Plastic Noodle Soup 塑膠湯麵 SLCCC 3-25-2007
James 2:14-26
INTRODUCTION
The book of James was written to the first century Jewish Christians. This is an important piece of information we need to bear in mind when we study this book. What James addresses in this letter is not about how to become a Christian怎樣成為一個基督徒BUT how to live as a Christian成為一個怎樣基督徒. This is a crucial question we need to constantly ask ourselves. Why does God put me in the 21st century? Born to this family? In this particular profession? Live in St. Louis and in this specific neighborhood? James challenges his readers to live out their faith in daily life. The passage we are going to look at today focuses on the relationship between faith and deeds. With this in mind let us read from God’s Word in James 2:14-26.
When I first encountered Japanese food as a young boy I bumped into a bunch of strange names. Even if the ingredients were mentioned on the menu it made me wonder what these foods actually looked like. But thanks to the smart merchants who came up with the plastic models which looked very much alike the real things. Take for example a plastic noodle soup. It looks like it has all the goodies – shrimp, meat, seaweed, noodle, etc. If you look at it from a distance you would think it is a real noodle soup. But no matter how real it looks a fundamental problem with a bowl of plastic noodle soup is that it is inedible. It looks real but it is not real. The same principle applies to our Christian life. We do not want to look like a Christian only but we want to be a real Christian. In this passage James helps us re-examine our faith. What does it really mean when we say we are Christians? How should my faith affect my daily life?
In this passage James repeats his thesis, in another words his main argument, three times. In verses 17, 20 and 26 he states “faith without deeds is dead/useless.” This is the major theme he wants to emphasize. The whole passage can be divided into two sections, and each of them contains two illustrations.
MP I – FAITH CONFERS TRUE DEEDS 信心帶來真誠的行為 (vv. 14-19)
In the first section from verse 14 to 19 James argues that faith confers true deeds. Here James is talking about the cause and effect relationship between the two entities. If someone says he has faith in God, or in another words, if he says he is a Christian there needs to be some evidences on the outside to show it. It is like when you plant an apple tree, and if all the conditions stay normal you should end up picking apples, not peaches in the end.
James presents his argument in v. 14 in the form of a rhetorical question. The expected answer is “no.” Faith without deeds does not do any good. That kind of faith that does not confer any true deeds cannot save a person. To explain his point James then cites two illustrations. First, in vv. 15-16 he states a hypothetical situation about a fellow Christian who is in need. Instead of meeting this person’s actual need you just wish him well and send him away. James comments that this kind of care without action is useless. Take note of the parallel language of “what good is it” in v. 14 and v. 16. A word of blessing is good, but if it does not turn into action it is useless. By the same token faith in God is good, but it does not express in deeds it is also useless. Therefore, James concludes in v. 17 that “in the same way” faith without deeds is also dead. In this verse the Chinese translation misses out two words that are not translated from Greek. But the NIV picks them up precisely when it renders the whole phrase “faith by itself.” What James means is that if faith stands alone by itself without deeds, this faith is a dead faith. It is like if a car that does not have gasoline or a lamp that does not have a light bulb is also useless.
The second illustration is in vv. 18-19. Verse 18 is a transition. It looks as if James engaged in a debate with another person. But again he appeals to the cause and effect argument. One can prove his faith by his deeds. Faith than cannot be verified by true deeds is a questionable faith. James adds in the next verse that that is the kind of faith demons have toward God. Of course, demons acknowledge the existence of God. But this kind of head-knowledge does not move further to a total commitment, and thus no deed is resulted from it. Once again, this kind of faith is a dead faith.
