Perseverance 9- a look at James 2:14-17

I want to follow up the message this weekend with some of the keys to understanding James 2:14-17.  Some understand this passage to be saying that unless we have visible good works then we don’t have faith that will get us to heaven.  Visible good works are in their mind, an inevitable result of faith.  Now I do believe that faith is followed by supernatural birth and that some works will always follow.  However, these works may be invisible to others around them and they may be temporary.  However, this is not what James 2 is talking about.

James 2:14-17 is teaching us that faith without deeds will not save our life in that without works our life will be spiritually dull, physically shortened and eternally unrewarded.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead

1- The book of James is written to Christians.  He continually refers to them as “brothers” (1:2,9,16,19, 2:14)  The warnings and commands he gives in this book apply to Christians.  There is no indication that he is talking to some unknown groups of  non-Christians among them.  Read and head brothers and sisters.

2- James refers to their salvation experience by the following words. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth. (1:18) Christians are people who have been “born through the word of truth”.  This reminds us of the words of Jesus who said that we must be “born again, or born from above” (John 3).  Notice that this is a supernatural birth for “he chose to give us birth”. By an act of God, through a word of truth (the gospel), we are made into new spiritual creatures.

3- To be “saved” in James does not refer to this new birth or to going to heaven.  This is not the way he uses this term.  Consider these 3 usages found outside of James 2.

James 1:21  Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.  Catch this? Even though they are already Christians who have the word (vs 18) planted in them, they must continually accept this word.  What does this mean?  To accept the ramifications and implications of the gospel.  The gospel tells us that we are sinners, but that we are loved and forgiven.  To “accept” the word planted is to live each day acknowledging our sin, getting rid of it, accepting his love and forgiveness and giving it to others.

We are motivated to do this because the word planted can “save us”.  Certainly this is not a reference to taking us to heaven, for then it would say accept the word planted in you, which can has saved you.  Remember according to James our new birth is past and certain. 1:18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.  “Can save” (1:21) is future and contingent. He is referring to the blessings that come from obedience, from “accepting the word implanted.”

These blessings would include things he has already referred to such as becoming mature as the result of trials. ^“Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (1:4)

The second time James uses “saved” is in 4:12 “there is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.”  In this context he is warning the Christians about the power of Jesus the judge.  How does Jesus judge Christians?  Not by sending them to hell.  After all, James’ readers have been given “birth through the word of truth”.  Instead Christians are judged by the giving or not giving of rewards and by temporal blessings or destruction..

He promises rewards for those who persevere.  Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him (1:12)

But he also promises to, in some sense, destroy them if they disobey.  For example, He motives Christians not to complain by the presence of the judge and the soon coming judgment.  Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! (5:9). His judgment could include the loss of eternal rewards and temporal discipline.  (If the words “save and destroy” of 4:12 refer to “heaven and hell”, then logically in 5:9 he is threatening them with hell for complaining.  Yikes!!)

He speaks strong words to the rich among them, concerning what appears to be a coming catastrophic temporal judgment. . Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. ² Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. ⁴ Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. ⁵ You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. (James 5:1)

The final usage of “save” in James is in 5:20. Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins. Here he is talking about premature physical death.  James is picking up a concept from the proverbs, that righteous living extends your life and sinful living brings premature death.

Proverbs 10:27 the fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.

The word “save” in James refers to having your life be blessed spiritually, lengthened temporally, or rewarded eternally.

4- “Dead faith” refers to faith that is not vitally connected to the life of God.

Some people interpret James 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead, to refer to non existent faith.  Ie dead faith is faith that never really was alive. Not real faith.  But this makes a mockery of the very clear illustration of verse 24.  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. When if you saw a dead body would you ever think it was “never alive”. The very presence of a body indicates that their once was life.  Using that powerful illustration he is pointing out to us Christians that unless our faith results in works it is as lifeless as the stiff in the morgue.  This is a powerful way of illustrating what we all feel and experience during times in our life when our faith does not produce works.  We have faith in the Bible and the gospel message, but we are  dull, lifeless, boring, apathetic, at times even hostile to God, if we are not obeying him.

He has already warned us in 1:23 about the danger of not heading the word.  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. Now in 2:14-17 , 26 he lays it out more plainly!

Dead faith is what happens when we fall into patterns of sin.  James 1: ¹³ When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Dead faith is faith that is of no practical use of value in this world.  It is good for nothing.

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead

5- If works are an inevitable result of faith, then they become a necessary part of going to heaven.

Often times those who believe that visible works are an inevitable result of faith say something like this.  “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone”.  If this is true, then in order to “get past the pearly gates of heaven”, works are necessary.  Faith alone does not get us there.  Any inevitable result of an action, becomes necessary to prove that the action has taken place.  Works become necessary for salvation.   Yet the scriptures are so clear that works are not at all necessary for salvation.  In fact works are clearly separated from faith because of the human tendency to boast.

