getting our eyes of us. Off of OUR circumstances onto God, off of the importance of what we might have to say and onto listening to others… and off of our own selves and onto doing something that actually benefits someone else. So when you read this, don’t think first of yourself. Now- that doesn’t negate the idea that faith unaccompanied by any evidence whatsoever of being alive is probably dead… and dead faith doesn’t save anyone. But I think we’ve tended to read that too narrowly- as though it only means “Dead faith can’t save ME”. That’s true, but I wonder if James isn’t really getting at the fact that dead faith doesn’t save starving children. Dead faith doesn’t clothe anyone who really needs it. Dead faith is not interested in providing water for people without it, so their children could stop dying of diarhea. Dead faith won’t make a difference for any of them... And, so it probably won’t make a difference for us either. But I think it’s interesting that our thoughts often go first to me, and my condition. Seems like that might be part of the problem. He says:
Vs 17
Now, don’t misunderstand James- He’s not arguing that our standing before God is dependent on faith plus works. He’s saying that real faith, the kind of faith that makes a difference in your life and the life of those around you has a certain quality to it. Real faith works. Faux faith is content to be internal, about me, not doing anything and so no good to anyone.
VS 18
These are tough verses to understand- different translations handle it differently- but it seems like James is imagining someone talking to him who feels okay about splitting the issues of belief from the issue of action. “Some people have faith, others have good deeds.” In other words- I’m just not “called” to help people. I love worship, or I love spending time with God. I’m really glad for those who feel called to make a difference for others, but…
I remember someone who attended evergreen for awhile who wouldn’t sign up to help with set up or kids. I asked her what that was about and she said she had prayed about it, but didn’t feel led, didn’t feel a “peace” about it. Now I can understand praying about heading up something or more serious involvement, but c’mon… you don’t need to ask God if you should show up early every once in awhile to help your community or if you should hang with the kids every once in awhile. Don’t over-spiritualize things.
There are certain things you don’t have to pray about or feel called to do- things like acting like Jesus, feeding people when they are hungry and you can do something about it, helping meet a need that’s right in front of you…
James says that in terms of the everyday life of a person following Jesus, you can not split what we do from what we believe and in fact, one is shown, or not shown by the other.
VS19-20
In other words, you have a nuanced doctrinal statement- you know what the word “monotheism” means. Good for you. But knowing true facts about God and actually being on His side are two entirely different things.
VS 21-23
Shown to be right- shown to whom? To anyone looking. This is the heart of what James is getting at- this isn’t so much a treatise on how to get right with God. But it is a discussion of what someone who really is following Jesus, who really has faith in God looks like. The “how” is the same as in Paul’s letters: believe God. “Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” James’ emphasis is the next line “He was even called a friend of God.” Our standing before God is dependent entirely on faith- faith in the work of Jesus on our behalf. His sinless life, His death in my place, His resurrection. James is not arguing that placing faith on God is what saves us. He’s arguing that it has to be real faith. And he’s saying that real faith is the kind of faith that causes people to look at your life as they looked at Abraham’s and say “That person knows God.” Real faith answers the question “What good is it?”
The question that most people today are asking about your faith, about Christianity in general is not “Is it true?” We live in an increasingly postmodern world where that particular question, good as it is, seems to have less and less traction all the time. The real question that most people are asking is “Is it good?” Does it make you more loving, more caring, more like this Jesus guy that everyone seems pretty intrigued by. Or does it make you a jerk? Do you care more about the poor because of your faith in Jesus, or less? Do you treat others around you better, or worse?
The truth of our faith is shown more by our actions and the way it changes us and moves us to change the world than it is by arguments and apologetics. I’m not saying that there’s no place for that kind of thing- but James moves us to be more concerned with actions that demand a verdict than evidence that demands a verdict…. He says
VS 24-26
What James is about is “showing.” Showing that your faith matters, showing that you are in a real relationship with a God who is real and who has real concern for this world… What James really does is offer us a way to suss out- do I really believe the Good News?
