Works without Faith are Dead, Too

 

We know faith without works is dead. James makes this point clearly in the second chapter of his letter, and it's often the point we associate most closely with his book. (I would argue, though, that it's not his main point; I believe that's the exhortation to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, from 1:19). If we say we have faith but have no good works, our faith is suspect because genuine faith produces good works--it can't help it. Another way of saying this is that faith produces obedience. When we, out of faith, meet the physical needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ, or take any action God requires of us, our faith is brought to completion by the work (2:22), because we are stepping out in trust toward the God in whom we say we have faith. Works carry faith a step further, in other words. Without any works, our faith cannot be demonstrated--it's only our word that we have any at all--and we are doing nothing in our daily reality to stretch it. If it isn't stretching, it's shrinking, and will die.

But the statement works the other way around, too. The lives of the Pharisees, and Jesus' rebuke of them, show this. To be fair, He exposed them for not practicing as they preached (Matthew 23:3), but mostly He did so because they performed actions for show while being inwardly bankrupt. Speaking to them in phrases like "twice as much of a son of hell as you are" and "spiritually blind guides," He phrased His criticism most clearly in Matthew 23:25-28:

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."

Perhaps it's because I grew up in a liberal denomination where being born again wasn't preached, but over my lifetime I have more often seen works without faith than faith without works, as my role models put on their best behavior and performed a lot of religious activity and even very good service but were not new creatures in Christ. We know, of course, that salvation is not by works (though many church congregations catch the idea that it is), and without salvation our destiny is death in every way. Works do not save; faith does. 

Faith is first. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. From faith, works spring forth, because we believe God and not only obey Him because we're "supposed" to, but because we have the faith to step out and do what He asks. We show our faith through our obedience. Jesus said, "First clean the inside of the cup and dish." When people try to jump ahead into works first, in order to look good before others, or because they honestly think it's the works that qualify them for heaven, they are putting the cart before the horse. Faith without works is dead, but works without faith are really most sincerely dead. 

Faith causes works; works prove faith. We must have both. In that order.