Eph 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast

Romans 3:27 Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law

Galatians 2:16 So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

If works are seen as an inevitable result of salvation, rather than a logical result the gospel gets confused and confusing.

 

A review of “OverSuccess:Healing the American Obsession with Wealth, Fame, Power, and Perfection”- sort of

Former New Hampshire State Senator Jim Rubens recently wrote a book entitled,  OverSuccess: Healing the American Obsession with Wealth, Fame, Power, and Perfection.  In this book he lays out his “science-based recipe for happiness.”   In other words he tells us how we can be happy.    Allow me to quote from an interview he gave, adding numbers to his list for the sake of clarity.

“Science has shown a number of things will improve our feelings of well being:

1- Have control over the major elements of your life;

2- select major goals for which you are 50 percent likely to succeed given your skills, intelligence, resources and social network, rather than goals that are either too easy or too difficult;

3- focus on the process of reaching goals, not just achievement;

4- do purposeful, meaningful work and activity in which you can grow;

5- be of service to something larger than self;

6- find faith, spirituality or religion;

7- be married, since 40 percent of married people say they are very happy compared with 24 percent of those unmarried;

8- live a rich social life with multiple strong friendships;

9- get sufficient sleep and aerobic exercise;

10- act happy to be happy, since there is evidence to support ‘behavior induction,’ the purposeful replacement of negative emotions, bodily motions, facial expressions and vocalizations with positive ones.

It isn’t rocket science, but many of us have ignored common sense to feed our addiction to OverSuccess.”

(quoted in an interview here, http://www.mymidwestmagazine.com/2009/09/01/qa-jim-rubens-on/)

Science tells us, according to Ruben, that to find happiness these 10 things must be present.

In recent weeks I have been talking about the kingdom of God, and how Christ calls us to participate in building His Kingdom.  What struck me as I read Rubens list, is that Kingdom involvement clearly makes many of these things happen. Allow me to go through the list.

1- Have control over the major elements of your life:

For sure following Christ does not give us control over our life. Having control over our lives is really just an illusion.    But what following Christ does is much better.  It reminds us that God is in control, and teaches us to submit to and enjoy his control.

2- select major goals for which you are 50 percent likely to succeed given your skills, intelligence, resources and social network, rather than goals that are either too easy or too difficult;

With the help of the Spirit of God we are able to select meaningful goals that we ourselves are unable to do, but that we can achieve with the favor and blessing of God

3- focus on the process of reaching goals, not just achievement;

The primary beneficiary of your kingdom building will be you, for in the process of your kingdom building activity God will change you.

4- do purposeful, meaningful work and activity in which you can grow;

I can think of nothing more purposeful and meaningful than participating with God i\n what He is doing.

5- be of service to something larger than self;

Like to the kingdom of God

6- find faith, spirituality or religion;

Yes, building the kingdom helps you find faith!

7- be married, since 40 percent of married people say they are very happy compared with 24 percent of those unmarried;

In kingdom building you may find a mate with a similar heart, or you may simply get prepared to be a better mate.

8- live a rich social life with multiple strong friendships;

Friends who are building the kingdom together are the best of friends.

9- get sufficient sleep and aerobic exercise;

Not sure what to say about this one

10- act happy to be happy, since there is evidence to support ‘behavior induction,’ the purposeful replacement of negative emotions, bodily motions, facial expressions and vocalizations with positive ones.

“Rejoice in the Lord always”?

Ruben says that these 10 things will make us happy.  Cleary 7-8 of them will come to pass if we participate meaningfully in kingdom building.  Jesus said in John 15: ¹⁰ If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. ¹¹ I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

If we want complete joy and real happiness we will obey Jesus, or participate in Kingdom building.  Now Rubens is confirming those words!

 

Perseverance 8- and a brief review of “The Hole in our Gospel”

I just finished read the book “The Hole in our Gospel” by Richard Stearns, president of World Vision. I want to recommend that you get the book and read it. Many of our leaders are. It is very worthwhile. I wanted to make a few comments about the book, telling you the things I loved about it, and one are where I think the author brings confusion.

1- I love the personal story of Richard Stearns and his telling about how God called him to be president of World Vision. It is a classic story of God working and worth the price of the book

2- I love his emphasis on the holistic nature of the redemptive message. Salvation is not simply personal, but it also has relational and societal implications. Certainly often we have viewed it as simply between God and me. It is between God and me, but when God changes me and in order to change me more fully, he calls me to impact society. This includes, in a big way, the poor and broken.

3- I love chapter 8 and his point that we have awareness of, access to and ability to help the poor. More now than ever before.

4- I Love chapters 9-13 and his breakdown of the reality and causes of poverty in our world. Very well done. Readable and concise and powerful.

5- I love the challenge to the church of America that follows in chapters 18 and following. I pray that God makes EHBC a place that more clearly articulates and acts on the needs of the world. “Lord, makes us a church and a people that really live this way.”

