James M

The point by James is that good works are the evidence of salvation; Christ saving and living in saved person should lead that believer to habitually do the good works. The foregoing is no contradiction to Paul's assertion that works cannot save. Paul's point is that no amount or extent of good works can bring about salvation. God saves purely by grace through Jesus. For instance, Paul's own account is that Jesus graciously reached out to him while he was in the very process of dong "bad works" against Christ's church! He spent the rest of his life focused of doing the work of Christ, as evidence of salvation by grace ! Cornelius of Ceaseria (Acts 10) had great "good works" to show but salvation only came after the Holy Spirit lead apostle Peter reach out to and baptize him. We are saved not because of any works, however good, but purely by grace. However, if no good works are produced by our faith, there is a problem with our salvation. That is James' point.

Faith begins with belief and grows in the heart of a believer. If faith does not move the heart of the believer to respond, then it can in that sense be referred to as dead. Faith should ideally result in good deeds i.e. inward actions like , prayer, meditation, singing..etc or outward action like meeting physical needs, giving alms, sharing faith...etc Such a response can be said to be evidence that faith is alive.

By practicing favouritism, we diplay preference for certain people or type of people over others thus playing judging them as "better" than others. Thus we only manage to make ourselves evil judges since only God can judge justly as ours is mostly biased.

1. I find myself somewhat unenthusiatic about welcoming home or to church people who are unkempt, "suspicious -looking", those who display evidence of adherence to other religions or the outwardly 'immoral'. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we profess to follow, often went out of His way to reach out to people and even dine that the clergy of His day considered "sinners' - examples Lk 7:37-39, Lk 15:1,2. I believe He did this not only because He really loves every sinner (which means every one of us) regardless of background of status but also to teach us. It's humbling to realize that He left behind a 1st century church that included people who had been converted from all sorts of backgrounds! I/we need to repeatedly repent from such prejudicial attitudes and to continue helping Jesus to build the kind of all-inclusive church He always envisaged! 2. I belong to an evangestic movement and I (and my church community) tend to focus on either the "potential leaders" , the youthful , well-educated, the sharp (professional or otherwise well-to-do), or those who seem "eager for the word". I/we should be rather learn from Jesus who went from village to village and town to town meeting all kinds of people to assure them that they are welcome to His kingdom by repenting only. Surprisingly and contrary to our current tendencies, He particularly confronted and often challenged the religious and the powerful of His day! Matt 23:10-35 It's somewhat ironical and even shameful that we could be favouring the same kind of people that Jesus often disagreed and contended with!

1. I find myself somewhat unenthusiatic about welcoming home or the to church people who are unkempt, "suspicious -looking", openly displaying evidence of adherence to other religions or outwardly 'immoral'. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we profess to follow often went out of His way to reach out to people and even dine that the clergy of His day considered "sinners' - examples Luke7:37-391 Lk15:1-2. I believe this not only because He really cares for every sinner (which means every one of us) regardless of background of status. It's humbling to realize that He left behind a 1st century that included people who had been converted from all sorts of background! I/we need to repeatedly repent from this prejudicial attitude and thusvcontinue helping Jesus to build the kind of church He always envisaged 2. I belong to an evangestic movement and I (and my community) tend to focus on either the "potential leaders" , the youthful , well-educated, the sharp (professional or otherwise well-to-do), or those who seem "eager for the word". I/we should be rather learn from Jesus who went from village to village and town to town meeting all kinds of people to assure they they are welcome to His kingdom by repenting only. Surprisingly and in contrast to our tendencies He particularly challenged the religious and the powerful of His day!

God desires that we speak less and listen more (Jam. 1:19).Our focus should rather be on deeds that are helpful and uplifting to others. Our toungues often falter and utter that are hurtful to others and prideful. When we're helping needy (ophans and widows), our focus goes to their needs as we cannot expect them to reciprocate and they are not in a position to pay us back. God thus regards our selfless focus and loving deeds as pure and faultless religion. This could be because christianity is best defined by the lifestyle of our Lord Jesus who lived a selfless life, meeting the needs of all those He came across. Similarly we ought to live for His glory and the benefit of others (2 Cor.5:15).

The scriptures reveal our real condition of heart and mind. Listening to the word or reading it should convict us of sinful acts or attitudes that we need to change. If we ignore and make no attempt to change or improve, then we have not allowed God's to impact our lives and enable us to grow spiritually. That way we decieve ourselves and continue to bear the same flaws or incompleteness that God's "mirror" has reflected in our lives. Thus we decieve ourselves by merely reading but not applying God's word in our lives by doing what it tells us. It can also encourage us to do the right things even more. In that case, we need to not to give up or deceive ourselves in that we've attained a certain level or spiritual status. Instead we should continue doing the right thingsbwith the right attitude thereby attracting God's blessings in whatever we're doing.

When we read the Bible, which is the word of truth, we get a chance to obey and apply the word in our lives.By living according to the word inspired by the Holy Spirit, we experience a spiritual life. This spiritual life begins with repentance and baptism in Jesus' name, submitting Christ's lordship over our lives, as a second birth. In His discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:1-18), Jesus emphasizes that being born again is mandatory in joining God's spiritual kongdom that is indestructible and everlasting (Dan2:44). Continued reading of the written word as we speak to the "word/truth that became flesh" i.e. Jesus through prayers, sustains the spiritual life.