Trailblazin Ministries

A Dead Faith: Part 6 - James 2:20

Written by LaRosa Johnson
Monday, 03 December 2007

How much Bible doctrine can one person have before we say that they have too much? Of course, the answer is that you cannot exhaust the learning of Bible doctrine, but there is a point in which one has to realize that there is a vast difference between simply having a head knowledge of Scripture and having a knowledge that is able to transform your life. As we learned in James 2:19, we can do very well to have an orthodox theology, but if that does not lend itself towards repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, then we have no other choice than to proclaim it as a dead faith. If you have all the biblical knowledge and the world and do not believe, you will still be judged as one who is a transgressor of the Law.

To reiterate further, this is the point that James is driving home with his description of faith versus works. And before bringing in his three examples (two from Old Testament scripture), he chooses to ask a very pointed question, which we find in James 2:20, which reads as follows:

James 2:20 (NASB) - But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

In looking at this question, we will notice that there are a couple key words that are worth looking at, and they are: foolish and useless. Looking first at foolish, we see that it comes from the Greek word kenos (Strong's #G2756), which is an adjective meaning "vain" or "empty." A lot can be said about James' use of this word, but one of the things it serves to point out is that this person is spiritually empty if he does not have that faith that is alive, which can be seen through the evidence of good deeds or works and the displaying of spiritual fruit. And it is fruit that brings us to our next term, useless. Useless comes from the Greek argos (Strong's #G692) and can also be defined as "lazy" or "idle." In another way, it could be said that to be lazy or idle is to be unfruitful, which is a term we are very familiar with in the Christian body.

Bringing our knowledge of the terms together and looking at the passage as a whole, we can see that James is asking the question of, "can't you see that faith without works is fruitless?" That is to say, a faith that is not followed by works is a faith that is not producing the fruit of the Spirit that is synonymous with having the Holy Spirit living inside. If you are not producing spiritual fruit, then you don't have the Spirit; and without the Spirit, your faith is dead and is a complete sham. That is not to say that we are saved by our works, but that works should be a natural outpouring of our lives as believers; in other words, if you're a Christian, people should be able to see it and have no questions because your actions prove that you are indeed a believer. If you cannot recognize that fact in your own life, then you should probably question whether your faith is alive or dead.

Now that he has put that out there, James is now going to go to the Old Testament Scriptures, which his readers should be very familiar with, in order to show them how works should coincide with faith. It is through these examples that he is able to give a much clearer indication of how the two should be married together in the life of a believer. But before that, if you're not convinced that you should have works, then you need to pray and search the Scriptures and see if you have faith at all; if not, then repent and put your trust in Jesus as Savior, believing that the Scriptural account is true; only then, can you have a faith that is alive like in the examples that we will see next.