February 11 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 42—James 2:17–19

¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
¹⁸ But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!

Devotional:

We must always distinguish faith and works. "One is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Rom. 3:28). But we must never divorce them. "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

Somewhat ironically, no-one has captured the basic message of James 2:14–26 more forcefully than [Martin] Luther (from his preface to Romans):

O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good things incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done this, and is constantly doing them. Whoever does not do such works, however, is an unbeliever. He gropes and looks around for faith and good works, but knows neither what faith is nor what good works are. Yet he talks and talks, with many words about faith and good works. ^†

Faith that's all talk and no walk is not genuine saving faith. "You believe that God is one; you do well." The "Shema" was kind of like the "Apostles' Creed" of orthodox Judaism, "Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God, the LORD is one" (Deut. 6:4). Surely if you believe this truth—or even better, the truths of the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed … or even better, the truths of the Westminster Standards or the Three Forms of Unity—surely you are saved! In fact, however, "even the demons believe." Even the devils of hell "believe" orthodox doctrine! They know the truth and in their hearts they know that it's true! But they refuse to obey God. Theirs is not a saving faith!

Their minds know the truth—much more precisely than ours do. Their hearts assent to the truth—so much so that James adds, "the demons believe—and shudder!" They quake with fear at the truth! That's a whole lot more than can be said of "Talkative" Christians! If even demons have a faith that's superior to that of "Talkative" Christians, then clearly "Talkative" faith is not genuine saving faith. Saving faith involves the mind, the emotions, and the will.

^† Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James (Eerdmans: Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 1985), p. 117

Click here for background on the author of Are You For Real?: Meditations in the Epistle of James for Secret or Family Worship.