I thought I would be reading from the book of James, chapter 2, verses 14 through 26.
What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but have not works? Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and in lack of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; and yet ye give them not the things needful to the body; what doth it profit?
Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself.
Yea, a man will say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith apart from thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith.
Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe, and shudder.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works, in that he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?
Thou seest that faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect;
and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God.
Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by faith.
And in like manner was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works, in that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we ask that the light of Thy countenance will shine upon us, upon our hearts, that our hearts may be opened and filled with understanding, and that we may come to know Thy mind.
We do pray that Thou wilt breathe upon Thy Word again, make it living, and apply it to our lives. We commit this time into Thy hands, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
I have to say that this letter of James is very unique. It may very well be the first, the earliest, New Testament writing.
It is written by James. Now, who is this James? It cannot be James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, because he was killed by King Herod around A.D. 44. Neither can it be James the son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve apostles, because that James is a rather obscure person.
We believe that this James is James, the brother of the Lord. In Acts 12, when Peter was released from prison by the angel, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark. Before he left, he said, “Go and tell James and the brethren.” This James was James, the brother of the Lord.
This James, the brother of the Lord, was a very devout person. Tradition even says that he was a Nazarite. He was a very godly Jewish person, zealous in keeping the law of Moses. He lived a very righteous life, so they called him James the Just.
But it is very strange that, while our Lord was living, His brothers could not believe that He was the Messiah, the Christ. Somehow, James was so bound by the law and by the tradition of the fathers that, even though he must have been deeply impressed by what he saw and heard from his brother, he could not believe.
Outwardly, he seemed to be such a righteous person. Yet I do not doubt that deep down within his heart there must have been a sense of emptiness, a sense of unfulfillment. As he looked upon his brother, our Lord Jesus, I can imagine how much he longed that he might have what his brother had: that liberty, that glorious liberty, which he could see in the life of Jesus.
But somehow, he could not break the barrier. He was bound.
It is very possible that the death of our Lord Jesus made such a deep impression upon James that he began to believe in the Lord. You know, when our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, there was a centurion, an officer who watched the whole thing. When he saw the Lord Jesus die on the cross, he said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
His death was so unique, so majestic, so glorious, that it moved the heart of a Roman centurion to say, “This is the Son of God.” If this happened to the Roman centurion, I believe it must have happened to James the Just.
After the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, He appeared to James. This is in 1 Corinthians 15. We do not know why the risen Lord appeared to His brother James, but somehow this appearing of the Lord sealed his faith.
Very soon, we find James becoming one of the three pillars in the church in Jerusalem: Peter, John, and James. In Acts 15, at the council in Jerusalem, he was the person who gave the final word. When Paul visited Jerusalem for the last time, James seemed to be the leading brother in the church in Jerusalem.
Even the Jewish historian Josephus wrote concerning his death. He spoke of James the Just, the brother of Jesus called Christ. During the interval between the death of Festus and the arrival of the governor Albinus, the high priest seized James and some others, accused them of violating the law of Moses, and had them stoned to death.
James was greatly respected, not only by the Christians, but by the Jews in general. The leading citizens, including the Pharisees, protested to King Agrippa and had the high priest deposed. So you can see what kind of person this James was.
He wrote this letter to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion. The twelve tribes refer to the tribes of Israel, and the Dispersion means that the Jewish people had been scattered throughout the world.
The twelve tribes in the Dispersion simply means those Jewish people who were scattered and lived outside Palestine, their homeland. Naturally, James was not writing to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion in general. He wrote particularly to those Jews who had been scattered throughout the world but had believed in the Lord Jesus.
How did this come about? Probably it began on the day of Pentecost. Many devout Jews came from all over the world to Jerusalem to worship God. There they heard the message concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and many came to the Lord.
Among the three thousand, there must have been many who came from the Dispersion. Because of the persecution that happened later, they returned to where they had come from, carrying the gospel to all these places. Many came to the Lord through their preaching.
So here you are: scattered throughout the world were Jewish people who had come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. It was to these people that James addressed himself.
In a sense, it was a most proper thing to do. James himself had once been zealous for the law, and then he came to know the Lord in a very real way. He was the leading brother in the church in Jerusalem. It was natural for such a person to write a letter to Jewish believers scattered throughout the world.
