FAITH AND DEEDS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’”

“Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”

“You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”

“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.”

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.”

James 2:14-26, 3:13

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Faith.

It’s something that most people possess but what that faith is placed in can vary dramatically.

Some people place all their faith themselves. They feel so self assured that there’s no need to redirect their faith in anyone else.

Some people place their faith in other people sometimes to the place of dependency. These people are the polar opposite of the self confident people. They see their inadequacies and adopt an attitude of reliance, seeking people to do for them what they can’t do for themselves.

Still other people place their faith in material things, like their money, job, or possessions, a dangerous proposition because all material things can be fleeting, here today and gone tomorrow.

And then there are those who place their faith in a higher power, a spiritual power they see as far greater than themselves. This is the premise for almost all of the world’s religions and it is certainly central to Christianity. Christians realize they are sinners who fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) and therefore deserve His judgment. They see themselves as helpless and on the road to eternal damnation unless a higher power steps in to save them. God sent that higher power in the form of the Savior Jesus Christ and only faith and belief in Him can bring a person to salvation. No one or nothing else can but Him.

In saying this, you can see where it’s absolutely useless and foolish to invest your faith in anything but Jesus. And yet, people misallocate their faith daily, sometimes to a fault.

But note that it’s just not good enough in God’s sight to have faith in Jesus. We need to put our faith to work and let our deeds show the evidence of our Christ-centered faith. This is clear as we look at our scripture passage for today.

There we learn that faith and deeds go hand and hand together. Our faith leads us to serve the needs of other and to do good unto them and, in turn, those deeds help others see the faith that is in us, especially since they open up doors for us to testify about the goodness of our Lord who purposes and equips us to do good works in accordance with His will.

Speaking to a predominantly Jewish audience, we find James use two prominent Old Testament examples to drive his point home regarding the inseparable relationship between faith and deeds.

Abraham had great faith. God commanded him to leave his country and everything behind to go to a land unknown. Abraham didn’t question God. Instead he went and God blessed him for his righteousness which was grounded in faith. Still, this wasn’t enough. God put Abraham to the greatest test possible to see just how deep his faith ran, ordering Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Think about that for a minute. You have a child you love dearly, your own flesh and blood, and God tells you to put them to death.

Could you do it? Would you be willing to let your deeds show your faith?

It’s extremely difficult and gut wrenchingly scary. But Abraham, unwilling to be obedient to God no matter the cost, took his son, made a makeshift altar, and was just about to sacrifice him as God commanded before the Lord stopped him and brought a ram onto the scene as a substitutionary sacrifice. Isaac was spared from death and Abraham was spared from carrying out the human sacrifice but only after he had shown his faith by way of his deeds.

And then there was Rahab the prostitute. You’ll remember that after Moses’ passing, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites, the one chosen by God to lead His people into Canaan.

Before he led the Israelites across the Jordan River, Joshua sent two spies to do surveillance on the land and they found themselves in the home of Rahab. When the king of Jericho got wind that the spies had entered his territory, he sent a message to Rahab asking for her to hand the spies over. But Rahab didn’t do it. Instead, she hid the two Israelites on the roof of her home and then reported that the spies were no longer there, having seized an opportunity to flee. Believing her story, the men sent by the king of Jericho went out of the city in pursuit of the spies, unbeknownst they had not escaped at all.

The scriptures tell us that Rahab went to the spies and professed her belief in God, knowing that His presence was with the spies and the Israelites, and that the land she inhabited was destined to be theirs. Before helping them to escape their pursuers by dropping a rope out her window which just so happened to be located on the city wall, all Rahab asked was that the Israelites would show kindness and mercy to her family when they did invade and take over the land. And as we know from God’s word, that’s exactly what happened.

Rahab believed in God. She had faith that God could do whatever He wanted to include show grace to her and her family after He had given her land over to the Israelites. But note she didn’t just rest on her faith without deeds. Instead, she allowed herself to serve God by protecting the men He had dispatched to survey the land before He gave it to them.

Both Abraham and Rahab showed faith that was alive and it was their deeds that provided the evidence of this. In them, we see wonderful examples to follow in our own life. But as great as these two Old Testament figures were, they pale in comparison to Jesus, the only One who was perfect in His faith and therefore perfect in the deeds He carried out in His Father’s name. Jesus’ world was never about Himself. Rather, it always was about others as He carried out His Father’s business.

Friends, if we are truly to be considered wise and understanding, we need to show it through our unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and the God who sent Him, reinforcing that faith with our good deeds, deeds done through the guidance of our Lord with the sole intent of bringing Him glory. Jesus showed us the way to this kind of humble life that honors and glorifies our Lord.

All we need to do is follow His lead.   

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com