Faith Acts

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?"

43Then 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.

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.

44In 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 2:19

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

Blomberg and Kamell point out the pun James uses here, as faith without works is referred to as "workless" (James, 136).

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.

For more on the inadequacy of a faith that doesn't meet the essential needs of fellow believers, see the discussion on 130-32.

The same word—episkeptomai—translated here as "took care of" is used in James 1:27 to speak of looking after orphans and widows.

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.