When he asks the rhetorical question “Can that kind of faith save anyone” he makes the point that faith that does not motivate action and change is, in some way, defective. Now, be careful with that statement- it’s easy to take that personally and that’s not how it’s meant. When I say it’s defective, I don’t mean that someone doesn’t believe enough or well-enough, quantity and quality, though that may be the issue…
Faith is a by-product of the gospel that produces it. I want to suggest that if we have a defective faith, it is probably because someone, most likely someone doing what I am doing now, namely preaching to you, has given you a defective Gospel.
If I see someone who says they are a Christ follower and yet shows no discernable evidence of that in their life- not that one has to be perfect, but Jesus should make some practical difference, yeah? When I see that I ask “What kind of gospel would have been preached and responded to that would lead to that?” When we see churches that spend millions on huge buildings with marble countertops and not a whole lot on the needy, we should ask: “What kind of gospel would have been preached and responded to that would lead to that?”
What James is getting at is not so much a commitment problem, as though we’re just not into the Jesus thing enough. He’s getting at the heart of what we believe- the Gospel.
A lot of us grew up hearing and believing that the Gospel is: “Jesus came to die for my sins so I could go to heaven.” That’s a half-truth, really- a half-gospel... Because not only is it radically, tragically, individualistic but in that statement there is zero motivation to do anything, change anything, be anything other than maybe a slightly nicer version of what I already am, if even that. “Jesus came to die for my sins so I could go to heaven.”
There is nothing in that statement that would ever cause me to give a single thought about anyone else. And we wonder why so many people who call themselves followers of Jesus are just as selfish and self-centered and unmotivated to action in this world as anyone else.
The real Gospel is different- one shorthand way we refer to it here at Evergreen is to say that the Gospel is the Good News that God Himself has come to rescue and renew all of creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. See if I really get my mind around that, I recognize clearly that my salvation, my rescue and renewal is not my work… it’s Jesus’. But I also recognize very clearly that the point of the Gospel is not me in heaven. It’s the rescue and renewal of ALL things… and so I begin to see that everything I do- my conversations, the way I treat others, the way I take care of creation, the way I love people and show them Jesus- all of it, either cooperates with God’s purpose and work in the world, or actively fights it. But my life will show which Gospel I have believed…
One Gospel produces good church people- the kind who show up dutifully, suffer through the music and the sermon and go home unchanged and unconcerned only to come back the following week and repeat the whole thing.
But the other Gospel produces Jesus-following, world-loving activists- people who actively lean in- lean in to God’s Word, lean in to character change and being more like Christ and as a result of understanding the heart of God from Scripture and having their own hearts changed by the Holy Spirit, lean in to a needy world.
One Gospel produces people who judge their spirituality on how close they feel to God and whether or not they have had their quiet time that day. The other Gospel produces people who are hungry for God’s Word because they want to know the heart of God for the world in which they live, and they feel closest to God when they are actually participating in rescue and renewal- in serving their wife and kids, in feeding and clothing people, in loving their neighbors, in telling people about Jesus and how He has changed them.
See, when we understand what God has done for us, and what He wants to do for the world, when we really understand it, it changes us.
This is how James can say just a few verses before “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when He judges you.”
You being merciful to others shows that you truly have understood God’s mercy to you, that you truly have accepted God’s mercy to you, that you by God’s grace, will be shown mercy.
We in our richness, and we are rich, giving to those in need shows that we understand the grace of God, that He in His richness gave to us in our poverty, gave us the forgiveness and mercy we didn’t deserve and couldn’t earn. And if we refuse? If we do what James warns us about here and talk nice but do nothing? We show that we don’t really understand God’s grace to us. We show that we probably have believed a defective Gospel. We show that our faith is something other than living, breathing, active.
Your faith matters, right?… so let it matter. Let it matter to someone besides yourself. Let it move you to action.
