| Author | Message | ||
| Bskillet Registered user Username: Bskillet Post Number: 467 Registered: 8-2008 |
In James 2, I read something interesting that showed me how poorly I understood that epistle before. James writes: When I was an Adventist, I used to think it read, "I have faith, and you have works. But James is identifying himself as the one who has faith, because someone else is saying, "You have faith, and I have works." Consequently, James says that because he has faith, he can demonstrate the power of his faith in his life. However, the person who claims, like a Pharisee, to have works, cannot actually point to any faith. Whatever works they have, they are not borne of faith, but of the flesh. So James says to them, "Show me your faith without works." The problem is, they cannot! A person who lives by works righteousness, by mere religious obligation and rote and emptying legal performance, cannot show any faith! James's audience was Jewish, so apparently in response to James, they were saying, "Well, we believe the shema." The shema is read to this day at the opening of every synagogue service. It is, "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One!" (Deut 6:5). James was like, "So you're monotheists. Big deal. Even the demons are monotheists." Their "faith" was only a head knowledge, so it could not form a foundation upon which their life was built. Thus, we find, when we mirror-read James' epistle, that they were claiming they were holy because they kept the Law of Moses, and thus were free to generally be pig-headed towards others, and give preference to the rich over the poor in Synagogue seating. What does James say? They were not lawkeepers. They could not be justified by the Law, because they were breaking it! | ||
| Skeeter Registered user Username: Skeeter Post Number: 133 Registered: 12-2007 |
That is a verse that has bothered me for some time... I have always understood it to mean that if we have faith it will be shown by our works instead of having only faith and no works to show that faith. Doesnt it also say somewhere that "faith without works is dead, being alone " ? | ||
| Bskillet Registered user Username: Bskillet Post Number: 468 Registered: 8-2008 |
Skeeter, if you follow the epistle, the audience was not living by the indwelling Christ (1:18,21). They were saying unloving things to the brethren, giving preference to the rich over the poor in their synagogues, and all the while claiming that they were fine because they kept the Law (2:8-11). James convicts them that they weren't living by "the Royal Law found in Scripture" which is to love others. This is the New Covenant command spoken of explicitly in 1 John 3 and 4,and this command John says isn't burdensome because the Holy Spirit gives it to the believer by His indwelling. Or as John says In fact, if you follow 1 John, you find his argument centers around the reality made real in us by the new birth and the indwelling of the Spirit. So, similarly, James is saying that his audience did not have works in the New Covenant sense. They said they had works, but they could not point to a faith. James is giving a sort of, "One one hand, but on the other hand." The works James is speaking of are borne of faith, not of the Law. | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 920 Registered: 7-2007 |
Bskillet, I agree. Those who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them are going to produce "fruit." The tree branch doesn't make fruit grow on it's twigs. It's connection to the tree does. Jesus said the same thing - to stay connected to Him, because without Him we can do nothing! Since people in a cult don't have the Holy Spirit, they try to substitute with their own works. |
