Show Me Your Faith

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

James 2:14-17

Someone once said, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up." On the other hand, if your actions don't match up with your words, you're deceiving yourself. A fellow teacher used to talk like she was just the most awesome teacher ever. To listen to her you would think that her students were always on task and just learning up a storm. But, whenever I walked by her room the students were swinging from the chandeliers and she was up there in front of the class oblivious to what was actually going on in front of her. During meetings we would look over data and her class always went down. 

The Christians who James wrote to were trying to say that they had faith that saved them but he was showing that their actions did not match up with their words. Let me put it this way: I can tell my wife I love her all day long but if I don't spend any time with her, if I don't help around the house, if I don't ever do things she wants to do, and spend time with someone else, how am I loving her? 

Christianity is not about the pie in the sky, salvation when we die. Christianity is about loving others by faith, today. I think this section of scripture is really about where reality hits our walks with God. James is talking to his readers about poor people of their congregations who they were pretty much blowing off so they could get the best seats to enhance their own status.  The point is that faith in action is meeting the needs of those around us. 

What need is right in front of your face? Frankly, I tend to think that if someone is sort of in my way, maybe that is who I am supposed to serve, by faith, at this moment. This year there has been several occasions where I was trying to get a certain amount of tasks completed by a certain time and someone asked me a question and I ended up helping them with anything from getting a printer to print to dealing with an immoral aggressive supervisor. The cool thing is I got to share my faith with some and pray for one colleague in his room! 

How do you live out your faith, today?