Recognize that God out of His riches gave to you in your poverty and so do the same for others. Don’t show that you have no understanding of the Good News by not living it out, where you can, as you can, with the needs and situations God puts right in front of you.
Believe the Good News. Live the Good News. Embody it, be the Good News of Jesus to everyone around you.
Songs
Wrap Up- Doctrinal Questions/Practical questions…
Doxology and Blessing
Read MoreMedia-
Welcome- Chip
Time of thankfulness-
There are a number of things that we have to be thankful for this morning, a couple of things that I don’t want to let slip by without recognizing.
First, this community has been around for three years now- we hit that mark last month and didn’t really make a big deal about it- but that’s three years of God taking care of us, of taking care of each other, of learning together, growing together. I think we need to thank God for those three years.
And then, this space right here is Pub Number 3 for the evergreen community. And we’ve moved for the right reasons—outgrowing the spaces where we were. That deserves thankfulness. And we’ve maintained a relationship with the Lab that they have allowed us to do this crazy thing we do in every space they own. That deserves thankfulness. And even through moving all over town, we’ve managed to remain one community, together. And that deserves thankfulness.
And lastly- today is Mother’s Day- and I know that can be hard for some who have either lost a mom or had difficulty becoming a mom, or even had a tough and complicated relationship with Mom (and who doesn’t, yeah?). But whether we celebrate the fact that someone is a mom, or just celebrate all that our moms did for us, Mother’s Day is a good day to give thanks. So- let’s stand, I’ll pray for us and we’ll all give thanks to God.
Prayer- God, the source of all good things
Song-
We are in the middle of a journey through the New Testament book of James- a book probably written early in the 1st century by someone very close to Jesus- his half-brother, in fact. But whoever the writer is, he seems to flesh out much of what Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount, giving us what amounts to a very practical kick in the backside. James reads a bit like a lecture- “C’mon guys. Let’s get this right. Here’s what life in the way of Jesus looks like. It looks like being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to get angry, it looks like controlling your tongue, it looks like not favoring the rich over the poor…
And, as we’ll see today- it looks like letting your faith actually do something- actually move you to action. We generally try to have a lot of discussion on Sundays- I think most of that will happen towards the end today, so be patient…
I’d like to pray again before we start- can I do that?
(PRAYER)
We saw two weeks ago that James makes this very serious, very absolute statement: “If you claim to be religious, but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself and your religion is worthless.”
What do you all think he means by worthless religion? What are the ways in which religion can be “worthless”?
Yes- worthless- of no real value to either the one holding that faith… or… to everyone else. Which does James mean? I have a feeling it’s a bit of both, but… I think we have good reason to believe from the context that James is talking more about the relationship of our faith, our “religion” to others… and that’s important because it helps us understand our passage for the morning, and kind of debunks the notion that Paul who writes we are saved by grace through faith and not by works and James who writes that faith without works is dead are somehow at odds. They aren’t.
He says (let’s read this together):
VS 14
This verse tends to be the biblical equivalent of a punch in the gut, doesn’t it? We read this and immediately think “Oh no- am I doing enough? AM I SAVED?”
And I think that’s partly what James wants us to ask. But maybe it should sound more like this: “Am I doing enough? Is anyone else being saved because of me?”
The problem is that we have tended to think of the Gospel, the good news about Jesus in such individualistic terms that we have trouble reading verses like this as talking about anyone BUT me.
And it seems like, in context, that James is talking about the fact that if I have a faith that doesn’t motivate action, I have a faith that is useless to all those around me, a faith that doesn’t save anyone, something James seems to assume we should be about. Let’s read this together:
VS 15-16
The statement “What good does it do” is parallel to, restating, meaning the same thing as “Can that faith save anyone?”