ILLUSTRATION
From the point of view of James faith must confer true deeds. Many times when I was ignorant I did a lot of dumb things. I remember once when my wife and I moved into a new apartment we needed to buy a new mattress. We read from the newspaper about a mattress sale at a big city furniture store about one-hour’s drive away. But in order to haul the mattress home we needed a pick-up truck. In the small college town we lived no Chinese guy would own a pick-up for fear that everyone would ask him for help with moving stuff. I knew that a retired American professor in our church had a pick-up. I mustered up the courage to ask him for help and to my surprise he generously allowed me to use his car. When I sat in his car I noticed that there was another convenient feature. Since this old man had some physical difficulty going around he was eligible to apply for a handicapped parking hang-tag. My wife and I thought: what a great privilege for us to take advantage of. When we went to those huge furniture stores we did not have to park far away and walk all the distance. Now we could park right outside the store in one of those handicapped parking spaces. That was exactly what we did. We did not have any trouble and no one told us that we did something wrong. It was not until months later that I saw on TV about how some people faked their physical disability in order to get a handicapped parking permit. To say the least – that is an illegal thing to do. We laughed out loud at our ignorance but we did thank God that at that time we did not meet any police officer, or else we might get into real trouble. You see, the hang-tag itself does not confer me any benefit to park in a handicapped parking spot because I do not have any disability condition to qualify for the use. So faith is like that parking permit and deed is like the disability condition. The parking permit in itself is useless unless someone is in certain way handicapped.
APPLICATION
James tells us that deeds are natural consequences of one’s faith in God. We have to be cautious when we apply this truth. James does not suggest us to use deeds to verify the faith of others so as to judge whether this or that person is “truly” a Christian. That is a very dangerous thing to do. On the one hand it would make us critical 批判about others when we set up all sorts of subjective standards for a Christian. At the same time it would create a sense of pride in us, which makes us think that we are spiritually superior to others. James’ challenge is for us to examine our own faith. If I say I am a Christian, does my faith confer to any deed? You may ask: exactly what kind of deeds are we talking about here? Let me suggest a few examples. The Bible says when we accepted Christ as our Savior we become a new creation. As a result there are some radical changes inside and out in terms of our character, mentality and behavior. Gal. 5:22-23 mentions the fruit of the Spirit. Eph. 4-5 uses the figure of speech of “putting off the old self and putting on the new self” to describe the change in us. Then it is followed by a list of sins we should and can avoid as Christians. Rom. 6:6 talks about our relationship with sin. Before we became a Christian we could not help but sin, but now Christ has set us free from the bondage of sin. We do not enjoy sinning against God anymore. Then Peter tells us in 1 Pet. 2:2 that we should have a natural desire to “crave pure spiritual milk” which is the Word of God. Of course, there are many other changes we can list. But based on what I have just mentioned we can do a little self-examination. Does my life reflect the character of God in love, joy and peace? When I interact with other people do I show patience, kindness and goodness? What fills your speech when you talk about someone to a third person? How about my relationship with sin? Whenever I sin do I feel a sense of remorse in my heart that I am rebelling against God? When I say I love God do I thirst after His Word? Do I long to be in the presence of other Christians in service and fellowship to worship God and study His Word? I am not saying that we have to be perfect in everything. Every Christian is in the process of growing to become more like Christ. Again I need to reiterate the point that we are not adding all these deeds to our faith in God before we can become a Christian. When a person receives Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord by faith he has become a Christian. I do not want the Christians among us to leave today filling with doubts about your faith. That is not the point James want to make. What James challenges us is that if we say we have faith in God there should be some expression of our faith in deeds to support the claim.
MP II – Deeds Confirm True Faith行為驗證真正的信心 (vv. 20-26)
In the first section of this passage from verse 14 to 19 James argues that faith confers true deeds. James tells us that faith and deeds have a cause and effect relationship. In the second section from vv. 20-26 James points out the purpose of deeds. Deeds confirm one’s true faith. Once again he repeats his thesis in v. 20 as a transition: faith without deeds is useless (“useless” can be treated as a synonym for “dead” in v. 17 and 26 in this context).
