James 2:15-16

"Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?"

James says in verse 17 that dead faith is useless.  And what is dead faith?  It is a lack of compassion and concern for your brother or sister.  It allows you to see suffering and simply go on your way.  It makes you feel great about yourself while another goes without the things they need to survive.  It tricks you into thinking you are alive when you are not.  Dead faith walks past God's children and leaves them to starve.


And if the faith is dead, it is not good for anything.  When batteries die, they need to be recharged or thrown out.  Dead faith does nothing. It doesn't work.  It bears no crops.  It yields no harvest.  There is no righteousness reaped.  There are no works to be had because the faith cannot produce them.  It is dead faith.  Dead.

But if faith brings forth the fruit God desires, then it is alive.  If it remains in the vine, then it will bear fruit.  Works make complete the faith and brings it to maturity.  Faith must be made complete in order for it to save.  Faith must have works, else it is a dead faith and a dead faith is no faith at all.  Faith is dead without works, so we need a faith that works!

Psalms 12:8

"The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men."


Evil doers are everywhere.  They walk about on the streets going about their business.  They are in your homes, at your workplace, sitting on benches in your parks and serving you the very food that you eat.  What's more is that they go unnoticed, even to themselves for the evil that they do is praised among mankind.


They take vengeance when vengeance belongs to the Lord.  The have premarital sex when sex belongs to the covenant of marriage.  The victimize their brethren in order to make financial gains in business.  They overlook the needs of the poor in order to satisfy their own self-indulgence.  Their hearts lust for violence as they seek to be entertained.  Americans love all these things but they are vile in the eyes of the LORD.

And instead of being filled with grief, we are instead proud!  We encourage practices which seem normal culturally but are in no way God fearing practices.  And so the wicked walk about freely and unrepentant for they do not know what they do.  They feel accepted when in reality they are condemned and if we as the Church live the same way, do we not encourage the same practices?  Do we not condemn ourselves?  But let God judge those outside the church and let your life shine to show men the error of their ways.

Romans 9:3

"For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises."

To ask for this, means to ask for a life apart from Christ, eternally cut off from the Father.  Paul is willing to give up his salvation.  This is crazy.


But what if Christianity isn't about getting into heaven? If it's not about the eternal reward at the end of the long race?  If it's not about entering into the Kingdom of God and having your name written in the book of eternal life?  From the looks of it, it's about saving everyone else but yourself, and risking life and limb to do so.

Jesus is the first among many heroes.  Paul followed suit and many other martyrs even up to this day are dying for the sake of Christ and the gospel.  Why?  Because it is not their salvation they are after, but that of the world.  Christians are heroes.

For Paul, eternal life was on his list of things that could be sacrificed for the sake of his ministry.  He was never in it for himself, but for the love of Christ.  And we all know that Christ was not in the world for himself, but descended solely for us. Crazy? Yes.  Truth?  Absolutely.  Gospel? 100%.

Romans 14:9-12

"For this reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and of the living.  You, then, why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you judge your brother?  For we all stand before God's judgment seat.  It is written:


'As surely as I live,' says the Lord
'every knee will bow before me;
every tongue confess to God.'


So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."


So what have you done with the life given to you by God?  Will you be able to tell God of all the wonderful things your life and love has accomplished, or are there things in your life that you are ashamed of?  All things will be brought into the light.

God is judge over all because of his resurrection.  He died in order to be rendered as just and in so being the one who justifies sinners (which we all are).  The rain falls on both righteous and wicked alike.  As surely as Christ lives (and we know He lives for He is risen!), every tongue will give a testimony before God.  The only good testimony, the only good righteous defense, and the only hope we have, comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus pleads our case when we stand in judgment before the throne.  He pleads with his blood and is victorious because He is also the judge.  Only he can raise the dead to life.

Romans 1:16

"I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, first for the Jew and then for the Greek*)

Paul talks about a gospel which is the power for the salvation of all who believe. It is this gospel which sets us free from the consequences of sin which is death.  In it there is no longer any condemnation in Christ Jesus because he took it all with him to the cross.

Yet, we find an incessant need to do things because that’s what good Christians do. We go to church because Christians go to church. We read our Bibles because Christians should read their Bibles. We often feel guilty for not praying as often as we should. But should guilt really be the motivating factor in how we live out our faith? Is this gospel just a divine guilt trip (Jesus died for you so you owe him big time)? In the words of Paul, “Me genoito!" (May it never be!)

We were not set free from the law only to become slaves to another law.  Nobody who does a "spiritual" act of worship or kindness because of guilt will gain anything by it.  A person who gives out of guilt or ambition plants rocks instead of seed.  If love is not our weapon and God our prize, we will not harvest anything that lasts.