James, as he has been throughout the whole book, is getting our eyes of us. Off of OUR circumstances onto God, off of the importance of what we might have to say and onto listening to others… and off of our own selves and onto doing something that actually benefits someone else. So when you read this, don’t think first of yourself. Now- that doesn’t negate the idea that faith unaccompanied by any evidence whatsoever of being alive is probably dead… and dead faith doesn’t save anyone. But I think we’ve tended to read that too narrowly- as though it only means “Dead faith can’t save ME”. That’s true, but I wonder if James isn’t really getting at the fact that dead faith doesn’t save starving children. Dead faith doesn’t clothe anyone who really needs it. Dead faith is not interested in providing water for people without it, so their children could stop dying of diarhea. Dead faith won’t make a difference for any of them... And, so it probably won’t make a difference for us either. But I think it’s interesting that our thoughts often go first to me, and my condition. Seems like that might be part of the problem. He says:
Vs 17
Now, don’t misunderstand James- He’s not arguing that our standing before God is dependent on faith plus works. He’s saying that real faith, the kind of faith that makes a difference in your life and the life of those around you has a certain quality to it. Real faith works. Faux faith is content to be internal, about me, not doing anything and so no good to anyone.
VS 18
These are tough verses to understand- different translations handle it differently- but it seems like James is imagining someone talking to him who feels okay about splitting the issues of belief from the issue of action. “Some people have faith, others have good deeds.” In other words- I’m just not “called” to help people. I love worship, or I love spending time with God. I’m really glad for those who feel called to make a difference for others, but…
I remember someone who attended evergreen for awhile who wouldn’t sign up to help with set up or kids. I asked her what that was about and she said she had prayed about it, but didn’t feel led, didn’t feel a “peace” about it. Now I can understand praying about heading up something or more serious involvement, but c’mon… you don’t need to ask God if you should show up early every once in awhile to help your community or if you should hang with the kids every once in awhile. Don’t over-spiritualize things.
There are certain things you don’t have to pray about or feel called to do- things like acting like Jesus, feeding people when they are hungry and you can do something about it, helping meet a need that’s right in front of you…
James says that in terms of the everyday life of a person following Jesus, you can not split what we do from what we believe and in fact, one is shown, or not shown by the other.
VS19-20
In other words, you have a nuanced doctrinal statement- you know what the word “monotheism” means. Good for you. But knowing true facts about God and actually being on His side are two entirely different things.
VS 21-23
Shown to be right- shown to whom? To anyone looking. This is the heart of what James is getting at- this isn’t so much a treatise on how to get right with God. But it is a discussion of what someone who really is following Jesus, who really has faith in God looks like. The “how” is the same as in Paul’s letters: believe God. “Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” James’ emphasis is the next line “He was even called a friend of God.” Our standing before God is dependent entirely on faith- faith in the work of Jesus on our behalf. His sinless life, His death in my place, His resurrection. James is not arguing that placing faith on God is what saves us. He’s arguing that it has to be real faith. And he’s saying that real faith is the kind of faith that causes people to look at your life as they looked at Abraham’s and say “That person knows God.” Real faith answers the question “What good is it?”
The question that most people today are asking about your faith, about Christianity in general is not “Is it true?” We live in an increasingly postmodern world where that particular question, good as it is, seems to have less and less traction all the time. The real question that most people are asking is “Is it good?” Does it make you more loving, more caring, more like this Jesus guy that everyone seems pretty intrigued by. Or does it make you a jerk? Do you care more about the poor because of your faith in Jesus, or less? Do you treat others around you better, or worse?
The truth of our faith is shown more by our actions and the way it changes us and moves us to change the world than it is by arguments and apologetics. I’m not saying that there’s no place for that kind of thing- but James moves us to be more concerned with actions that demand a verdict than evidence that demands a verdict…. He says
VS 24-26
What James is about is “showing.” Showing that your faith matters, showing that you are in a real relationship with a God who is real and who has real concern for this world… What James really does is offer us a way to suss out- do I really believe the Good News?
When he asks the rhetorical question “Can that kind of faith save anyone” he makes the point that faith that does not motivate action and change is, in some way, defective. Now, be careful with that statement- it’s easy to take that personally and that’s not how it’s meant. When I say it’s defective, I don’t mean that someone doesn’t believe enough or well-enough, quantity and quality, though that may be the issue…
Faith is a by-product of the gospel that produces it. I want to suggest that if we have a defective faith, it is probably because someone, most likely someone doing what I am doing now, namely preaching to you, has given you a defective Gospel.
