Faith Acts
James 2:14-19
Main Idea: Faith in our hearts is evident in the fruit of our lives.
I. Three Main Truths
A. Faith in our hearts is evident in the fruit of our lives (2:14).
B. People who fail to help poverty-stricken fellow believers are in fact not saved (2:15-17).
1. Acts of mercy are not means to salvation.
2. Acts of mercy are necessary evidence of salvation.
C. Ultimately, deedless faith is useless faith (2:18).
II. Three Key Conclusions (2:19)
A. Faith is not mere intellectual assent.
B. Faith is not simply an emotional response.
C. Faith involves willful obedience.
In this passage James converses with an imaginary person, a person who claims to have faith but has no deeds, a person who claims that you can separate faith from works. This was obviously a common thought among James’s readers, so he addresses it squarely and strongly. We need to walk through these verses carefully and patiently because the possibilities for misunderstanding here abound. We need to see clearly and accurately what Scripture is saying, and along the way we need to consider how these verses fit with the entirety of Scripture’s teaching on faith and works and how these verses radically challenge and change our lives.
Three Main Truths
There are three main truths in this passage, and in a sense each repeats this same basic reality: faith without works is dead (vv. 17,20,26). Now, what does it mean for faith to be dead? It means it doesn’t save (v. 14), it doesn’t justify us before God (v. 24). It is not alive. It is dead, which means it doesn’t really exist.
The noun faith appears 16 times in the book of James, 11 of which are in this passage (Stein, “Saved by Faith,” 4–19). In the five times the word faith is found outside of this passage, it is always used positively: 1:3,6; 2:1,5; 5:15. But of the 11 times it is used in this passage, eight are used in connection with this imaginary person who claims to have faith but has no deeds. The point of the passage is that this person doesn’t really have faith. He claims to have it, but he doesn’t. His so-called faith is dead and worthless. It does not save; quite literally, it does not work.8 Understanding this is important because James is not contrasting someone who has immature faith with someone who has mature faith, or someone who has nominal faith with someone who has authentic faith. He’s telling us that you either have faith that saves or you don’t—there’s no in-between.
Faith in Our Hearts Is Evident in the Fruit of Our Lives (2:14)
From the beginning in 2:14, James is saying it’s possible to claim to have faith but not actually have it—to claim to have faith but not be saved. So how do you know if someone has faith that saves? James tells us to look for fruit. Now, he’s not saying we need to add deeds to faith in order to be saved. He is saying that deeds are the fruit of faith, and that real, true, genuine faith produces fruit. This means that if there is no fruit, then clearly there is no faith. This is the same thing Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:
You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit. (Matt 7:16-20)
If you look at a tree with apples hanging from its limbs, you know it’s an apple tree. What is on the outside is evidence of what is on the inside. That’s what James is saying. Fruit in our lives is evidence of faith in our hearts. And if there is no fruit, there is no faith. It’s that simple. You will know faith by its fruit. This simple truth sets the stage for a jaw-dropping truth in verses 15-17 that is illustrated by a hypothetical situation.
People Who Fail to Help Poverty-Stricken Fellow Believers Are in Fact Not Saved (2:15-17)
This may sound harsh to some people, but is this not the clear truth of James 2:15-17? James mentions a brother or sister who is “without clothes and lacks daily food” (v. 15). In their poverty they don’t even have covering from the cold as they stand shamed and miserable. They literally don’t have “food for the day”; they’re starving because they are unable to sustain themselves. This is not mild need; this is dire, desperate need. And then you say to that person, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well” (v. 16). The language is a common benediction, even a prayer that you would say over someone: “Go in peace,” or “I pray you have a great day.” It’s shocking to think of saying to such a person, “Keep warm and well fed.” The verbs in this latter phrase are either in the middle or passive voice, which means they could be translated one of two ways: Either the person is saying, “Warm and feed yourself” (middle voice), as if he could, or “Stay warmed and well fed” (passive voice), which almost suggests that he already has all he needs.9 James asks of that kind of faith, “What good is it?” (v. 16). In the same way, faith like that does not help that other person in need; faith like that does not save your own soul (Blomberg and Kamell, James, 131).10 That kind of faith is dead. It’s not faith at all.
People who claim to be Christians but fail to help poverty-stricken fellow believers are in fact not saved. Their faith is dead. Now you can do cartwheels all around this text to try to find your way out of this truth, but it is there. Someone who responds like this to a brother or sister without clothes and daily food does not have faith that saves. This is exactly what 1 John 3:17 says: “If anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need—how can God’s love reside in him?” The implication is that it can’t.
Now two reminders are extremely important as we consider this second point made by James. First, acts of mercy are not means to salvation. We are not saved by what we do. James is not teaching that we are saved by our actions. He has already showed us this in 1:17-18,21; 2:5. James has made clear that faith is something God gives, not something we manufacture. This cannot be emphasized enough: We are saved by the abundant grace and glorious initiative of God. Acts of mercy are not means to salvation. We don’t help the poor in order to be saved. Rather than being the means to salvation, acts of mercy are necessary evidence of salvation. We might also call acts of mercy the natural overflow of salvation.
James never speaks of deeds we do in order to earn favor before God. That would be a works-righteousness approach to deeds. Instead, James always speaks of deeds as fruit produced by faith in Christ. This is simply a reiteration of the last truth, that the fruit of faith is mercy toward the poor. And if there is no mercy toward the poor, there is no faith. Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer Church in New York City, a church reaching out in mercy ministry across that city and around the world, said: “Mercy to the full range of human needs is such an essential mark of a Christian that it can be used as a test of true faith. Mercy is not optional or an addition to being a Christian. Rather, a life poured out in deeds of mercy is the sign of genuine faith” (Ministries of Mercy, 35).
