I have been mulling over James' idea for a while. If I were to give you my gold star, Sunday school response, I would say: simple, James is encouraging us to live out our faith. Talk the talk, and walk the walk.
I know this to be true: that God loves me, sent His son to atone for my sins, and wants to call me His child because of who He is. It has nothing to do with getting good grades, attending Sunday School every week, or of any of the times I went Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF.
However, James is giving some stellar relationship advice. I wonder if he knew?
I try to be good about telling my family and friends that I love them. I think there are people in my life that also simply know that I love them, even if I can't tell them every day. I know that my parents love me, even if we go a few days without communicating. And we could go on like that, in all of our relationships, just telling each other we love each other. Just loving each other.
But there you have it: I didn't get through that last paragraph without using love as a verb in every context. It is an action. A few weeks ago at my church, Pastor Stacee talked about Agape, Godly love, the kind of love that gives. Giving is active. God's love is active.
Love is active. Faith is active. Belief is active. When Jesus asks us to believe that He is the way the truth and the life, He is asking us not just to profess it from our mouths but from our hearts. Belief does not sit silently or passively, belief gets up and goes.
So what brings life to our earthly relationships? Is it the thread of text message conversations? The collection of snapchats? I don't think so. It is the times when they show up at your recitals or sporting events. It is the times where they help you run an errand. It is the times when they lend an ear to listen. You could just simply say that you are friends - but by giving, by being actively invested in the relationship, the relationship comes alive!
When I read the faith without works passage, that is what speaks to me: Jesus loves me because of who He is and what He has done. There is nothing I can do to earn that. At the same time, Jesus' love for me puts me on my feet. It fills my heart and it makes me want to move. I want to be the active hands and feet of Jesus because it brings my relationship with Him to life. It helps me grow toward Him.
James is not encouraging us to incorporate works into our faith because he thinks that God has a tally sheet. I think he is giving this advice out of love for his readers because he knows something to be true: God can bless us and others through our works of faith. There is no instrument that God finds unusable.
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Sometimes it is so overwhelming to know that God wants good things for us. It can be hard to let that thought sink in because live in a world that is not mindful of us. God encourages us to get up and go - through Paul He speaks to us: "Live a life worthy of the calling you have received" Ephesians 4:1. This is all out of His love for us. All Agape. All from a love that gives, never fails, never ends.
~SP
~SP
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