In God’s sovereignty, God used James as a special vessel during the transitional period from Judaism to Christianity, from law to grace.
Even though this letter was written by James to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion, we believe this letter is for us too. Spiritually speaking, we may say that we are the twelve tribes in the Dispersion—not physically, but spiritually—because all those who believe in God and believe in the Lord Jesus, as believing Abraham did, are the children of Abraham.
Abraham had two kinds of seed. His seed would be as the stars in the heavens and as the sand upon the seashore. The Jewish people, the twelve tribes of Israel, are as the sand upon the seashore—the physical seed of Abraham. But we who believe in the Lord Jesus are the spiritual seed of Abraham, as the stars in heaven.
Today we are in the Dispersion. We are not yet in our homeland. We are scattered all over the world. So, in that sense, we can say this letter is addressed to us, and we can learn much from it.
People can be easily influenced, and they may be influenced in the wrong way. Martin Luther once said that this letter, compared with the epistles of Paul and other writings in the New Testament, was a “straw epistle.” He felt that it lacked evangelical substance.
Because of what Luther said, people got the mistaken idea that this letter was of little value. Martin Luther loved the letter to the Galatians so much that he called it his “Catherine von Bora,” his wife. He used Galatians as his sword in the Reformation. But when he looked at James, he could not understand it. He said, “It is made of straw. I cannot fight with this letter.”
Why? It is because Martin Luther emphasized so much justification by faith. He thought that this letter of James taught the law of God.
But, brothers and sisters, I hope you know better. There is absolutely no contradiction between Paul and James. On the contrary, the writings of Paul and the writing of James are complementary.
It is true that Paul emphasizes justification by faith in Romans and in Galatians, because this is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also true that, when you read the letter of James, it seems that he emphasizes justification by works.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we must remember what faith is. What is faith? Faith is not only believing; faith is also working. In faith there is an aspect of believing, but there is another aspect of working.
We must believe—that is true. But if that belief is real, it has to work.
Paul was dealing with the Gentiles. He wanted them to see that a person is not justified by the works of the law. At that time, some Jewish legalists were going around telling people, “You believe in the Lord Jesus, fine; but you have to be circumcised, and you have to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved.”
Paul said no. No one can be saved by works. No one can be saved by keeping the law of Moses, because no one can do it. We are saved by grace through faith, by believing in the finished work of Christ. We are justified by faith.
But James deals with another kind of person. He is not dealing primarily with the Gentiles; he is dealing with Jews—Jews who had tried to keep the law and failed, and who had now come to see the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
What James tried to tell them was this: “Now you have believed in the Lord Jesus. Prove your faith by works, that your faith may be proven and perfected.”
There is no contradiction. We must first believe. But after we have believed, our faith needs to be perfected and proven by works.
Paul’s emphasis concerns our standing before God: how can we be justified before God? Not by works, but by faith.
James’s emphasis is different. He is trying to show us how we can be justified before the world. To be justified before men, we have to prove our faith. Paul and James are complementary, and there is absolutely no contradiction.
If we really want to know this letter, we need to know a little more about the background. James was once a very devout Jew, zealous in keeping the law. What happened when he came to know the Lord Jesus?
Outwardly, there did not seem to be any great change. James was a good person. After he believed in the Lord Jesus, there did not seem to be much change as far as outward appearance was concerned.
Is this not true? If you were a so-called good man or good woman before you believed in the Lord Jesus, you were not an outright sinner, as it were. After you believe in the Lord Jesus, perhaps the world does not see too much change in your life.
But if you were a downright sinner, then when you were saved, you changed a great deal in their sight. Here was James: he was a just man before, and after he believed in the Lord Jesus, he was still just. There did not seem to be much change outwardly.
But, dear brothers and sisters, there was a tremendous transformation within him. Even though there was not much change in his outward conduct, in reality there was a tremendous transformation.
He was delivered and liberated from the bondage of the letter of the law. Once he was bound by the letter of the law. He tried to keep every letter of the law. He was a slave to the law of Moses.
But now he was completely free from that bondage. He was in the liberty of the sons of God.