From v. 21 to 24 James quotes the example of Abraham as an illustration. His Jewish readers are very familiar with the story and so are most of the Christians today. Abraham was the ancestor of the whole Israel nation. You may recall in the book of Genesis that God promises Abraham that He will give him a son. It was not until Abraham reaches 100 years old that finally his son Isaac was born. The story fast forwards to Gen. 22 when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac to Him as a burnt offering. Abraham followed the command. After he had tied Isaac to the altar and was about to lift a knife to slaughter him God asked Abraham to stop. A ram appeared in the bush and Abraham killed the ram as the offering to substitute Isaac. This is an act of faith for Abraham. Though the command to sacrifice his only son did not make sense to Abraham he had faith in God that and believed that there was a purpose behind the command. Even if Isaac was killed Abraham believed that God’s promise of giving him a multitude of descendents would not fail to fulfill. When James looks back on the whole incident he concludes in v. 21 and 24 that Abraham was justified by his deed, which is to say God qualified Abraham as a sinless man through what he did. In v. 22 James supports his claim by stating the two roles of faith in Abraham. First he says that Abraham’s faith and his actions “worked together.” That is the same Greek word appears in Rom. 8:28 when Paul says “in all things God works (together).” Then James adds that the second role of faith in the life of Abraham was that “Abraham’s faith was made complete by what he did.” The phrase “made complete” here has the meaning of “reaching a pre-determined goal.” The deed confirms Abraham’s true faith in God. It is like doing product testing in the manufacturing industry. There is only one way to prove that a product can actually perform the functions it is made for – put it to a series of tests to check out its performance. If the product succeeds then a “tested” or “passed” label will be attached to it. The same is true for Abraham. God tested his faith and he passed. In v. 24 James concludes from Abraham’s example that “a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” The word “justify” is a judicial term, meaning “declare innocence” or “acquit.” When we say a person is justified we are saying that he has restored a right relationship with God.
Very often when Christians read this passage and they may get stuck at the point where James affirms that Abraham was justified by deeds and not by faith alone. Doesn’t Paul declare specifically in Rom. 4:2-3 that Abraham was justified not by works but by faith alone? Most likely James had not read the book of Romans or else he would not have committed such a serious doctrinal error. In fact most scholars believe that James was written about 7 to 8 years earlier than Romans! But how can we resolve the dilemma between James and Romans on the issue of justification? Let me explain their differences. When Paul talks about “works” in the book of Romans he is referring to the works of the law. For example we can look at Rom. 3:28. However, when James talks about works or deeds he is referring to the life changes after one became a Christian. In that regard both Paul and James are correct. Paul’s emphasis is on how a person becomes a Christian. Therefore, he is right in saying that a person is justified by faith alone and no deed can amount to that. James’ focus is on how to confirm a person’s faith in God after he became a Christian. We can summarize their arguments this way:
Paul’s argument
therefore
Abraham─────Had faith in God──────Sacrificed Isaac
James’ argument
to
confirm that
Abraham─────Sacrificed Isaac────────Had faith in God
Was the sacrifice of Isaac necessary in the whole process of justification for Abraham? Paul’s answer may be “no” because God saw the faith in Abraham and He justified him based on that faith alone. But James’ answer may be “yes” because there needed to be some sort of proof to confirm Abraham’s faith.
In v. 25 James quotes a second example to support his argument that deeds confirm true faith. The story of Rahab is recorded in Joshua chapters 2 and 6. At that time the Israelites had crossed the Jordan and were about to march into the Promised Land of Canaan. Their first task was to conquer the city of Jericho. The Israelites sent two spies to survey the city. They came to hide in the home of a prostitute names Rahab. They made a covenant with Rahab that when the Israelites attached Jericho they would spare the lives of Rahab’s family. The promise was fulfilled – Jericho was defeated and Rahab’s family was saved. James come to the same conclusion here, that Rahab’s faith in the spies and hence to God was confirmed by her deed of protecting the spies.