Do not give or act out of guilt.  It is a waste of time even if you are praying or going to church out of guilt.  Give because you want to give and act because you want to love.  Leave guilt nailed to the cross where it belongs.

*Many translations use gentile

Luke 24:38

"He said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I myself!  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."


No one believed the resurrection.  Even when it was plainly told to them that Christ would be raised on the Third Day, no one believed him at first and even Peter rebuked him.  But not even Christ expected us to believe blindly, but he says, "Touch me and see!"  This is not the testimony of irrational men or blind followers, but men who tested what they saw and believed in the truth.

The very idea of Jesus and His Resurrection sounds like pure and utter nonsense (v11) and Peter must have thought he was investigating a crime scene rather than the truth of our Risen Lord.  Every disciple doubted the resurrection and Peter's first conclusion, being a rational man, was not "He must've walked out".  He saw him beaten.  He saw him die and he is still grieving the loss.  What cruel new insult now is this to the memory of his beloved Lord?

They did not even recognize him as he talked to them (v16), but their hearts burned like fire within them as he spoke.  It was not until they ate with him as he broke the bread that they knew Him(v30-31).  It is not until they touched him (v39) that they believed for they all had doubt in their minds (v38).  No one comes to believe that Christ is risen until they reach out to touch him.  And when we've touched him, He touches us.

Titus 2:9-10

"Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive."

One of the big questions today is "How do I make scripture relevant to my listeners?" and the answer doesn't lie in fancy presentations, funny skits, or flashy videos.  It lies in living holy and blameless lives, in being hospitable, a lover of what is good, self-controlled, upright,and disciplined.  Even when people hate us (and they will hate us), their testimony will be discredited because they have nothing bad to say about us.

Sadly, our enemies have plenty of bad things to say about us and most of them have good reason to say them.  It takes only one action to completely destroy any and all credibility you once held.  Trust can be re-earned, but it will never be where it was before.

Our only hope, then, is to pick up the slack of those who have dropped the rope.  We know God is anchoring the back and He isn't going anywhere, but with God's empowerment we must redouble our efforts to love and prove ourselves trustworthy.  "If we only do what we have always done we will only get what we already have."

If you want the Gospel to be relevant to others, live like the Gospel is relevant to you.

Ephesians 5:15-17

"Be very careful, then, how you live -- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is."


It's really easy to waste time.  You do it.  I do it.  We've got so much time that we have time to kill.  But do we?

You've heard it said that we should "live like there is no tomorrow" and not waste any opportunity, but in reality you will always have tomorrow and eternity.  Anyone who is in Christ has died already to sin, how can they die again?  And if we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Perhaps the saying should be "live like you'll live forever".  Every opportunity that God gives you to do a good deed he has given you so that you might be blessed in doing them as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do."

If you refuse the gifts, then you don't get them, simple as that.  We live a fallen world and we make the best of every situation because it is the Lord's will for the redemption of this world.  Every opportunity passed over is a grace forfeited so be careful how you live, not as foolish but with wisdom.  Do the best you can with what you have.

Titus 3:14

"Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives."


Why should we do good rather than evil if in the end nothing we do is righteous to God and no sin can ever separate us from Christ crucified?  As Paul writes in Titus, there are two very practical reasons among many others.  First that we might provide for daily necessities and secondly not live unproductive lives.

We do good in order to bless others by providing for their basic needs and in return they bless us with gifts of humility and joy.  In addition we receive blessings from God and store up for ourselves treasures in heaven.  In so doing, we live productive lives because we are literally working for that which is eternal and does not rust or decay.  Nothing we do in this life is productive because ultimately everything in this world passes away.  How many ancients civilizations have there been with astounding technology lost forever to time?  No doubt they thought they were being productive at the time, but in the end they are forgotten as if they had never been.

And it all starts with hearts and minds transformed by the Holy Spirit.  So then we give ourselves over to Him so that we may be self-controlled, hospitable, upright, holy, and disciplined so that in every way we will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

James 2:17

"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."


The old joke goes that James is a Catholic Epistle because it just makes you feel guilty reading it. But there is some truth to it.

Faith in many respects can be imagined as a tree.  If your heart is ready to receive the seed of God's word, God will grow it in you to maturity.  How he does this is a mystery, but because it is His eternal life which animates our faith tree, we too share in it.  But if the tree bears no fruits or works, it must be a dead tree good only for the fire.  If the tree is dead, so is the person for God is not in it.  Neither can we hope to make fruit without the tree.  Such things aren't fruit but only made of sticks and mud.

So often can we divorce faith and action.  We are more than happy to pray for people, but it's a different matter altogether to sit with someone and enter into their pain.  If we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we just want to pray for people to get them to stop crying since it's making us uncomfortable.  The Bible teaches us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. (Rom 12:15) Indeed a Christian life should be marked with the highest of joys and the profoundness of sorrows.