Active faith will be seen in all our attitudes and actions. Chapter 1 ended with a very practical note - The religion that God the Father regards as pure and undefiled is like this - it visits orphans and widows in their distress and keeps itself unstained by the sinful world. Chapter 2 begins with a very practical situation in the early church and hypocrisy that their discrimination exposed. The last part of the chapter focusses on the importance of faith flowing through into action.

Chapter 2

1My brothers, your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ mustn't be held with favouritism. 2Suppose two people come into your gathering, a man with gold rings and bright clothes and a poor man in dirty clothes. 3You look at the one with the bright clothes, "Here's a comfortable place for you to sit!" But you look at the poor man and say, "You can stand back there - or sit on the floor!" 4You have discriminated among yourselves - like bad judges!
5Listen, my dear brothers! God has chosen the ones the world regards as poor to be rich in faith and to inherit the Kingdom he has promised to those who love him, hasn't he? 6But you have devalued the poor person. Yet the rich are the ones who oppress you and drag you off to court, aren't they? 7Don't they disrespect the beautiful name by which you are called? 8Well and good, if you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself"! 9But if you are showing favouritism, you are committing sin - the law convicts you as offenders! 10The person who keeps everything in the law except one point is still a law-breaker. 11When God told people not to commit adultery, he also said not to commit murder. So if you don't commit adultery, yet commit murder, you are an offender against the law. 12You are to speak and act then as those who are going to be judged by a law which sets you free. 13But that judgement will be merciless on those who haven't shown mercy. In this respect the principle of mercy is superior to judgment.
14What's the use, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but doesn't have works? That sort of faith can't save him, can it? 15Suppose a brother or sister doesn't have adequate clothing or food. 16If one of you says to them, "Go in peace. Be warmed and fed," without giving them what the body needs, what's the use? 17Now when it's like this - faith isolated and not resulting in works - faith is dead!
18Yet someone might say, "You have faith, but I have works!" Show me your faith without works - I will show you my faith by the works it does! 19You believe there is one God? Excellent! Yet even the demons believe and shudder! 20But, empty man, do you really want to know that faith without works is ineffective? 21Take Abraham our father - wasn't he made right at the point of works, having offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22Here you see faith working together with his actions - by his actions his faith was made complete. 23So the Scripture was fulfilled, "Abraham believed God, and that faith was regarded as rightness with God" (Gen.15.6) and so he was called God's friend. 24That's the way it was with Rahab the prostitute too - at the point of her actions she was made right with God, when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. 26A body without a spirit is dead - and if faith doesn't produce works it is dead!

Favouritism
The first part of this chapter (vv.1-13) challenges us to active faith in the area of relationships. We are not to say "I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ" and then show favouritism. Check back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.1-18. There were people in Jewish society who made a big show of giving to the poor (and others whose prayers and fasting were for the benefit of the public!). By the way, the Greek word hypocrites which is used to describe them literally means "play-actors" - they weren't "fair dinkum" at all! Their attitude was very much, "Look at me! Honour me! Consider my status!" Now go to Mark 12.41-44. Rich people were putting large amounts into the temple treasury. Then a widow came and dropped in two small copper coins - "She has put in more than all the others!" In the first chapter we saw this from the viewpoint of the poor or the rich one - 9The Christian brother of low social position should take pride in his high standing in Christ, 10and the rich person should take pride in his humiliation - after all, like a grass flower his rich status will pass away. 11When the sun rises with its burning heat, it dries up the grass - its flower falls off, its beauty is destroyed. How like the rich man wasting away in his pursuits! It is now raised again from the viewpoint of other members - "How do you receive and relate to the rich and the poor?" They tended to follow society's norms, rather than to consider a person's status in Christ - in spite of the evidence that many more of the poor were responding to the call of God in Christ!

• Name our own forms of favouritism. How should we regard people?

Faith and Works

The whole issue of favouritism becomes the starting point for looking at active faith in vv.14-24. It is not just that the poor were dishonoured in church - their deep practical needs were ignored (see v.16)! It is God who makes us right with Himself - so, on our part, faith is the key to salvation. The examples of Abraham and Rahab graphically illustrate that true saving faith is shown in action. Without action it is dead!

Think of John the Baptist in Lk.3.8 calling people to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance" and the word of Jesus to the healed man, "Go and sin no more" (John 5.14). Think of the whole way of life implied in Jesus' picture of the last judgment in Matthew 25.31-46.

• In what ways does our faith need to move into action?

Active Faith. Studies in the Letter of James (c) Peter J. Blackburn 1990. Permission is given for this study to be copied in its entirety for group use. Courtesy advice of the use of these studies would be appreciated. Any other proposed use must have the written permission of the author. Email Peter Blackburn.
Study 3: Mind your Tongue! - James 3
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