“How dare you judge me! How dare you push your values on me!”
Ever hear of that being said of someone you knew, or maybe, it was directed
toward you personally? Since I am in the arena of presenting and promoting the
worldview of Scripture to the world, I have been the object of that kind of
rant. From the world, I get it; they resent the light passionately (cf. Jn
3:19), but from those claiming to be believers saying something like that, I don’t get it. Sometimes, I think
there is a heart of a tare in some who sport the Christian way, but I am
judging, of course, (cf. Jn 7:24).
It was James Joyce (1882-1941, an influential Irish novelist)
who once said that “The actions of men are the best interpreters of their
thoughts.” Boy, JJ was too rough on humanity; don’t you think!? No, actually,
he was spot on with that assessment! His words are not revolutionary at all;
for James, the Lord’s half-brother said as much way back in the first century
and called it like he saw it under inspiration (2 Tim 3:16-17),
So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces
good deeds, it is dead and useless…Just as the body is dead without breath, so
also faith is dead without good works (Jas
2:17, 26, NLT).
Fruit (or actions, works, etc) reveals the thinking of a person.
The walk is a better metric of one’s true belief than the lips (Mt 15:8). I love the
boldness and candor of Jesus’ half-brother; he used himself as an example of
true faith,
Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my
faith by my works (Jas 2:18b).
Talk about fruit revealing the tree – “the actions of men are
the best interpreters of their thoughts!” James, the Lord’s half-brother, is
simply illustrating that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:20). If
we claim to be an apple tree, for instance, there will be apples. Our faith
will reveal we are truly an apple tree by our fruit! Even the world will spot
the obvious; we are of Jesus! Was it not Jesus who said,
A tree is known by its fruit (Mt
12:33)?
The fruit is what reveals our faith to the eyes of the beholder.
Ever hear of the Latin phrase, facta non verba? It means deeds, not
words. In other words, actions speak louder than words. We have all experienced
someone whose actions spoke so loudly that you could not hear what they were
saying. I have two volumes of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s (1803-1882, a leader of the
transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century) works in my
library; I do not care for his worldview, but he did say something poignant
about our actions; that at times, we can speak so loudly to others by our deeds
that they cannot hear what we are saying (something to that effect).
Perhaps in our moments of personal hypocrisy, we cluelessly
cause others to go tone-deaf to our words because our talk and walk do not go
hand in hand. In those times, we desperately are in need of a good and caring
friend to love us enough in the Lord to confront us and point out the
error of our ways whenever our words are being drowned out by our wayward walk.
Perhaps, our Christianity at times falls on deaf ears because we convey a
different message or standard by our lifestyle, yes?
I still loath to hear these words, “Don’t do as I do but as I
say!” Hypocrisy for me has the texture of rough gritty sandpaper being applied
directly to the senses. Nobody can stand hypocrisy but the hypocrite
comfortable in his or her own skin, right? If you shine a light on his or her
contradictions, s(he) usually will hate you for it (Prov 9:8a), but contrast
that to rebuking a wise man (Prov 9:8b; 17:10)!
One of the litmus tests that revealed to me whether an employee
was wise or foolish was during those times of holding employees responsible for
their actions. If you rebuke a foolish employee and hold them accountable,
s(he) will usually hate the boss; if you rebuke a wise employee, their reaction
is different. They will normally embrace accountability and end up
respecting the boss for helping him or her in doing the right thing.
My premise was that a wise man or woman does not like to be unwise;
it was a time of embarrassment for being unwise through wrong choices. S(he) would walk away with a determination to do better.
During those unpleasant times when an employee was guilty of a company
policy violation, it was always interesting to see their initial response when they
were made aware that the company was cognizant of their violating company rules
or standards. The good employee was embarrassed and hard on themselves for
messing up; you could see the contrition stirring within him or her.
For the bad employee caught violating company policy, s(he) was
not embarrassed but showed an attitude of defiance or dismissal with the
shrugging of the shoulders and saying that stuff happens or casting the blame
on someone else or playing the victim card, “I’m only human!” The different
reactions were telling!
Moses (Gn 15:6), James (Jas 2:23), and Paul (Rom 4:3) all
declared that Abraham believed in Yahweh, and He accounted it to Abraham for
righteousness. In other words, Abraham was judicially declared by Yahweh to be
righteous before Him. Abraham was justified by faith evidenced by the fruit of
his faith in the offering of Isaac. It is faith and fruit (works) working
together in a joint role in producing something very beautiful in the eyes of
God (cf. 3 Jn 1:4).
James conclusion in Jas 2:24-26 have some confused about
salvation by interpreting James as saying that justification is a combination
of faith plus something,
(Jas 2:24) You see then that a man is justified by works,
and not by faith only.
(Jas 2:25) Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also
justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out
another way?
(Jas 2:26) For as the body without the spirit is
dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Granted, it appears that is what James is saying by citing Moses
in Gn 15:6 in Jas 2:23, but James isn’t saying that Abraham was justified by faith
plus works (fruit). For that would nullify the idea of grace (cf. Rom 11:6; Eph
2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
This apparent tension is relieved by understanding that there
are two viewpoints on justification or being judicially declared righteous by Yahweh:
Godward and manward. The spiritual reality is that God justified Abraham the
very moment that he believed (Gn 15:6), apart from any works.
It is the same with us, but people cannot see the reality of our
faith within our hearts, only God. Man can only see that faith by the fruit we
produce in our lives. Therefore, if we claim to be an apple tree, we must
produce the apples! God sees our faith; God knows we are an apple tree, but man
can only tell by our fruit, bearing witness of what kind of tree we are. Thus,
there is no contradiction between Jas 2:23 and Jas 2:24-26.
True faith produces fruit worthy of repentance (Mt
3:8). If men do not see our apples, the identity of our tree is in question.
What is the fruit of our lives telling others? If another believer biblically
challenged us on our lifestyle, would we kick up a fuss, or would we repent and
bear fruit worthy of repentance? The latter would definitely be a wise response
from a biblical point of view.
Look, you and I both know that the world is going to hate us
whether we are hypocrites or holy because we belong to the light. God, however,
wants our faith to be fruitful in spite of the world’s opposition to anyone or
anything related to Jesus. How important is it to live a fruit-producing life
of faith?
Well, you know how James, the Lord’s half-brother felt about it;
without fruit in our lives, we have a dead faith (Jas 2:26). Fruit in the life
of a believer reveals the reality of our unseen faith to others. Once we are
identified by the world by our fruit, charges of hypocrisy most certainly will
come because a hypocritical world demands perfection of us, no slip-ups, and no
inconsistencies are tolerated. Have you ever noticed their intolerable
standards placed upon us?
If we are less than holy, we are inviting chastening from the
Lord, and rightfully so. We are commanded to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16).
The fruits of our faith should reveal that we are in love with Jesus (1 Jn 2:3-4, 5-6),
and that love for Him is expressed in heartfelt obedience to His Word, which in
turn produces fruits worthy of repentance. A faith that truly loves (agapao)
the Lord bears only good fruit; a faith that is dead produces nothing of value.
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