Beautiful reflections on a complicated topic! Any discussion of faith and works takes me back to high school. I was born and raised Catholic but I spent most of my growing up years in parts of the country where I was in the minority. In SE New Mexico, where I went to high school, I used to get a lot of questions from other students and even teachers on theological questions, often out of the blue. Faith vs Works was a very popular topic and my stance, as well as the Church’s teaching, was very much your conclusion. Faith is a relationship with God that bears the fruit of works. The two are inseparable and Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, and so on otherwise He won’t know us at the Final Judgement. We can’t compartmentalize faith, it must overflow or it will wither. We can’t love and believe in God and refuse to see Him in His created beings. And in seeing them, we should be called to action. Yet we fall short and always will fall short, which is ok because we can’t save ourselves, we can’t do anything without God’s grace and faith. That is what so many political structures get wrong, we can’t save ourselves, wipe out all hunger and need, but our task is to strive throughout this life and try. And in the striving we get closer , with God’s grace, to who we were meant to be and help others to see Him.
Your comments on James’ writing style made me think of Chesterton. When I first started reading his writing, it was a bit confusing because he structured his points so differently than I was used to. Over time my brain was rewired and it became easier. It would be interesting to compare the two styles for similarities.
You’re right, Jennifer! I hadn’t thought how Chesterton does this kind of structural dance, but that makes so much sense. I read The Everlasting Man with a couple friends this year and we spent a good bit of the time trying to follow his thinking. It was so rich, though.
I love your perspective on faith and works from your experience as a Catholic. It’s a different view than the Catholicism I saw as a kid in the Philippines and in our two years in Mexico. There the works are very much a necessity for salvation, and they put a pretty heavy burden on people. I think that’s one of the ways this point gets confused. The way you’re putting it definitely connects with what I’m seeing. I do admit, the word “striving” makes me wince a bit. I think your use is the accurate one—like a runner in a race straining for the finish line. So often, though, it’s used for that checklist kind of effort of do, do, do in order to be acceptable to God.
I can see that. I think Catholics can get bound up in whether they are “doing” enough or “giving” enough and Protestants can get caught in a cycle of wondering if they are saved and how would they know if they were. For a Catholic the question is an open one and lifelong. For many Protestants it is a question of a choice in a properly disposed moment in time. We all end up with hang ups, they just look different. I read Pilgrim’s Progress for the first time several years back and it was enlightening. It highlighted the similarities and the differences in the understanding of salvation.
I read the James again this week after seeing someone on Instagram claim James didn’t understand the Gospel, since the other church leaders in Acts 15 had to correct him on circumcision. As I was reading it I was struck by how similar his tone is to Jesus’ in his many sermons, telling needy people to obey God and receive eternal life.
Sometimes this word is hard to receive because we work so hard against a theology of “earning,” but like you say here, God is a God of synthesis! He can’t be boiled down to simplistic one-liners. Faith means accepting that if His ways are higher than mine, I can’t expect to fully understand how all the parts of Him work together.
James has so many parallels to Jesus! The commentaries I’ve read point out common styles between James and Jesus’ teaching—even Mary’s Magnificat! It really makes your see how even if James rejected Jesus’ teaching before the resurrection, he still grew up in the same family, and was influenced by that.
And I love to think about how these early Jewish Christians were sort of feeling their way into this New Covenant. They weren’t perfect, but you can see James’ wisdom and willingness to listen and learn, both in this letter and in the other places he appears.
Thank you for your thoughts on this! We just finished a study of the book of James in our Sunday school class. It was interesting to learn some of the history about how it became part of the canon of scripture even though some, like Martin Luther, apparently thought it contradicted the gospel. But I see it as James describing what true faith looks like.
