“Works Compliment Faith”

“For as the body without the spirit is dead,

so faith without works is dead, also.”

                                                                                                                               –  James 2:26

 

For years I’ve worked in the funeral business.  I wouldn’t begin to know how many dead bodies I’ve seen, handled, and prepared for viewing and burial.  Some have been dead only a few moments.  Some have been dead many days.  Some are tall; some are short.  Some are large; some are small.  Some are young; some are old.  On and on, the differences and variety could be described.  However, of all those bodies across the years, there has been one constant; one way in which they have all been alike.  They have ALL been DEAD.

What constitutes death?  Very simply, the spirit has departed from the body.

The practical preacher, James, tells us in the above verse, that just as a human body without a spirit is lifeless, so faith is also lifeless without obedience.  When a body and spirit are separated, death and decay always result.  Similarly, when faith and its works of obedience are separated, faith dies.

True faith IN God always produces obedience TO God (good works).  James reminds us of that truth again later in his book, as he states, “To that person who knows to do good, and doesn’t do it, it is sin.”    – James 4:17

 

          It is only through faith that a man is saved;

             On this fact, the scripture is clear.

       Each command of his Savior to heed;

             For “faith, without works” is as dead as can be,

       And, and impossibility .. indeed!

                                                           – Dan Downing

 

“When the offspring is not faith, be assured, the father is not faith!”