One of the great themes of the Bible is the concept of faith. We are told that ‘It is impossible to please God apart from faith (Heb. 11:6). When the disciples were struggling and unable to deliver a young boy from a demonic attack, Jesus told them it was because they had so little faith. Then he told the disciples that if they had faith as small as a mustard seed, they would have prevailed. Jesus called it mountain-moving faith (Matt. 17:20). We know from Scripture that salvation from sin and death is a gift acquired by faith (Eph. 2:8-10). So, what is biblical faith, and how do we know when we have it?
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
If we continued to read Hebrews 11, we would discover that faith produced specific outcomes, and it is to this reality about faith that James is addressing in the first two chapters.
There was a social tension that invaded even the church world in the 1st Century that James addresses. When we consider that slaves made up between 10-20 percent of the population in the Roman Empire, many of whom came to faith in Christ, there was economic disparity or inequality in that society. We see from James 1 and the beginning of James 2 that there is a tension between the rich and poor in the church. It is within this context that we need to read how genuine believers act when they find fellow believers in need. James now attaches this issue to 2:14-26 with the nature of faith.
So, how does biblical faith express itself in life? Biblical or genuine faith that is more than simply a mere confession of belief, but a faith that transforms the behaviour of the person who possesses it. James begins by raising the question: Can a faith that has no outward evidence in life be a biblical, saving faith? James now gives us his answer and describes three things that are understood as faith, but only one of them is genuine. The tragedy is that the other two expressions leave a person living in a state of self-deception and have eternal consequences.
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