You have faith but don’t show it ...

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What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? -James 2:14-16 NLT

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Interesting how James pivots from judging how a person treats the wealthy and to judging that person's faith by their actions. In these beginning chapters he seems to be interested in telling his readers what it really means to have a relationship with God. He tells us that having "pure and genuine religion" means having joy in trials, praying for wisdom, enduring temptation, caring for the helpless and keeping oneself unstained from worldly and ungodly thinking.

Now he appears to be distilling this genuine religion down to one word - faith. I love it how he defines the word as a force that has the ability to change the way we act. Instead of defining faith as something that causes us to love church services he tells us that it is something that causes us to love our neighbors. I think that genuine faith always produces love - and love is always shown in what we do. In essence James is speaking to us about both faith and love.

Help us Lord. It is so easy to keep our faith hidden. Lead us to be moved by compassion and to love our neighbors..

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