Faith or Works?

1. Faith or Works? Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, March 2, 2014 Studies in James, Part 5

2. Last week • “Mercy triumphs over judgment” • Led to a comparison of ‘eleos’ (mercy) and its opposite, ‘anaideia’ (ruthlessness) in ancient Greek literature • Learned that ‘anaideia’ was a companion of ‘hubris’ (pride, insolence, arrogance, outrage) • Mercy was considered a benevolent spirit by the Athenians, flowing with empathy

3. Mercy triumphs . . . • Anaideia and hubris lead toward separation from others, toward alienation . . . • Eleos leads toward connection with all things (like the recent documentary I AM) • Hubris is related to: not belief, too much drinking, war, folly . . . • Eleos leaves judging to God and flows toward hurting ones with the Presence of God

4. This week: Faith & WorksJames 2:14-26 14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

5. James 2:14-26 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

6. James 2:14-26 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.

7. James 2:14-26 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

8. What do you see? • How do you put them together? • Why is the same passage from Genesis 15 used in the exact opposite way by Paul in Galatians 3 and Romans 4? • Forget religious language or church—take the lesson into real life . . . What would it look like?

9. Paul & James • Use these words differently • For Paul, faith is a whole new way of life; for James it’s mere intellectual assent (see v. 19) • For Paul, works are negative, something that someone does to try to prove their worth before God; for James they are the positive result of having faith (for Paul this could be ‘fruit’ or ‘doing good’)

10. Remember Eleos • Mercy flows toward those who are in need • In James, real faith is similar: it’s a direction of the Spirit that humans can participate in • Without the participation, who cares what you believe or talk about? • Without the direction of the Spirit, how do you know which way to go? • Now look back at the strange examples in James 2—what can we learn?

11. Possible lessons • God might lead someone to do something that is very different from what you think He would do • God might use people who are very far away from what you think ‘goodness’ might look like

12. Possible ditches • Having your belief system down but not flowing into life with God • Having your moral system all figured out and feeling confident in a box that might not be large enough to contain the Spirit of God