Articles
Talking About Faith
Faith is fundamental. Without it no one can please God (Hebrews 11:6). The sinner is saved by it (Ephesians 2:8-9), and the saint walks by it (2 Corinthians 5:7).
Faith comes by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17). It is not, as popularly depicted, a “blind leap”; quite the opposite, it is a conviction based on solid evidence.
Do I have faith . . . saving faith? How do I know? How will it show in my life? In chapter 2 of his letter, James helps us answer these vital questions.
To begin with, we must do more than talk about faith. “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?” (v. 14).
There a number of ways someone might say he has faith. He might say it to himself. He might acknowledge it to others or answer in the affirmative in a survey about faith. He might sing about it (a “gospel” song is often included in country music shows). He might even occasionally say it to God by joining in a prayer.
To be sure, God wants us to talk about our faith. Confessing our faith in Jesus is part of our salvation (Romans 10:9-10). Talking to others about what we believe is the divine plan for spreading the gospel (2 Timothy 2:2). Jesus warned that if we will not confess Him before enemies, neither will He confess us before the Father (Matthew 10:32-33).
James cautions, however, that the expression of saving faith is more than just talk. Faith must show itself in our walk, not just our talk. James illustrates it this way: "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith if it has no works, is dead, being by itself" (vv. 15-17).
Merely talking about the solution to a poor brother’s need obviously does nothing to satisfy it. Talk is useless if not accompanied by appropriate action. The same thing is true of faith. If all we do is talk about it, our faith is as dead as the self-proclaimed but hollow brotherly concern in James’s illustration.