You may ask: why Rahab is mentioned alongside with Abraham? One possibility is that James wants to emphasize that no matter who it is, anyone who has faith in God and whose faith can be confirmed by deeds will be justified by God. Be it a Jew or Gentile, a man or a woman, a nomad or a prostitute and rich or poor, anyone can be justified through the same faith.
ILLUSTRATION
I hope you can see it clearly by now that faith and deeds are inseparably. That reminds me of a public figure in the 2004 election in U.S. I would rather not tell you his name but if you remember the incident you should recall who this person is. He told people that he believed in God and he did go to the church on Sun. But at the same time he argued that faith to him was a personal thing, and it should not affect the way he handled politics. Ironically, in a speech at a Mississippi church he quoted James 2:14 to criticize his political opponent that this candidate did not put his faith into practice thorough enough. To him, being a Christian and being a politician are two separate matters. He can freely worship God in the church. But once he steps out of the church door he should seek the interests of the general public. His faith should not interfere with his deeds. In another incident he said. “I think that everything you do in public lie has to be guided by your faith, affected by your faith, but without transferring it in any official way to other people.” Is that really the right attitude? I am not suggesting that every Christian politician should openly preach the gospel in every circumstance. But what worries me is that if this particular candidate could not make a firm stand on certain issues based on his faith I wonder where he derives his standard from. Sadly, that is exactly what many people think today. Some may argue that to say that “I am a Christian” is one thing but how to lead one’s life is a totally different thing. The same argument was being applied to another public figure in 2004. An Episcopal bishop name Jean Robinson openly stated that he is a homosexual. It created a heated debate whether or not he was still qualified as a pastor. Those who supported him claimed that his homosexuality was his part of his private life and it had nothing to do with his position as a pastor.
APPLICATION
But James disagrees with such dichotomy. He tells us that only deeds can confirm one’s true faith. Very often our deeds do not only affect ourselves they also influence those who are close to us too. Someone puts it this way: in this generation our children believe that something is true by seeing that it actually works. If that observation is true then it sends a stern warning to those who are parents. No matter how many Bible stories you read to your children or even if you take them to every single Bible class but if they do not see you live out the Biblical truth at home then all those Bible stories are simply stories to them. That includes how you treat your children, your spouse and anyone who is outside of your home. Recently I went to the grocery store with my older son, who will be three-year-old soon. After I checked out with the cashier I noticed that someone left a can food in the cart. Just as many of you would do, I wondered in my mind for a few seconds, thinking there was no big deal about it. After all, it was already paid for the grocery store would not lose anything. But then I reminded myself that it mattered to my God who saw everything I did and it also mattered to my child. The truth is that the best proof of our faith is when no one is watching – only God and yourself know what you are doing. May I ask the men among us: what websites do you visit late at night when your family members are sound asleep? In the work place do you continue to work hard when your boss is not around? Do you join your colleagues when they gossip about your boss behind his back? For those who worked in the lab if your experimental results do not match up to your hypothesis do you change your data or your hypothesis? When you file your tax form do you intentionally hide part of your income or exaggerate some of the deduction items, betting that IRS would not audit a small tax player like you after all?
CONCLUSION
In today’s passage James tells us that there is an intimate relationship between faith and deeds. Faith confers true deeds, and deeds confirm true faith. Christians should not live like a bowl of plastic noodle soup. We need to show our faith through our deeds. If you are not being too naïve you would agree that we live in a dark, fallen world. Someone puts it this way: rather than to curse the darkness why not light up the darkness. It is true that some people do not want to be a Christian because they see too many hypocrites in the church. God does not call us to be weekend Christians only, but He commands us to live out our faith wherever we go. This semester I am taking a class on world mission. The professor reminds us that world mission is more than evangelism, but part of the task consists of bringing a foretaste of heaven to the world. Does the world become a place full of love, compassion, justice and all the rest because Christians are present? You do not even have to do anything in a “grand scale.” But simply put your faith into action wherever God puts you in your family, neighborhood, school or work place.