James 1:22-25
New Living Translation (NLT)
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| Image by Sigurd Decroos, aka cobrasoft |
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. 23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. 25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
***
This is not a new writing. In fact, I wrote it more than two years ago. I chose to include it here, because I believe it is such an important lesson, and one that I frequently need to be reminded of!
This
morning I woke up, and spent an hour praying and reading the Bible
before even crawling out of bed. I read the book of James and I'm
telling you this because James goes into quite a bit of discussion
about works, what they are, what their purpose is.
Works are an extension of our faith. They are the proof of our faith, the result of our faith, and the catalyst for deeper faith. One analogy that James made really struck me. Part of what I'm about to say is taken directly from scripture, but I'm also expanding on it with my own little ad-lib comments.
If we say we have faith, but we don't do works, it's like we are looking into a mirror, seeing who we really are, and then walking away from that mirror; The mental image of who we are looks better than the truth. Because we're not living our faith through works, we think of ourselves as "prettier" than we really are. We have walked away from the mirror and don't retain the truth. But if we're doing works that give witness to our faith, that mirror is always in front of us.
What happens if we stand in front of a mirror 24/7? We forget it's there, and we quit focusing on what we look like. We just go on about what we're doing, and if what we're doing is acting out our faith and bringing glory to God (i.e. works), then when we glance up and see our reflection in that mirror, we're seeing Christ looking back at us. That is a picture of beauty.
But if all we're doing is standing in front of the mirror preening, we're never going to see Christ looking back at us. all we're gonna see is skin-deep... superficial and hollow, and without substance.
Faith, without works, is dead. Useless. Non-existence. If there are no works, there really is no faith.
Works are an extension of our faith. They are the proof of our faith, the result of our faith, and the catalyst for deeper faith. One analogy that James made really struck me. Part of what I'm about to say is taken directly from scripture, but I'm also expanding on it with my own little ad-lib comments.
If we say we have faith, but we don't do works, it's like we are looking into a mirror, seeing who we really are, and then walking away from that mirror; The mental image of who we are looks better than the truth. Because we're not living our faith through works, we think of ourselves as "prettier" than we really are. We have walked away from the mirror and don't retain the truth. But if we're doing works that give witness to our faith, that mirror is always in front of us.
What happens if we stand in front of a mirror 24/7? We forget it's there, and we quit focusing on what we look like. We just go on about what we're doing, and if what we're doing is acting out our faith and bringing glory to God (i.e. works), then when we glance up and see our reflection in that mirror, we're seeing Christ looking back at us. That is a picture of beauty.
But if all we're doing is standing in front of the mirror preening, we're never going to see Christ looking back at us. all we're gonna see is skin-deep... superficial and hollow, and without substance.
Faith, without works, is dead. Useless. Non-existence. If there are no works, there really is no faith.
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