Pastor Sarah Henry

Jun 22, 2025

James 2:14–26

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. 

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder (NRSV).

2:14 FAITH. The faith James speaks of here is mere intellectual affirmation. Such a mind-oriented profession stands in sharp contrast to the comprehensive, whole-life commitment that characterizes true NT faith. New Testament faith involves believing with all one’s being: mind, emotions, body (behavior), and spirit. If you were to create pie charts of your mind, emotions, behaviors, and spirit, how much of each pie would Jesus take up?

WORKS. Just as James uses the word “faith” in his own way, so too he uses “works” (or “deeds”). For James, works have to do with proper ethical behavior. How do James and Jesus define proper ethical behavior? How does that square with your own personal ethics?

CAN SUCH FAITH SAVE HIM? The implied answer to this rhetorical question is “No.” This answer is based on what James said in vv. 12–13. Intellectual faith cannot save one from judgment when one has not been merciful (Coleman, 1968).

2:15-16 In what ways is James echoing Jesus' teachings?

2:17 What is James' point in saying that faith without works is dead? Aren't Christians saved by faith alone?

2:18 Why or how would a person's works be a demonstration of their faith? 

CONSIDER (VV. 14–19): What is the central point being made in these verses? Is believing the truth of the gospel enough to make a person saved? Explain.

God demonstrates that love is not a word, but an action. 

Romans 6:1–4

1 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (NRSV).

6:1–2 Paul’s “opponent” appears once more, questioning Paul in the typical cynical attitude of the day: “If grace is the most wonderful thing there is and if grace abounds in the presence of sin (5:20), then shouldn’t we sin all the more so as to produce yet more grace?” (Coleman, 1815)

6:2 DIED TO SIN. Paul’s point is that his critic’s question is logically absurd: to be a Christian is to have died (past tense) to sin; thus it is impossible to live in something one has died to. In vv. 3–14, Paul details what it means to have died to sin (Coleman, 1815).

6:4 BURIED WITH HIM. When family and friends bury a loved one, they are publicly acknowledging the fact and reality of that death. In returning home, they leave that person behind. To go under the water of baptism is to experience in a direct (though symbolic) way the fact and reality of Christ’s death. It is this burial experience that makes his death real (Coleman, 1815).

What does Christ's newness of life mean for you? What changed, or what is different about you, having Christ in you?

1 John 3:16–18

16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. 17 How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? 

18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action (NRSV).

What one thing would you like to do this week to demonstrate your faith by your works?

Works Cited

Lyman Coleman, ed., Life Connections Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles, 2019), 1968.