By Leo SekoereIn one of his epistles,James asks a very powerful question: " what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?"-James2:14 (NIV). He's saying,If your Faith cannot save you then why believe in vain?
We live in a generation that believes that as long as we quote bible verses and believe that Jesus is real,we don't have to do anything else to maintain relationship with God. Therefore we have lulled ourselves into a false sense of assurance that faith unaccompanied by anything else can please God.
Hebrews11:6 says "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes (deed) to him must believe (faith) that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.". In this verse we are exposed to two important themes; faith and deeds. This process would be fruitless if one had to "come" to him without believing that he exists and He rewards ...Like wise, it would still be unproductive if we believed that he is real but we stayed in our darkness and refused to "come".
Dead Faith is Faith without actions-James 2:26. Many Christians have helplessly fallen into the arms of dead faith. They know about Jesus and openly proclaim their faith but their deeds don't correspond. 1John Chapter 2 tells us that if we claim to know him (faith) but do not obey his commands (deeds) we are liars and the truth is not in us. How harsh, yet true!
God gets glorified when His children couple their faith with actions. When we truly step into the light and disappoint the darkness . When we refuse to conform to the standards of this world (deeds), simply because we believe that we are not of this world (faith).
This all reminds me of Daniel. He was in a foreign land but he was very radical about his faith.He was okay with being different, set apart for God's use #Holy. This earned him favour with God and Men (Daniel 1:8-9) at one point he defied the King's orders not to pray to his God and this landed him in the den of lions. Chapter 6:22 tells us that the Lions did not eat him because he was found innocent before God and man. That's powerful! I think we can all take a pause here and reflect on our lives! Are we innocent before God and man with our faith?
In verse 26-27 we read that the King was so deeply impacted by Daniel's faith that he issued a decree that The
God of Daniel must be revered and feared. This is the true test of living faith! Does your faith bring glory to God? Does it inspire others to believe in him too? If your answer is yes, then you are not a victim of dead faith.
(James 1:21-25..."Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror
and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does."-NIV
I pray that you use this word of God as a mirror and allow it to show you how you look.