Because of the life of Christ in him, he lived in liberty. He lived according to the law of the Spirit of life. He was proving his faith by the works he did.
There is a great difference. Outwardly, there does not seem to be much difference, but inwardly there is a great difference. The source is different.
In the past, he tried to keep the letter of the law by himself. Outwardly, he seemed to succeed. They called him the Just. But he knew better.
After he came to know the Lord Jesus, the source of his just life was no longer from himself, but from a living faith—from his faith in the Son of God. To put it another way, it was no longer James who lived; it was Christ who lived in him.
Because Christ was living in him, he lived a just and righteous life. A tremendous difference: the source was different.
The people to whom he wrote were probably, in the past, zealous for the law. If you are a devout Jew, you must be zealous for the law. But they all knew they could not keep the law. They felt an emptiness and dissatisfaction in their hearts.
When they heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, they entered into such liberty. They were delivered from the bondage of the law into the marvelous grace of God. What a transformation that must have been.
But they had a real temptation. The temptation was this: “Now we are free from the law. We will throw the law out the window. Now we can live in freedom and liberty. Hallelujah!”
The result was that they lived careless lives, bringing reproach to the name of the Lord. They thought that because they were free, and because it was all grace, there was no law.
Brothers and sisters, do we not have the same temptation? We can go to extremes, especially new believers, especially those who have first tasted the liberty in Christ and the good grace of God.
Suppose you were under the law all your life. You tried to keep the law. You tried to do the right thing. You tried to save yourself by good works. You were under bondage, under a heavy burden all the time.
Then one day you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and you see that it is not by works, because your works are as filthy rags. They cannot please God. They cannot save you. You are delivered from dead works. You have a living faith in Jesus Christ, and you begin to worship God.
How wonderful! What liberation you have! But you have the same temptation, because you find that you are free. You think you are free to do whatever you want.
It is to address this problem that James wrote this letter.
When you read the letter of James, do you not have the feeling that this letter corresponds to some books in the Old Testament? What books come to your mind?
This letter of James looks like a wisdom book. It seems to correspond in style with Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and those wisdom books in the Old Testament. In style, it is very similar. That is why it is very difficult to analyze the book of James, because it is full of proverbs.
But there is a great difference. Even though outwardly it looks like Proverbs, inwardly it comes from a different source. It comes from above.
When you read the book of James, you will notice that there is much similarity between James and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7. I hope you will compare these two, because you will find so many similarities.
James, being a brother of our Lord, grew up with Him. They must have been very close. Somehow, after James came to the Lord, the words of the Lord seemed to fill his heart and mind. When he wrote this letter, it corresponded very much with the Sermon on the Mount by our Lord Jesus.
Now, what is the Sermon on the Mount? Some people think that the Lord Jesus was giving us a new law, a new set of laws, even higher than the law of Moses. They do look higher.
If this is the case, who can keep such a law? If the Jewish people could not keep the law of Moses, how can Christians keep the law of the Sermon on the Mount? Unless our righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Who can do that? Nobody can.
The Sermon on the Mount is not our Lord Jesus trying to give us a new set of laws. The Sermon on the Mount is our Lord Jesus describing the kind of life that the sons of the kingdom are to live.
How will the sons of the kingdom of heaven live? They will live this kind of life. Why? Because this is the way He lives, and He lives in you and in me.
That is the Sermon on the Mount. It is not law, strictly speaking; it is still grace. If you want to call it law, it is the royal law of love, the law of liberty, the law of the Spirit of life.
It is the life of Christ in those who are disciples of Him. Those people who let the life of Christ live in and through them will live in this way.
The same thing is true of the letter of James. James is not giving us more laws, more regulations, or more rules for Christians to keep. The letter of James simply describes to us the kind of life we should live as believers, and what good works should be exhibited before the world so that our faith may be proven and perfected.
Brothers and sisters, it is true: we are not saved by works. Not only are our works as filthy rags in the sight of God—even our righteousness, the things we think are right, good, and best—when we present the best of our works before God, they are as filthy rags.
They cannot cover our nakedness before God. They are filthy. They cannot stand before Him.
