Faith that Works: The Power of Active Love

1. Faith that doesn’t work… doesn’t work

2. Dead Faith • James 2:14-16 – 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? (The Message)

3. Dead Faith • Gandhi – “too bad Christians don’t do what they believe” … or do we? • unChristian – we are known less for what we do than for what we are against • James’ perspective – a faith that doesn’t actively love is simply self-deception and definitely “unhealthy spirituality”

4. Faith that doesn’t work • V. 14 – a rhetorical question • 1:22 – “And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.” (NLT) • 2:14b – “That kind of faith can’t save anyone.”

5. Faith that doesn’t work • V. 14 – a rhetorical question • The conspiracy of little Jesus: “In a very real and sobering way, we must actually become the gospel to the people around us – an expression of the real Jesus….” (Alan Hirsch) • Jim Wallis: “the only way to propagate a message is to live it.”

6. Faith that doesn’t work • If we don’t live it out, we don’t really believe it • 2:17 - Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? • Gal. 5:6 - For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.

7. A “lived out” faith is not an option • 2:18-20 - I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.

8. A “lived out” faith is not an option • Does love really exist if it doesn’t act? 1 John 3:16 - This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.

9. A “lived out” faith is not an option • Abraham and Rahab – their trust causes them to act • Faith that doesn’t actively love is not healthy spirituality! (2:26 - The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.)

10. The Medium is the Message • We are God’s gift of love / his Good News to the world around us • If we resist the flow of his love, we begin to lose our experience of it • While there are “seasons” of our lives, faith expressed in love is never “out of season”

11. The Medium is the Message • What God wants is trust and obedience / not “sacrifice” • More is not better / the church is not the kingdom • Will we ask, “What would love do through me if I let it?”