Working Together

“Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous by what he did when he offered his son Isaac to the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies…” James 2:21-22.

We have all most likely witnessed and have been guilty of actions not living up to claims. The things we claim many times are not really what we believe as testified by our actions. James was very clear on one without the other. In this particular subject of his writings he named two bookends of faith – Abraham, the father of nations, and Rahab, Jericho’s resident prostitute. We all fall within these spiritual bookends as God included in Holy Writ both man and woman from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Even in the story of the Good Samaritan we are given two men of God whose faith is strong but avoid the actions of love that would have represented their strong faith. How many times do we claim the things of God only to ignore one of His children? We read some story that moves our heart but not our hands. We see something for which we should take a spiritual stand but we sit instead. Strong belief will also predicate actions for the good or the bad.

Faith is what we claim – action is what we do out of the overflow of our faith.