Not only are they as filthy rags, but the Bible says that all the works by which we try to justify ourselves are dead works. They are dead because they are done by dead people. Our spirits are dead. Therefore, works done by dead people are dead works.
They do not give us life before God. We have to be delivered from our dead works—not only to see that our works are no good, but to be delivered from depending upon them.
If you still depend upon your dead works, you will never come to the Lord Jesus. Give up your dead works. Then receive the grace of our Lord. We are justified by grace through faith, and this is not of ourselves; it is the gift of God.
But the question is: after you have been justified by faith, then what?
Is it because you are not justified by works but by faith that God will never require any works from you? Is it because you are saved by grace that you do not need to live a lawful, ethical, moral life?
Does it mean that because you are justified by grace and saved by faith, you can simply be free and do anything you like? After all, you are saved. You will go to heaven no matter what you do afterward. Is that it?
Unfortunately, there is such a misunderstanding among Christians. This misunderstanding began with the Reformation. Before the Reformation, people thought they had to be justified by works, and they could not be.
At the Reformation, works were thrown out the window, and faith was emphasized: “We are justified by faith.” Then there was a swing to the other extreme: “No more works. That is it.”
Even to this day, believers are still under this kind of misunderstanding. We know we are not saved by works, but then we think that after we are saved, God does not require good works from us.
The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved by grace through faith. But then, in verse 10, he says:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.
It is true that you are saved by grace through faith. But after you are saved, God has created you as a new creation for good works—the works He prepared beforehand for you to do.
Before you are justified by faith, your works are no good because they cannot justify you before God. They cannot save you, bring you to heaven, or release you from sin.
But after you are justified by faith, now you are in the Lord. You are a child of God. You are a son of the kingdom of heaven. You have the life of Christ in you. This life which has been given to you is able to please God and to do His will.
Perhaps you ask, “Why should I do good works? I am saved. I will go to heaven anyhow. If I try to do good works, I have to suffer. I have to pay a cost. Why not just take the good of this world? I believe in the Lord Jesus, I will go to heaven, and meanwhile I can enjoy the world.”
Very clever. It seems very logical. We are justified by faith, saved by grace, and we will go to heaven. Then why work? Naturally, we are all lazy people.
Well, brothers and sisters, it is true that you are justified by faith through grace. Heaven is a gift of God. Eternal life is a gift of God.
But you forget that before eternity comes, after the end of this age, there will be another age of one thousand years. It is called the kingdom. God shall establish His kingdom upon this earth, where Christ shall reign over this earth for one thousand years.
This is offered to the children of God, who are justified by faith, as a reward. Heaven is a gift. The kingdom is a reward.
The gift is freely given to those who believe. But the reward is only for those who work for it.
A thousand years is a thousand years. Today you may live a hundred years, but compared with a thousand years, it is only one tenth.
No matter what honor, glory, or pleasure in the world you may receive today, in comparison with the reward in the kingdom—the crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory, reigning with Christ—nothing can be compared with it.
James says to believers in the Lord Jesus: “Do you think that because you are delivered from the law, you can live an immoral, unlawful, unethical life? Because you are saved, you are free?”
Because you have a new life in you, you have to live a higher life. You have to live a heavenly life. You have to live a spiritual life. You have to live a life that glorifies God.
You have to prove that your faith is living and real by your good works, doing the will of God so that God may be glorified. If you do that, one day He will reward you with the crown of life.
This is the message that James addressed to these Jewish believers, and I believe that in our day this is the kind of message we need to hear.
As I mentioned before, since the Reformation—thank God for the Reformation and its clear teaching on justification—Christianity has been under a kind of misunderstanding. People do not know what comes after justification by faith. What does God require? What is this life given to us for? Is there any way in which we can glorify God?
This is what we find in the letter of James.
There are certain books in the New Testament called the Catholic Epistles: James, Peter, John, and Jude. They are called Catholic Epistles because they are not addressed to only one church. They are written by the apostles for general reading.
These letters address themselves to the matter of the salvation of the soul and the kingdom. There is a kingdom, and you are called to live as a son of the kingdom. If you live today as a son of the kingdom, one day you will reign as a king in the kingdom of God.