If I see someone who says they are a Christ follower and yet shows no discernable evidence of that in their life- not that one has to be perfect, but Jesus should make some practical difference, yeah? When I see that I ask “What kind of gospel would have been preached and responded to that would lead to that?” When we see churches that spend millions on huge buildings with marble countertops and not a whole lot on the needy, we should ask: “What kind of gospel would have been preached and responded to that would lead to that?”
What James is getting at is not so much a commitment problem, as though we’re just not into the Jesus thing enough. He’s getting at the heart of what we believe- the Gospel.
A lot of us grew up hearing and believing that the Gospel is: “Jesus came to die for my sins so I could go to heaven.” That’s a half-truth, really- a half-gospel... Because not only is it radically, tragically, individualistic but in that statement there is zero motivation to do anything, change anything, be anything other than maybe a slightly nicer version of what I already am, if even that. “Jesus came to die for my sins so I could go to heaven.”
There is nothing in that statement that would ever cause me to give a single thought about anyone else. And we wonder why so many people who call themselves followers of Jesus are just as selfish and self-centered and unmotivated to action in this world as anyone else.
The real Gospel is different- one shorthand way we refer to it here at Evergreen is to say that the Gospel is the Good News that God Himself has come to rescue and renew all of creation through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. See if I really get my mind around that, I recognize clearly that my salvation, my rescue and renewal is not my work… it’s Jesus’. But I also recognize very clearly that the point of the Gospel is not me in heaven. It’s the rescue and renewal of ALL things… and so I begin to see that everything I do- my conversations, the way I treat others, the way I take care of creation, the way I love people and show them Jesus- all of it, either cooperates with God’s purpose and work in the world, or actively fights it. But my life will show which Gospel I have believed…
One Gospel produces good church people- the kind who show up dutifully, suffer through the music and the sermon and go home unchanged and unconcerned only to come back the following week and repeat the whole thing.
But the other Gospel produces Jesus-following, world-loving activists- people who actively lean in- lean in to God’s Word, lean in to character change and being more like Christ and as a result of understanding the heart of God from Scripture and having their own hearts changed by the Holy Spirit, lean in to a needy world.
One Gospel produces people who judge their spirituality on how close they feel to God and whether or not they have had their quiet time that day. The other Gospel produces people who are hungry for God’s Word because they want to know the heart of God for the world in which they live, and they feel closest to God when they are actually participating in rescue and renewal- in serving their wife and kids, in feeding and clothing people, in loving their neighbors, in telling people about Jesus and how He has changed them.
See, when we understand what God has done for us, and what He wants to do for the world, when we really understand it, it changes us.
This is how James can say just a few verses before “There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when He judges you.”
You being merciful to others shows that you truly have understood God’s mercy to you, that you truly have accepted God’s mercy to you, that you by God’s grace, will be shown mercy.
We in our richness, and we are rich, giving to those in need shows that we understand the grace of God, that He in His richness gave to us in our poverty, gave us the forgiveness and mercy we didn’t deserve and couldn’t earn. And if we refuse? If we do what James warns us about here and talk nice but do nothing? We show that we don’t really understand God’s grace to us. We show that we probably have believed a defective Gospel. We show that our faith is something other than living, breathing, active.
Your faith matters, right?… so let it matter. Let it matter to someone besides yourself. Let it move you to action.
Recognize that God out of His riches gave to you in your poverty and so do the same for others. Don’t show that you have no understanding of the Good News by not living it out, where you can, as you can, with the needs and situations God puts right in front of you.
Believe the Good News. Live the Good News. Embody it, be the Good News of Jesus to everyone around you.
Songs
Wrap Up- Doctrinal Questions/Practical questions…
Doxology and Blessing
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