I strayed from my scheduled nightly Bible reading. My favorite book in the Bible is the book of James. It is short and gets right to the point. I reread this gem in The Message paraphrase and felt compelled to share the gist of it with you.
To read this entire passage (without my edits), click here.
Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful?...Use your heads! Do you suppose for one minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, Abraham believed God and was set right with God, includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by a faith fruitful in works?
The moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.
How often have I inconvenienced myself to help out a brother or sister in Christ? Or volunteered at a shelter? Or given my time to teach a child to read?
The demons themselves know Jesus is God's son. If all I do is say the words, I am no better than they are.
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