For today’s blog I want to focus on the subject matter of The General Epistle of James chapter 2, found in The New Testament. I want to particularly focus on verse 14. This verse reads, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” The rest of the chapter focuses on answering this question.
I love this question. It’s an excellent question. My blogs have focused on faith: faith in God, faith in the Savior Jesus Christ, faith to raise a family, and other such topics. So what exactly is faith?
In the Bible Dictionary used by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, faith is defined as “hope for things which are not seen, but which are true”. (This conclusion was drawn from Hebrews 11:1 and Alma 32:21.) So our faith is hope: hope that God is real, hope that we once lived with Heavenly Father and can live with Him again, hope the Savior redeemed us from our fallen state, hope in the promised blessings of the family. All of these hopes, and the multitude of others, are great hopes.
But what good are they without works? How can our faith help us if we refuse to act on our faith?
For example, consider the Atonement of Jesus Christ. If we have faith in the Atonement but choose not to forsake our sins, do we receive the blessings promised by the Atonement? We cannot be cleansed of our sins because they are still there. We cannot gain life like God without forsaking our sins because we couldn’t abide His presence. So our faith was useless in this case because we chose not to act.
Consider the possible outcomes of faith. We can have faith in truth and choose to act according to that faith. As we do we start to see the fruits of our labor becoming reality. Our faith is strengthened as we learn it really works. We believe more and choose to act accordingly. As a result our faith grows into knowledge that what we believed is true. We learn more of Jesus Christ until we see Him and receive the blessings He has promised us. Our family becomes stronger and grows into a happy family united for time and all eternity. We gain what we hope for and have faith in.
We can have faith in that which is not true and choose to act. In this case we start acting according to our faith only to find the desired results don’t come about. We learn our faith is not founded in truth, so we turn away from this faith and focus on others. Our knowledge grows as we learn what is not true.
We can also have faith in that which is not true and choose not to act on it. Sadly we never learn we are mistaken and never have the opportunity to learn what really is true.
Finally, we can have faith in that which is true and choose not to act. In this case we don’t help that which we hope for to become reality. Because of this we never learn it is really true and never gain the knowledge of it. We lose our faith as we never see the promised blessings.
So what good is faith without works? It isn’t any good at all. What good is faith with works? It teaches us reality and gains us what we hope for. So when you place your faith in anything, find out what action is required to bring about the desired outcome. Then act.
Faith without works reminds me of the story where God sent fiery serpents to Moses' people. Those who were bitten died, but those who simply looked at a staff of a serpent were healed. What good is someone's faith if they are not willing to act on it? Faith without works is buying the garden seeds, but refusing to plant them.
ReplyDelete