Yay for Brendan, and memorizing the rest of James together (starting halfway through chapter 2) here’s this week’s verses..
James 2:14-17
What good is it my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? (15) Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food.(16) 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? (17) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Just to clarify! God doesn’t want us to “earn” our way into heaven by being ‘good people’ or doing ‘good deeds’. Jesus makes it soo clear that nothing we do will ever earn us a spot in Heaven..when he died, completely sinless,He became the perfect sacrifice. All we have to do to be Christians and get into heaven is believe that Jesus is God, was man, and died and rose again..What James(the author of this letter) is saying here is that as Christians we are called not just to pray for people/wish them well and then do nothing to help! Jesus radically gave up everything and we’re called to live lives of service too…this is what I want my life to look like.
