Of Faith and Works

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 4th of November, 2018 at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Look for the video of this and our other services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

James was a half-brother of Jesus – same mother, different father.  You’d think if anyone would know Jesus and would have keen insight into what He taught and what He expects of us as followers, it would be James.  So it’s important that we understand what James tells us, as well as what Jesus teaches and says.

Please listen and follow along to a very significant passage from James’ letter to the early church, chapter 2, verses 14 through 18, and I’ll be reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

14 What does it profit, my brothers, if a man says he has faith but has no works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” and yet you give them nothing that the body needs, what does it profit? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

18 But a man may say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

--James 2:14-18 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, You gave us this wonderful gift of faith, and it’s up to us to put it to good use.  Speak to us this morning, Father, with the message You need us to hear.  Give us a better understanding of how our faith leads us to work in service to You.  This we pray in the glorious name of Your Son and our Christ, Jesus.   Amen.


William Booth, in the October 1992 issue of the magazine Christianity Today, wrote an article titled, “The Founder's Messages to Soldiers”.  In the article, Mr. Booth stated:

“Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again -- until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other."


I think Mr. Booth draws a very good picture of faith in action:  it’s just like walking.  We can’t walk if we don’t use both legs.  If we only use one or the other, it’s more hopping than walking, and quite tiring, too.

And so it is with our faith.  If we rely on faith alone, or on good deeds alone, we’ll just be hopping through life.  We have to apply them both, we have to include good deeds to put our faith into action.  Otherwise, as James points out, our faith is dead.  Walking with faith and works in step with each other is one great way to exercise our faith.


Today is the Sunday after Reformation Day, and since I included a quote from Martin Luther before Reformation Day, I thought I’d include one after.  Luther said:  "The true, living faith, which the Holy Spirit instills into the heart, simply cannot be idle."  Our faith, that beautiful gift from God, if it is alive, cannot remain idle, at least not for very long.

And truly, I believe our faith yearns to be active.  It tugs at us to go out and do good stuff for Jesus.  And it rewards us when we do, with that warm feeling inside that nothing else can bring.

I’m afraid, though, in our current culture, in our present modern age, we too easily take our faith for granted.  Now I’m speaking in general here, of our society as a whole and even many who profess Jesus as Lord.  As Christians today, our primary concern is to worship God and to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.  We too often tend to isolate ourselves, wrap ourselves up in our own troubles and woes, ignoring the plight of others around us.  When someone seeks our help we say, “Sorry, I can’t help you right now, but I’ll pray for you.”

Prayer is good, and we should pray for others, but as James says, if we give them nothing they need, then what have we really done for them?  What does it profit?  We’re just hopping around on one leg.  And you know, the thing about hopping… it really tires us out quickly.


The early church had much different priorities than we do today.  They were persecuted, hunted down, imprisoned, beaten, even executed.  They needed help, and had little resource to call on.  So in most cases, they had to help one another.

The Apostle Paul understood James’ concern.  In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10, Paul tells us all…

9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

--Galatians 6:9-10 (NKJV)

When we get a chance, when the opportunity presents itself, let us do good.  And Paul directed this good work to benefit all people, but especially to benefit the household of faith, the brotherhood of believers – our fellow Christians.

Paul says we should not grow weary doing good.  I don’t think he’s talking about getting tired.  Being tired is an effect on the body, when we’re physically spent and our muscles ache.  Being weary, as I see it, is as much about our spirit as our body.  It’s as much a spiritual exhaustion as physical.  We may get tired doing good for others, but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be weary.  We can keep our spirits refreshed by the assurance of great rewards awaiting us.

The greatest of those rewards is our very salvation.  We looked at that just a little while ago, in our responsive reading that came from the 25th chapter of the Gospel account of the Apostle Matthew [vs. 31-46].  In verse 40 Jesus says…

40 “‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”

--Matthew 25:40b (NKJV)

The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner…  Jesus sees how we treat them as our treatment of Him!  I know we’ve all heard this passage before, but did it really sink in?  The beggar on the street, the person who comes to our door asking for help, the guy sitting in jail, the terminally ill…  we need to look at them and see Jesus!  We need to treat them the same way we would treat our Lord and Master, the Son of God!  Because that is how He will look at our actions, or inactions.  He knows our heart, He knows our faith - He wants to see what we’ve done with it!


May we not let our faith sit idle for too long.  Let’ not hop around on one leg.  We here at Pilgrim are very good at putting our faith to work, but we can always do more.  After all, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.  There’s plenty to do, and too few to do it.

Faith and works, works and faith, side by side, one leg and then the other.  Let’s show our faith by our works.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, You have given us this gift of faith.  Forgive us, Father, when we fail to hold onto our faith and don’t put it to work for You.  Forgive us when we fail to show our faith to others by doing good, so that they too might seek Your wonderful gift.  Please help us be better servants.  Help us more clearly understand what You expect of us and how we might better put our faith to work.

Please hear us now, Father, as we come to You in the silence, speaking from our hearts, promising to turn from our sin, and asking for Your help by our faith to serve You in all we do…

Lord Jesus, You warn us that we will be judged by what we have done and not done in this life.  We Christians, Lord, are expected to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, come to the prisoner.  Please help us, Jesus, to meet these expectations.  Help us put and keep our faith in action doing good for all.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior.  Amen.