Beautiful reflections on a complicated topic! Any discussion of faith and works takes me back to high school. I was born and raised Catholic but I spent most of my growing up years in parts of the country where I was in the minority. In SE New Mexico, where I went to high school, I used to get a lot of questions from other students and even teachers on theological questions, often out of the blue. Faith vs Works was a very popular topic and my stance, as well as the Church’s teaching, was very much your conclusion. Faith is a relationship with God that bears the fruit of works. The two are inseparable and Jesus tells us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, and so on otherwise He won’t know us at the Final Judgement. We can’t compartmentalize faith, it must overflow or it will wither. We can’t love and believe in God and refuse to see Him in His created beings. And in seeing them, we should be called to action. Yet we fall short and always will fall short, which is ok because we can’t save ourselves, we can’t do anything without God’s grace and faith. That is what so many political structures get wrong, we can’t save ourselves, wipe out all hunger and need, but our task is to strive throughout this life and try. And in the striving we get closer , with God’s grace, to who we were meant to be and help others to see Him.
Your comments on James’ writing style made me think of Chesterton. When I first started reading his writing, it was a bit confusing because he structured his points so differently than I was used to. Over time my brain was rewired and it became easier. It would be interesting to compare the two styles for similarities.
Thank you for sharing this piece!
You’re right, Jennifer! I hadn’t thought how Chesterton does this kind of structural dance, but that makes so much sense. I read The Everlasting Man with a couple friends this year and we spent a good bit of the time trying to follow his thinking. It was so rich, though.
I love your perspective on faith and works from your experience as a Catholic. It’s a different view than the Catholicism I saw as a kid in the Philippines and in our two years in Mexico. There the works are very much a necessity for salvation, and they put a pretty heavy burden on people. I think that’s one of the ways this point gets confused. The way you’re putting it definitely connects with what I’m seeing. I do admit, the word “striving” makes me wince a bit. I think your use is the accurate one—like a runner in a race straining for the finish line. So often, though, it’s used for that checklist kind of effort of do, do, do in order to be acceptable to God.
I can see that. I think Catholics can get bound up in whether they are “doing” enough or “giving” enough and Protestants can get caught in a cycle of wondering if they are saved and how would they know if they were. For a Catholic the question is an open one and lifelong. For many Protestants it is a question of a choice in a properly disposed moment in time. We all end up with hang ups, they just look different. I read Pilgrim’s Progress for the first time several years back and it was enlightening. It highlighted the similarities and the differences in the understanding of salvation.
“For many Protestants it is a question of a choice in a properly disposed moment in time.”
Ha! This is so true!
Isn’t it great to be able to study the different views? It helps so much in understanding and refining what we believe.
I read the James again this week after seeing someone on Instagram claim James didn’t understand the Gospel, since the other church leaders in Acts 15 had to correct him on circumcision. As I was reading it I was struck by how similar his tone is to Jesus’ in his many sermons, telling needy people to obey God and receive eternal life.
Sometimes this word is hard to receive because we work so hard against a theology of “earning,” but like you say here, God is a God of synthesis! He can’t be boiled down to simplistic one-liners. Faith means accepting that if His ways are higher than mine, I can’t expect to fully understand how all the parts of Him work together.
So true—God is a God of synthesis—I like that.
James has so many parallels to Jesus! The commentaries I’ve read point out common styles between James and Jesus’ teaching—even Mary’s Magnificat! It really makes your see how even if James rejected Jesus’ teaching before the resurrection, he still grew up in the same family, and was influenced by that.
And I love to think about how these early Jewish Christians were sort of feeling their way into this New Covenant. They weren’t perfect, but you can see James’ wisdom and willingness to listen and learn, both in this letter and in the other places he appears.
Yes! That’s so insightful. It would be pretty arrogant of us to reject someone’s wisdom because they aren’t perfect.
Thank you for your thoughts on this! We just finished a study of the book of James in our Sunday school class. It was interesting to learn some of the history about how it became part of the canon of scripture even though some, like Martin Luther, apparently thought it contradicted the gospel. But I see it as James describing what true faith looks like.
That is a great idea for a Sunday School class! Thanks for giving us a peek.
And now we're an extension of your Sunday class. :) Love this.
Happy to include you!