Having laid this groundwork, let us take up some of the practical matters in James. James applies the principle of faith to our practical daily living. In James we see Christ in a working faith. We see Christ in faith that works.
How does this faith that we confess work in our daily life?
First, there is the matter of temptation. Brothers and sisters, temptation is something we confront every day.
It is true that God never tempts a person, nor can He be tempted. God never tempts you. If you are tempted, you are tempted by the evil one.
There is a great difference between temptation and testing. God tests us, but God never tempts us. Tests come from God; temptations come from the enemy.
The purpose of temptation is to draw out the lust of the flesh within us, that we may sin. The purpose of testing is to bring out what God has already deposited within us, that it may be purified and strengthened.
God never tempts any person. The enemy, the evil one, tempts us. He tries to draw out the lust of the flesh within us, and when he succeeds in bringing that out, then we sin.
God has not promised that we will not be tempted. But God does promise that His grace is sufficient for us. Do not think that we who believe in the Lord Jesus will not be tempted. No, you will be tempted.
Even our Lord Jesus, when He was a man on earth, was tempted in all things, yet without sin, that He might be a sympathetic and merciful High Priest unto us, to succor us and give us grace in time of need.
Temptation is inevitable. The enemy will use the world to tempt you. The enemy will use pleasure to tempt you. The enemy will use all kinds of things, events, and people to tempt you.
But that does not mean you have to yield to temptation. If you yield to temptation, then you sin. But if you are tempted and endure temptation, you will be strengthened and perfected.
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation.” What does the word endure mean? Simply, if temptation comes to you with the strength of ten pounds, you endure the ten pounds because you can endure eleven pounds.
Or, if temptation comes for ten days, you are able to endure it for eleven days. You are overcoming. You do not yield to it.
If you endure temptations, the result is character. Christ’s character will be built up within you, and you will be perfected and complete.
Temptation can either weaken you or strengthen you. If you try to meet temptation on your own, you will be defeated. But if you meet temptation in Christ, by His life and through His grace, you will find that you can endure, and you will receive the crown of life.
In other words, your life will increase. Your spiritual life will increase.
Brothers and sisters, do we profess faith in Christ Jesus? If you profess faith in Christ Jesus, then when temptation comes, why do you try to meet temptation on your own? Is it not that you are acting without faith?
If your faith is real, then you meet temptation in Christ and with Christ. When you meet temptation with Christ, patience will work. This is faith that works. This is living faith.
I think I have to tell you the story again of that little girl. After she believed in the Lord Jesus, she was so joyful in the Lord. One day a man tried to tempt her and said, “Well, little girl, you believe in the Lord Jesus, and you are happy in the Lord?”
She said, “Yes, I am happy in the Lord.”
He said, “Suppose Satan comes to your door, knocks on your door, and says he wants to come in. What do you do? You are only a little girl.”
The little girl said, “When Satan knocks on the door and wants to come in, I turn to the Lord and say, ‘Lord, will You please open the door?’ The Lord opens the door, and when Satan sees the Lord, he says, ‘Excuse me, I knocked on the wrong door.’”
That is faith that works, brothers and sisters. This is living faith. How do you live? Do you live by faith? If you live by faith, you have to prove it by works: you will not yield to temptation, but you will endure it.
The second matter is pure religion. This is the only place in the Bible where you find the word religion. We have a very bad feeling about the word religion in the world, and no doubt James had the same feeling.
What is religion? The Greek word really means the external things: ceremonies and all those things that are supposed to be religious.
Religion is a ritual. Religion is the outward form of worship. Religion is listening to something religious, but when you go out, you forget all about it. That is religion.
James compares pure religion with religion. Pure religion is different. Pure religion is a living faith that works.
When you hear the Word, you are like one going before a mirror. You see your face in a mirror, and then when you leave, you forget everything. That is religion.
But what is pure religion? Pure religion is that you look into the mirror, you fix your eyes upon Christ, and you abide in Him. You find that you are being transformed by Him, and He begins to live out His life through you.
You are not merely a hearer, but a doer. That is pure religion. Pure religion is that you live by the law of liberty.
Because my time is up, let me mention the matter of the tongue. Brothers and sisters, James says our tongue is the smallest member of the body, and yet it can do great damage. Who does not know that?
