Unprofitable Faith

An Exposition on the Book of James Part 8

If you haven’t yet, please check out part 1 of this series, The ideas of James are all centered around the idea of a perfectly forged faith that makes us perfect.

There are some people who have turned faith into a money-making machine. They have twisted passages of the Bible to manipulate hearers into giving them money. There are people who live off of extortion of faith. Unfortunately, some people get rich off of this type of faith, but in reality, it is a faith that doesn’t profit anyone. Imagin that I sold matches to people. I told people that these matches were waterproof and long lasting. each match would burn for 20 seconds and that in an emergency they could be taken out of the package and struck against any hard surface and ignite. now, in reality all I was selling was toothpicks. If you tried to use that stick to light a fire it wouldn’t work. They didn’t profit you. When you bought the sticks, you believed me; you had faith that I was selling matches. But that faith turned out to be misplaced. Many people today have faith in the wrong things. They are doing yoga to gain a hirer consciousness of the “god inside.” There are many people, who even claim to be Christians, but the belief they have is in what someone told them the Bible said, and not what it really meant. this is faith that does nothing to profit the holder of it. It is not that they do not have faith, but their faith is in the wrong substance.

In the book of James, we are confronted with a faith that does not profit. This type of faith is not accompanied by works. Works here can be seen as the fruit of faith. Is an apple tree profitable to the owner if it never bears apples? The whole point of the tree is to receive fruit. James starts this line of thinking with a question. what is the profit? If there are no works that are produced, why keep the faith. keep in mind here the audience that James is pointedly speaking to, Israelites, scattered throughout the world, suffering because – perceivably because of their faith in Jesus Christ. He is talking to Saved, Suffering, Israelites. He is not asking Hindus, about their faith and its profit. He is not asking Catholics about their faiths profit. He is talking to Christian believers and asking them, about their faith.

I want to remind you, the point of this letter is to explain how a Christian can have a perfectly forged faith and why they want one. With that in mind, James is simply challenging them to look at their own belief structure and to see if their lives are aligning with it, He has just challenged them about being a respecter of persons and explained that they do not want to become self-righteous. Now he is saying your faith should be bearing fruit. I would say that it is not a stretch to include the fruit of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self, as a fruit (or work) of their faith.

“Can faith save him?” is the next question. It is important to understand what James is saying here. There are several bad doctrines that can come from misunderstanding Jame’s point here. The answer to his question is an apparent no. This may be shocking to some who – like myself – believe that Salvation is through faith alone. We hold to verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV Ephesians 2:8-9King James Version “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” While it may not appear so at first glance, these verses are not contradicting one another. We are saved by a belief in What Christ did for us on the Cross. He took our sin and paid our debt with his blood, and the only thing we must do is believe (that is faith) and receive. It is not earned – that is not of works. However, it does take more than faith to be saved. This is, the faith must be based on fact. Just like the matches, if you were counting on the toothpicks to start a lifesaving fire, your faith is profitless. Then too, if Christ had not preformed the work on the cross than our faith would be as meaningless as a Buddhist’s. A belief is a belief. If it is false, then your faith is profitless. So then, can faith save you?

James illustrates his point by showing that if there is someone begging for close and food and all you do is tell them to be bless and filled, they are going to walk away and potentially die. If they were trusting in your words to feed them than their faith was profitless. It did not produce anything for them. It is not faith that saves, it is Christ and his shed blood on the cross that saves. That is why it doesn’t matter if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, because he is true and what he says is right and to the degree you trust him is the same degree than you will be empowered by him.

Be careful that your faith is routed in the truth of God’s Holy Word. If your are placing your faith in anything else it will not profit. It does me no good to go to the bank and in faith write a check to cash for a thousand dollars if there is only five dollars in the account. As much as I might believe something and want something to be true it doesn’t make it so.

I don’t believe James is trying to motivate people to do more work. I think he is trying to motivate people to have a perfect faith; one that is established on the work of Christ and then as a fruit of that faith it should produce a like fruit. If you plant an apple seed, you will not get a grape vine. If you are trusting in the word of God and it then tells you that God will provide all of your needs, then you should not be worried about meeting your own needs but should be trying to meet the needs of others. I think James is hinting to this by the example he uses.

I think it would be wise to stop and think for a minute, are the things that I believe producing a profitable fork or work in my life? We may find that we have bought into a lot of the lies that the world is constantly pushing upon us.

James 2:14-17 KJV

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

S.T.
Acts 20:24
"But none of these things move me..."