“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”
What is the difference between saying you have faith and actually having a genuine faith? Let’s pause and think about what “faith” is for a minute: according to Hebrews 11, faith is the manifestation of hope. We know our hope is in the reality of Jesus as the living God who loves and saves us. So our faith is a tangible demonstration of possessing such a hope, and perhaps is even the vehicle through which we can connect emotionally with hope.
So if we have this incredible, supernatural hope that is manifested internally and externally via faith, why on earth would we waste our time living anything else? Faith isn’t meant to live in your head. Just like a really great idea, faith is only good when it births something real. A good idea that just stays inside your head is totally worthless. You have to carry that idea to fruition before it begins to actually benefit the world.
More than that, to be honest my heart is breaking today reading these verses. Here James is saying that if you see a brother or sister in need and you essentially say, “I’ll pray for you…” but give them nothing, what good is your faith? But much of the American church has so insulated itself that we do not even cross paths with those who are in need. When was the last time you actually had a relationship with a person who had no food or clothing? (They would be hungry and naked, so you’d probably notice.) When the church lives apart from the poor, it is no longer a church.
It’s one of the things I love about following Jesus. People who may not be held up as “great” by an American or earthly standard can (and often do) absolutely rock it with faith. Do you know who lives with the poor? The poor. And in my little corner of the world, I have never seen faith more lived out than among those who get the streets and have been down-and-out. They get it. They know how to live like Jesus without even realizing it. And the only way I can ever hope to make it spiritually is to spend as much time with these Jesus-mentors as I possibly can.