Man can tame everything in the world. If you go to a circus, you can see men taming lions, elephants, and all kinds of animals. But James says, “Who can tame the tongue?”
If anyone can control his own tongue, he is perfect.
As a matter of fact, if you read the context, the way James begins this matter of the tongue is by warning teachers: “Be not many teachers.” We all like to be teachers, and of course teachers use the tongue a great deal.
James warns us not to become many teachers, because we cannot control our tongues.
The one thing that the rich man suffered most from in Hades was his tongue. You remember that he called to Abraham, “Send Lazarus to put a little water on my tongue.” Why? Because his tongue suffered most.
As a rich man, he could say anything he wanted, and nobody dared to say otherwise. That is the privilege of the rich. So he sinned a great deal with his tongue.
Brothers and sisters, how about our tongues? If we cannot control our tongues, our godliness is vain.
One of the biggest problems in the world is the problem of the tongue, and one of the biggest problems in the church is the problem of the tongue. A tongue can hurt more than a sword.
Thank God, there is One whom we cannot control, but He can control us. He is able to set a watch over our mouths, so that whatever comes from our tongues may glorify God. There will not be bitter water and sweet water coming out at the same time.
Practical Christian living is to glorify God with our tongues. That is faith. Without faith it cannot be done. It is only by believing Him that He is able to control our tongues.
Then there is another matter: wisdom. Ah, we need wisdom. James says there are two kinds of wisdom: wisdom from beneath and wisdom from above.
The wisdom from beneath is full of jealousy, envy, party spirit, and divisions. But the wisdom from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy.
James especially emphasizes the meekness of wisdom. I like that term: the meekness of wisdom.
If you are worldly wise, what kind of wisdom is that? It is proud wisdom. You keep your wisdom and you are proud.
But if you have wisdom from above, you find the meekness of wisdom.
If you are really wise, you know you are but dust. You dare not depend upon yourself. You depend upon the Lord all the time.
You dare not judge your brothers and sisters, because you know you have a Judge who will judge you one day. Even if you plan to go to another place to do business, you dare not say, “Tomorrow I will go to such a city, stay there for one year, make a profit, and come back.”
If you have real wisdom, you have meekness. You say, “If the Lord wills, I may go here or there and do certain things.” In other words, you dare not depend upon yourself. If you are really wise, you depend upon the Lord completely. That is meekness of wisdom.
Let me conclude. James says that if you live in this world, you will find all kinds of circumstances. Sometimes you are happy, sometimes you are sorrowful, and sometimes you are sick. That is the way life on this earth is. Do not be surprised.
But when you are in various circumstances, how do you react?
He says, “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray.” If you find everything going wrong, what do you do? Murmur? It will not help you. You pray.
“Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.” If you are very happy, what do you do? Sing songs. Thank the Lord. Praise the Lord, because happiness comes from Him.
A person can fall more easily in happy, smooth, prosperous, favorable circumstances than a person in adverse and difficult circumstances. Why? Because when you are happy, you can forget God.
So pray. Sing songs. If you are sick, call for the elders of the church. Confess to one another and pray for one another, and the prayer of faith will raise up the sick.
There is provision for every circumstance. Why? It is Christ. Faith in this Christ must work itself out.
Faith without works is dead. But the work is not the work of the flesh. The work is the work of faith. It is by works that our faith is perfected.
Finally, in the last two verses, James says:
My brethren, if any among you err from the truth, and one convert him;
let him know, that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins.
Remember, this is addressed to believers. The one who errs from the truth is a believer. He may think that because it is all grace, he can do anything he likes; so he errs from the truth.
Bring him back. If you bring back a sinner—the sinner here referring to a believer who has fallen into sin—and bring him back from the error of his way, you save his soul. This is the salvation of the soul.
May the Lord help us.
Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that by Thy Holy Spirit Thou wilt speak to our hearts. Clarify any misunderstanding, error, or wrong concept that we may have.
We pray that we may see that we are not only justified by faith, but that we need to be justified by works before the world. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt enable us, as Thy new creation, to do Thy good will to the praise of Thy glory.
We commit ourselves to Thee for the Spirit’s working in us until Thy work is completed. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.