James’ position is that works is the proof of faith not the means of faith!
Years ago, a cartoon poking fun at the modern western church appeared in the New Yorker: The fake advertisement was for the “LITE CHURCH” that boasted of 24% fewer commitments, home of the 7.5 tithe, 15-minute sermon, 45-minute worship service. They had only 8 commandments instead of the 10 and you got to choose which ones. They only had 3 spiritual laws instead of the 4; they were everything you wanted in a church….and less!
That is the stained-glass experience so many professing believers want in the modern church, no quickening of the conscience, no feeding of the mind, no opening of the heart, no real commitment—–no real faith! Half of professing Christians haven’t been to a church in the last three months, a third haven’t attended in the last year. What’s going on? Chuck Colson called this the Mc Church mentality where Christians are in search of what suits their appetites for the moment and hopefully can be consumed sometime after we have our order and before we have been on the road five minutes. These consumers, as Chuck Colson called them, are not interested in what the Bible says but only in what it can deliver to their felt needs! What’s amazing is that this was what concerned James thousands of years ago at the beginning of Jesus’ church.
In James’ letter he wants the reader to examine what type of faith they truly possess. Are they merely “pretenders” or are they true “possessors” of faith? Faith isn’t a feeling any more than the Holy Spirit is a force! Faith is: Absolute confidence in God and His word seen in our acting upon that Word.