James 2

It is so easy to judge people. We look at what they are wearing and we think that we know who they are. What is in the heart of a man? Even if we fully understood, do we really pretend to know why God has sent this particular person to be a part of this specific congregation.

The body of Christ is one. When we start splitting up the worshiping assembly into groups, we can so easily become judges with evil thoughts. The point of reference that divides is self. Self makes distinctions between various members of the Lord's family based on what each person can do for it. Jesus is the reference point that unites. He loves all who are in Christ. We are all valuable in Him. We are loved and are worthy of love.

The way of self is the way of the world. But Jesus is King over all and the Lord of all providence. He has chosen those that the world would never choose as His beloved children. Will we disagree with Jesus about the worth of others based on our own assessments? He has blessed the poor, granting faith in Christ to many who are weak. Yet now they are co-heirs of heaven with Christ, and they shall inherit the earth. Will we dishonor a man whom God has so richly blessed? And then we rush to show deference to the rich, the famous, the powerful, and the popular, though so many of the beautiful people of success have persecuted the church. Would we side with Herod and Herodia as those who would be able to do so much for our good cause? Yet she came up with the idea of putting the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and he agreed to her entrapment to protect his own pride.

It is not a new idea that we should follow the Lord's assessment of people created in His image. God has given us a sure guide for practical relations with those around us: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” To ignore this directive is to break the Law of God.

God has also called us to be merciful as He is merciful. We have found liberty in Christ, through His death and resurrection. Will we insist on judgment without mercy in our relationship with others?

To have a heart of mercy and to love, these are requirements of true faith. Someone who insists that they have faith, but who is not merciful and who will not love, can he have real faith? Faith is more than an intellectual assent. It is a full resting of the soul on the mercies and love of God in Christ. It must yield works, or it is not a living faith at all. Only a living faith saves.

Living faith displaces self from the focal point of existence. God in Christ is Savior and Lord, and the people of faith are brothers and sisters to be loved. We look to their happiness, not because we can get something from them, that would be self taking the lead again, but because of Jesus, who loves them. The community that has been saved is a community where faith works through love.

Mercy and love are the works that flow from faith. If the heart is not alive, the blood does not move through all the systems of the body, providing nourishment to every member. But if the heart is alive, then the blood will be moving and serving. How can we insist that our hearts are alive in the truth of Christ if our hands will not serve one another out of reverence for the Lord?

The devil does not have a living faith. He believes, and he has a certain kind of fear of God, but self has never given way to Christ as the reference point of a life of love and mercy. The children of the devil among men are the same way, no matter how much they say that they have faith.

Real faith is alive with the actions of heavenly life. Abraham had that kind of faith, and it was credited to Him as righteousness. What if he had claimed to believe the voice of God, but then turned away from that true voice when the words became too hard for him to obey? In that case self would have still been the reference point of his living. But if God is the true focal point of life, then faith, when tested, will be proven or “justified” by obedience.

Jesus believed the voice of God calling Him to the obedience of love and mercy. This was not external to Him, but fully and perfectly alive within Him. He believed and He followed. Where would we be without the perfect living faith of Jesus Christ? The root of our salvation is in Him. Everything else, however commendable it may be, is only our response to what has been perfectly accomplished for us by our Lord. Where the soul embraces the Savior who embraced our sinful lives on the cross, mercy and love must be lived out, however imperfectly. Living faith finds real people to love.

We are friends of God in Jesus Christ through this active faith. Faith makes friends with others in the Name of Jesus. The people of faith hear the voice of God, and they take actions that may cost them. This was the faith Rahab had when she hid the spies in the day when Joshua led the people of God in the conquest of Canaan. If Rahab had said that she believed the voice of God, but then turned over the Israelites to their enemies, could she have had a credible claim to true faith in the God of Israel? But Rahab the prostitute was saved by a living faith in the Redeemer of Israel.

The body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is not faith at all. Our Joshua, Jesus Christ, has the singular reference point of our faith. Because of Jesus, self must give way to the mercy and love of Christ. He is Lord.