![]() Those who trust God understand that this life is so short that our financial situation is meaningless in comparison with the eternal riches of our home in heaven. That also includes how we think about money in this life. James makes clear over and over again that what our Father longs to see in the lives of His children is evidence of our trust in Him. However, if we reject His wisdom or, worse, seek wisdom apart from Him, we demonstrate our lack of trust in the Father. What do believers do when they lack wisdom to make a decision? They turn to God and God generously pours wisdom out. So how does a believer respond to hard times? James calls us to label those moments as joyful things because they bring the opportunity to trust God at a deeper level. Saving faith is trust which produces action. Why wouldn't they if they believe Him? Saved people believe in Christ, and people who believe in Christ follow the way of Christ. Put another way, people who trust God naturally obey God. As this book emphasizes our works as believers, the point is that those works are acts of faith. ![]() A faith that saves is the kind of faith which naturally produces action, and this is the point of James' writing. A person's actions are a good indicator of what kind of "faith" they really have.īiblical saving faith is not mere intellectual knowledge-it is trust. James asserts from the beginning of the first chapter that God's desire for us is to trust Him more, and more deeply. Reading with the proper perspective, however, reveals there is no contradiction to be found. As a result, some interpreters have suggested that James contradicts Paul's clear teaching that salvation is not by works but by faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8–9). James includes heavy emphasis on the works associated with Christianity. That is why James has attracted so much dispute over the years. The unifying theme of the book of James is "faith," though James frames his discussion with a very specific look at the effects of real, saving, trusting faith. The book of James was most likely written by Jesus' half-brother, a son of Mary and Joseph who eventually became one of the leaders of the Christian church in Jerusalem. 27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. 26If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. 25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 23For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 22But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 21Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. 12Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.ġ9Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 11For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. 9Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: 10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. 8A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. ![]() 7For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 6But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. 5If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not and it shall be given him. 4But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 2My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations 3Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
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