Keller’s point and the point James has been making in this passage is crystal clear in Matthew 25:31-34:
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Did you catch that language? Jesus speaks of those who are “blessed by My Father” as those who will “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Do you feel the grace in these verses? God has blessed these people, and He has given them the kingdom prepared since the creation of the world. This is the mercy of God. But see how the mercy of God transforms what they do. Consider the first person pronouns in verses 35-36 and remember that this is Jesus talking:
For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink;
I was a stranger and you took Me in;
I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you took care of 11 Me;
I was in prison and you visited Me. (emphasis added)
Then listen to the response of the righteous in verses 37-40:
Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?”
And the King will answer them, “I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”
Ministering to a poor brother or sister in Christ is equated with ministering to Christ Himself. In a real way Christ is in that brother or sister to whom you are ministering in their need. So is it possible for a Christian to see Christ hungry and not feed Him? Is it possible for a Christian to see Christ thirsty and not give Him something to drink? Absolutely not. The overflow of the Christian’s heart is to serve, and the Christian’s external acts of mercy are clear evidence of the internal mercy of God in his heart.
Now see the other side of the picture in Matthew 25:41-46:
Then He will also say to those on the left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!
For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink;
I was a stranger and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of Me.”
Then they too will answer, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?”
Then He will answer them, “I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.”
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Those who do not feed the hungry or clothe the poor depart into eternal fire because their hearts have clearly not been transformed by mercy. These people lack faith in Christ, which their lack of mercy clearly demonstrates. Again, acts of mercy are not the means of salvation; they are the necessary evidence.
This point is so important because we must remember that guilt is not the motivation for caring for the poor. We don’t provide for the poor because we must. No, the gospel motivates us to care for the poor. We provide for the poor because we are compelled by the mercy of God that has radically transformed our hearts, and His mercy overflows from our lives. I love what Charles Spurgeon said about why the saints fed the hungry and clothed the naked in Matthew 25:
The saints fed the hungry and clothed the naked because it gave them much pleasure to do so. They did it because they could not help doing it, their new nature impelled them to it. They did it because it was their delight to do good. . . . They did good for Christ’s sake, because it was the sweetest thing in the world to do anything for Jesus. (Spurgeon, “The Final Separation,” 288)
This is faith, and if this fruit (the fruit of providing for the poor) is not evident in our lives, then it is clear that we do not have faith. People who claim to be Christians but fail to help poverty-stricken fellow believers are in fact not saved.
Ultimately, Deedless Faith Is Useless Faith (2:18)
All of this leads to the third and final truth in this passage, which is in a sense a reiteration of all that we have seen so far. James continues this dialogue and imagines someone separating faith and deeds. For example, some people are merciful toward the poor; others aren’t. People are just different. This imaginary “someone” James is talking about is trying to separate faith from deeds, and James says, “You can’t do it.” Works, deeds, and actions are not optional for those who have faith; they are inevitable. Your faith is nonexistent if there are no deeds.
In verse 20, James reiterates the point he has just shown us: “Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?” Faith without works is useless to your brother and sister who still have no clothes and no food. It is also useless to you because it cannot save you.
Three Key Conclusions
James makes three things about faith abundantly clear. First, faith is not mere intellectual assent. In verse 19 he says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.” Every Jewish man or woman believed the Shema12 in Deuteronomy 6:4: “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One.” The demons believe the Shema. Demons believe a lot of things that we believe—they believe in the existence of God, the deity of Christ, and the presence of heaven and hell. They know Christ is the eternal Judge, and they know that Christ alone is able to save. I fear that countless men and women have bought into the soul-damning idea that mere intellectual assent to the truth of God in Christ is enough to save, and the reality is that these people are no better off than the demons themselves.
Second, faith is not simply an emotional response. According to James 2:19, the faith of demons is not just intellectual but also emotional. The demons believe and they “shudder.” They are affected by the truth of God; they tremble at it. I wonder how many people define their faith today merely by the emotions they feel at any given time.
The third point James makes about faith is that faith involves willful obedience. You show your faith not just by what you think or by what you feel but by what you do. Faith acts. If your faith consists merely of listening to the Word, talking about the Word, or feeling a certain way about the Word, your faith is dead. Faith acts on the Word. Faith in our hearts is evident in the fruit of our lives.
Reflect and Discuss
8 Blomberg and Kamell point out the pun James uses here, as faith without works is referred to as “workless” (James, 136).
9 Blomberg and Kamell note that the use of the passive here—“be warmed and filled”—leaves us with the question, “How did the person in a position to help think the poor person would receive aid?” (James, 131). The works of Laws and Johnson are cited on this point (131): Laws refers to this phrase as a way of saying that one hoped God would supply the need, which according to Johnson makes this “reprehensible” as a “religious cover for the failure to act.” Sophie Laws, The Epistle of James, 121. Luke T. Johnson, The Letter of James, 239.
10 For more on the inadequacy of a faith that doesn’t meet the essential needs of fellow believers, see the discussion on 130–32.
11 The same word—episkeptomai—translated here as “took care of” is used in James 1:27 to speak of looking after orphans and widows.
12 The word shema is a transliteration of a Hebrew verb that means to hear or listen. It is the first word in the Hebrew of Deuteronomy 6:4.