Get Ready
How do you feel about people who seem to get preferential treatment: first class cabin on an airliner, seats on the 50-yard line, special box seats at the theater? Do you focus on the fact that they paid for the treatment or just the apparent privilege itself?
The Word
2 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. 11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Faith without Works Is Dead
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. 20 Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? 21 Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. 23 Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. NRSV
Get into the Word
1. What aspect of faith does the author take up next? How does he describe the problem? How does he feel about it? How do you suppose his readers responded?
2. How does James link this issue to Christian faith? Who are the real “special” people? How does he describe the rich folks?
3. What is the problem with favoring some people and not others? What does James say about this in relations to other actions? Which is worse according to James? What is the consequence of “breaking the law” in any way?
4. What aspect of faith does James take up next? How does he state the issue? What is the problem with no action? What example does he use? How would his readers relate to this? How do you relate?
5. Why are actions (or “works”) important to James? What do they demonstrate? How does he describe faith without action? What does he say about “just believing” in God? Who else “just” believes? How do they respond to this belief?
6. What examples does James provide to underscore his point about actions? Why do you suppose he chose these examples? How do they validate his argument?
Get Personal
How are you responding to different people? How does God help you to see each one as worthy of attention? How well are your “works” demonstrating your faith? How has God affected your actions recently? How have others reacted to your actions?
Notes . . .
2:2.Gold rings — a sign of wealth and status.
2:4.Evil thoughts — the “evil” is in judging people based on appearance.
2:7.Blaspheme — the Greek word includes “defame” and “speak evil” in its meanings.
2:8.Royal — the command to love one’s neighbor comes straight from the King as both the father [Lev 19:18], and the son [Matt 22:39 and John 15:12-14].
2:9-11.Sin — James underscores that there is no such thing as a “small” sin — any action contrary to God’s law is sin and the consequence is the same regardless of the action: Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, [Matt 5:19].
2:14.What good is it — the Greek word actually means “advantage,” “value” or “profit.”
Works — the Greek word means “visible actions” or “effort.”
Is dead — James is talking about the claim of faith (or “belief”) with no evidence of a changed life, not faith as the means of salvation. He makes this clear in his example of a person needing food and clothing and the reference to demons [2:19].
2:18.Show . . . works — God can see a person’s attitude, but we can see only a person’s actions (“works”), which are
evidence of the person’s attitude or faith. James is not suggesting that actions are added to a person’s faith, but that changed actions are an integral part of genuine faith. He agrees with Paul that actions by themselves (obeying the law) do not justify anyone: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life, [Eph 2:8-10].
Jesus also links “work” with faith. In a lengthy discussion [John 6:28-29] the Jews ask him what they must do to perform the “works of God,” and Jesus replies: This is the work of God, that you believe in the one who was sent.
Jesus also told the disciples that faith would include action: very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father, [John 14:12].
2:20. Senseless person — the Greek word actually means “hollow man.”
2:21. The declaration is in Genesis 15:6, the story of the sacrifice of Isaac is in Genesis 22.
2:25. Joshua 2 records Rahab’s actions and chapter 6 reveals the result: she and her family were sparred when the Israelites destroyed Jericho.
Memory Verse
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead, [James 2:26]
Next Lesson
Taming the tongue, two kinds of wisdom — James 3
