Works are faith in action

Faith and Works Always Go Together

Is faith in Christ enough?

Is faith in Christ enough for Christians?  Is faith the most important thing in our lives reducing everything else to a secondary position where they are optional but not essential?   This is an argument insisting that the spiritual is more important for the Church than the earthly, than community social needs.   Save the souls, they argue, and the rest is nowhere near as important.  While it is unlikely to be proclaimed as bluntly at this, the Church is about saving souls not addressing social needs.  A way to test this hypothesis is to ponder our parish operations, the priorities of our parish councils and diocesan boards.  Can we establish how much time and energy goes into mission and how much time and energy goes into “other” things.  That can be left for others to pick up.  According to this rationale, the main function of Christians is to proclaim the message of spiritual salvation through Jesus Christ without wasting time for social actions that can distract us from what is important.

It is not that addressing social issues has no value, but according to this way of thinking, it is not essential to be socially engaged, and such activities can serve as a distraction from what is truly important.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking sets up a false dichotomy between the spiritual and the earthly.  Faith and works are not enemies, not competing for our meagre resources, our hearts and our faith lives.  They always go together. Both are part of God's grace in our lives and never contradict each other in true believers.

Faith without works of charity is a sham faith

The good works that we can do are as much the result of divine grace as are our faith lives in Christ Jesus.   It is grace that produces in us the desire to reach out to those in need, which illuminates the face of Christ in those who are suffering (Phil. 2:13… for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure). This is the way Jesus works in our lives, linking both the spiritual and the earthly dimensions of our faith. A spiritual gospel without earthly action and a social gospel without faith in Christ is incomplete.  They diminish the works of Christ himself, works of mercy carried out in the community, when he healed the sick, embraced those who were declared to be unclean, the rejected, lepers, and pagans.  They too were crucial to his ministry, signs of the Kingdom of God among us. 

This union is the missionary vision of which James writes extensively.  The Word of God teaches us our faith in Christ and our actions to serve others must always be inseparably united. It cannot be said that one area can function without the other since they should be indivisible areas in which no contradiction is found. Faith and works cannot be separated as some suggest, since a faith that is not manifested in good works is not true faith.

The letter of James is an "epistle of straw"

Unfortunately, there is a tendency to split these two, placing an emphasis faith alone, or works (without a specific Jesus element).  Of course, this is one reason Martin Luther belittled the letter to James, rejecting it as a biblical letter of any value, referring to it as an “epistle of straw”.  James undermined his message of faith over works, which was a battle cry of the Reformation. Looking back, it seems a tad ironical that in pushing for a “Bible only” Christian religion, he left out or belittled a biblical book.

James simply emphasises that faith and works are inseparable elements of Christ's saving work in our lives. James warns us about hiding in a merely theoretical faith with no practical relevance… What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (James 2).

We do not know what problems were facing James’ Church, but it appears as though there were some who wanted to follow Christ and were content to keep their faith private, away from any social responsibility.  James teaches how this is impossible.

There is one certainty with James and that is that he pulls no spiritual punches.  If believers do not care for the needy around them, their faith is meaningless:  Hebrews 13:16… Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.  James affirms that faith without works is dead.

James concludes his argument in verse 26 this way:  As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Our faith in Christ and our actions for the benefit of others are indivisible parts of God's grace in our lives. We cannot know God if we do not serve Him and we cannot serve God if we do not know Him and in our serving of others, we serve the risen Christ in the other person… Ephesians 4:28…Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Conclusion:

Any inconsistency between the Christianity we profess and our actions in the world, especially when it comes to the poor, the marginalised and the needy around us, results from an incomplete gospel. All that we are is thanks to God's grace and our actions are the way we also proclaim the loving mercy of Christ to everyone around us (2 Cor. 2:15).  Loving care proclaims the Good News of the Kingdom of God more eloquently than works done in faith.

Bishop Michael Hough                                                                                 June 2025