James 2: 18 – 26
But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith without works is barren? Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness’, and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
Reflection
“I think you can see where God is at work,” the Christian anarchist Dave Andrews told me, “by the fruit.” As far as Dave’s Anabaptist inspired thinking was concerned, if there was love, joy, peace, patience, kindness or any of the good things that get a mention in the letter to the Galatians, in evidence, then God is somewhere in the mix. ‘A good tree’, as Matthew’s gospel has Jesus tell his disciples, ‘produces good fruit.’
The doctrine of ‘sola fide’ – the idea that faith alone is sufficient to save, or as James put it, using a handy courtroom metaphor, ‘justify’ was a key aspect of Reformation thinking – so sharply felt was the need to move away from the toxic, exploitative teachings of the time.
But others have since demurred. Wesleyan thinking, for instance, led to the conviction that holy living is necessary for genuine ‘salvation’, while those rascally Anabaptists tend to think that justification is only the start of a process which is evidenced by ever more Christ like behaviour. Wherever love is at work, they might claim, it will become increasingly evident.
Perhaps the best we can say is that we’re all, to some extent, wrong. And if we can come to terms with that then perhaps we can also come to terms with the idea that we need one another to expose the inadequacies of our arguments. Feminist scholars like to use the metaphor of the patchwork quilt, and we might find that a helpful idea to reflect upon: we need many pieces sewn together to make a whole.
The writers and characters who populate the pages of the Bible, from the austere to the scrappy, and from the troubled to the serene, make a sort of patchwork quilt of their own. Each one with their own agenda and convictions, with her or his own insights and experiences to bring. We can welcome James’ insistence on the importance of works without losing hold of ‘sola fide’ if only we can learn to use a needle and thread.
Prayer
God of:
Abraham and Rahab,
patriarchs and subversives,
mountain altars and daring escapes,
wanderers and wonderers,
reformers and activists,
work in us in your wonderful weak way:
soft slow seeping like water through stone;
like fine-filament roots through hard ground.
Give us a sense, just a hint, or a whiff, or a taste
of the immensity of your reality –
and in so doing, let us know and love you more.
Love one another more.
Amen