Works vs Faith: Am I saved by works or am I saved by faith? Yes!
James 1:17-27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James answers the Works vs Faith dilemma a little later in chapter two but he is laying some ground work here.
Every good thing we do, comes by the grace of God and that will never change. In the beginning was the Word and the design of humanity is from the Word. The word is the seed and we are the crop. It all comes from God.
Faith In Action
So everyone knows that we should listen first. And that anger is part of our humaness. But we have to really watch how we express our anger. Yet even though everyone knows all this, we are really bad at living this way.
The Word helps us see who we really are. And yet a few minutes into our day and we are back to acting just like everyone else! It doesn’t do anyone any good to just believe the truth. What matters is that we act on it. We let it show us who we really are and then we change by doing things differently.
Pure Religion
Whenever we are willing to do that, we are joining God in His work in our world. We are bringing in the presence of God by acting on the Word. And it you want a good place to start, just go help widows and the fatherless. You will be joining in the on-going work of God. You will be a blessing and though the grace of God you will be spiritually richer for not keeping your abundance.