What Is True Faith According To The Bible – This is the meaty passage of scripture that worries Christians. Doesn’t James contradict what Paul said? Paul says we are justified through faith by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8), but here James seems to be saying the opposite (James 2:24). What is happening?

Something. If our faith is inactive, it is like a dead body without a spirit (James 2:17). He repeats this in some form four different times, and the structure of his argument leaves his point.[1]

What Is True Faith According To The Bible

But does our faith really require works? What does it mean, and how can we accept it as true if we accept what Paul said as true?

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We will examine three aspects of James’s argument—first, his example of how we treat the poor, second, his argument about demons, and third, what he means by “justified.” When we look at each of these components of his argument, I think it is clear that James disagrees with Paul. Both agree that faith without action is not really faith. true faith

What good is it, brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can this faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the necessities of the body, what is that? So faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

For the Jewish people, care and concern for the poor was fundamental to fulfilling the commandment to love God and love others. We covered this a bit last week, and here again James reminds his readers that true faith works on behalf of the poor and oppressed. If we only say, “Good luck! I hope you find what you need!” But we do not help, it shows anemic and even dead faith.

Then the king will say to those standing on his right: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Thirsty and drink? And when did we see you a stranger and they welcomed you, or naked and we fell on you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and asked you? And the king will answer them: “Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:34 -40).

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Jesus then goes on to show the opposite of this scenario. There were those who did not feed, clothe, and sympathize with the “least of these.” There were those who failed to show the Kingdom of God through their treatment of others, especially the vulnerable. Jesus is not saying that our actions toward the poor and needy are what save us. But if our hearts are truly changed, we

God by His grace “raises the poor from the dust and the needy from the ashes” (Psalm 113:7). And as we’ve been talking about for the last two weeks, as followers of God, we have to show His character and His kingdom and admit that we ourselves are in need. God has been very kind and generous to us. Who are we to be anything else to others?

Throughout Scripture, God reveals His heart toward the needy and judges those whose hearts are hard toward them. He rejects empty religious rituals that are only for show. Our faith is truly confirmed by how we love God and how we love our neighbor.

Isaiah 58 captures this idea very beautifully. Verses 6-7 say, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of evil, to untie the bands of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to break every yoke? Is it not that you share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, do you cover it and not hide your flesh?

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Isaiah, Jesus, James, and others in the Bible remind us that true faith loves the poor and that love is manifested

. We will not wish the poor well and return to our comfortable homes. We help to provide, we serve, we feed, we clothe ourselves not from the top down, but with a humble heart that knows our God has done the same for us.

True faith means that our hearts have been changed, and a changed heart is manifested in action. Faith without demonstrable action is not true faith at all. He is dead, James tells us, as a body without a soul.

But someone will say: You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; You are doing well. Even demons believe – and tremble! Do you want to show you, fool, that faith apart from works is useless?

Bible Verses About Faith — What The Bible Says About Faith

James expects his argument to be rejected. He knows that his strong appeal will cause people to rebel. So he reminds his readers that even if they hold to the most fundamental Jewish creed, the belief that God is one, they clearly are not. They did not show true faith. The recognition that God is one was the most basic confession of Judaism, found in the Shema, and was adopted in early Christianity.[2]

The Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6. Shema is a Hebrew word that means “to hear.” Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord, is one.” Yahweh (God’s personal name often appears in English Bibles as “LORD” in all caps) is the one true God and there is no other. James reminds his readers that even demons believe this and tremble. Do we live differently from demons? Are we actually practicing this confession of faith?

The passage in Deuteronomy continues and commands the Israelites, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (6:5). The following verses and chapters describe Israel, who their God is, and what the lives of His chosen people looked like. In other words, even in Deuteronomy, they were not

Acknowledging that there is only one God. They had to obey his commands as they lived.

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Fast forward a few hundred years. One of the scribes (religious scholars) came to Jesus and asked him what the greatest commandment was.

Jesus answered: “The most important thing is: “Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one. And love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Last week we looked at the original commandment to love your neighbor found in Leviticus 19 and Jesus confirms this and Shema from Deuteronomy. Those two things are what it all boils down to. This is what it means to have faith – to love God and love your neighbor.

Of course, some wanted to know the technical question of who their neighbor really was. Jesus expands their argument with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Loving God and neighbor is like caring, serving, giving, helping others. It looks like

How Do We Know If We Have True Faith?

Demons don’t do that. They may know that there is only one God. But they do not put their faith into action, proving by their lifestyle that they love God and others.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he sacrificed his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith worked with his works, and faith was fulfilled by his works; And the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them another way? For as the body is dead without the spirit, so faith without works is dead.

This section can be confusing, and to be honest, it confused me quite a bit until I delved a bit more into the background of the text. Are we really justified by works, as it says here? How do we reconcile this with what Paul said?

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