There is a great deal of material in this book that makes it a very worthwhile read. It is a message that the church of Christ desperately needs to hear. With that note of encouragement I would like to offer one area of disagreement. I believe that this area is very important to our Christian life, but my disagreement does not destroy the message of the book, IMHO.

Stearns teaches that true believers will respond to the needs of the poor and that if someone does not respond to the needs of the poor, then they are not a true believer. This is called the doctrine of perseverance, which teaches that true believes will persevere in good works. In Stearns’ mind, concern for the poor is a necessary result of saving faith. Here are some of the ways he says it…

“Any authentic and genuine commitment to Christ will be accompanied by demonstrable evidence of a transformed life” (p 59)

“Those who talk the talk but do not walk the walk will be exposed as false.” (p 59)

“One who has committed his life to Jesus will bear good fruit will bear fruit as evidence of the Lordship of Christ in his life” (p 200)

Sadly, this teaching (the doctrine of perseverance), that all true Christians will have an evidently transformed life, serves to confuse the core of the gospel. Indeed, Stearns seems to have a confused understanding of the gospel.

“We would much rather believe that the only things needed for our salvation are saying the right things and believing the right things- not living lives that are characterized by Christ’s concern for the poor”. (p 59) Did you catch this? He is saying that living a life characterized by Christ’s concern for the poor, is one of the things that is needed for our salvation. Concern for the poor has gone, (in his own mind) from a necessary result of salvation to an essential component of salvation …one of the “things needed for our salvation”. This is in direct contradiction to the plain and multiple teaching of the scripture, that faith alone is necessary of salvation.

Contrary to what Stearns says, The Bible teaches that the only thing necessary for salvation is that one “believes the right things”. John 3:16 anyone?

Whenever people say that good works are a necessary result of salvation the temptation will always be to then make that necessary result a condition of salvation. This is what Stearns seems to have done, to the great confusion of his readers.

What the Bible actually teaches is much less confusing Salvation comes from the simple act of believing upon Jesus Christ as the Lord who saves us.

Once this simple act of faith is done, a person becomes an eternally secure child of God, indwelt eternally by the Spirit of Goad.

Some of God’s children are good disciples or followers and learners, and they bring much evidence of a transformed life, including caring for the poor.

Some of God’s children are not life long disciples, they do not continue to follow him hard, and they live compromised and half hearted lives.

This is what we see in our lives. There are some good Christians and some bad ones.

Those that live as true disciples will be rewarded by God in multiple ways in this world and in the next.

Those that live for themselves are rewarded only by their own labors and they suffer loss of intimacy with Christ in this world, and loss of rewards in the life to come. They enter heaven without reward. When Christ returns they are filled with shame. They are saved, but as yet without reward.

At EHBC I desperately want us to care for the poor. But I don’t want us to confuse the gospel while doing it.

 

Squirrels and an amazing “coincidence”

It is such a great privlege to be a part of EHBC where we have a rich diversity of experiences.  After my squirrel shooting story yesterday, I got this email from Tom Hennigan, who will be teaching a class on Biblical Ecology atEHBC.  His article on Squirrels is a feature article on the web site he notes.  Read and enjoy his thoughts.

Hi Doug,

Of course, I had to reply to the squirrel story :0)  As a former hunter and one who has no problem with hunting, I was still bothered by the ignorance, typical of many Christians, who don’t stop and consider that the amazing diversity of life comes from the Author of Life.

As you probably know, that same William Wilberforce who fought on biblical grounds against slavery also fought against man’s cruelty toward animals on biblical grounds, starting up the SPCA.

To shoot God’s creatures only to throw them in the garbage, bespeaks of a waste, ignorance and a lack of Christian Stewardship that boggles my mind, which is why I’m offering the class on A Theology of Ecology.

Setting aside the importance of hearing/obeying God in the submission to man’s law (assuming it doesn’t go against God’s law) and the ignorance of shooting out of season without a license (while not even knowing there was a squirrel season) another biblical perspective might be one of appreciation for GOD’S creatures and the meditation upon the kind of Creator that would create such an amazing animal.

Interestingly (weirdly), in 2008 I wrote an article on “Squirrels!” for Creation Ministries International (CMI) Creation Magazine and they just notified me this morning that it was put put up as their lead article on the website today:  http://creation.com/ http://creation.com/squirrels

These creatures are not only gifts for us (both to appreciate and even eat…squirrel happens to be pretty good eating), but they also are mind bogglingly designed with a greater purpose in the ecological system.  To kill and throw away, in my mind, seems unbiblical, to say the least, and bespeaks a complete disregard for the Creator and His creation, of which we have been commanded to steward wisely.

I’d have no problem if you sent this e-mail or a portion of this e-mail to your friend…my class begins May 31 :0)