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James 2:18
18 Yea [alla], a man [tis] may say [ereo], Thou [su] hast [echo] faith [pistis], and I [kago] have [echo] works [ergon]: shew [deiknuo] me [moi] thy [sou] faith [pistis] without [ek] thy [sou] works [ergon], and I [kago] will shew [deiknuo] thee [soi] my [mou] faith [pistis] by [ek] my [mou] works [ergon]. KJV-Interlinear
18 But someone may well say, 'You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.' NASB
What james is saying here is that faith, and works or the production of the spiritual life, are inseparable.
Likewise, your function of faith and my function of faith may not necessarily be the same functions.
Our study here is of a functional spiritual life. This applies to believers only, and as to whether they are living functional spiritual lives or dysfunctional spiritual lives.
We have been using the activities of charitable giving or spiritual study support as a couple of our examples of 'works.' We use these because they apply to every believer and they are the easiest to use in examples of your doing or not doing something.
But the spiritual life is far more than giving. That only applies to the aches you feel when you have to reach into your own pocketbook and part with you cash. But life is not an endless writing of checks.
Suppose you lose your physical abilities in an accident. Suppose you lose your home in a storm. Suppose you lose your job of endless years. Suppose you find yourself in a situation where you have no obvious solutions and your problems become overwhelming. Now your faith is tested to the maximum, and your doing becomes not so much an action, but a test of patience or acclimation to your new circumstances.
The drama of your life now, may well manifest itself in your poise or lack of it, in your fear or lack of it, in your anger and blame or lack of it.
It is often said that faith cannot be adequately tested until the fires of extreme pressure are put to your life. And that is a blessing, believe it or not, that God reserves especially for those who are advancing in their spiritual life.
Faith is your functioning spiritual life. Works are the productive aspects of your spiritual life. Both are accompanied by your sense of responsibility and your understanding that it is really God who provides the solutions for all of your situations, not you.
Your test is of greed, of selfishness, or self-centeredness, even of self-righteousness and excuse making in order to avoid your responsibilities.
The summary of your effective spiritual life, is found in the combining of your beliefs, which you obtain from your daily study, along with your application of Gods mandates to your daily life.
You cannot subscribe to grace and conduct yourself in gossip. You cannot feel legitimate empathy for someone and withhold charity. You cannot sit back and expect someone else to fulfill your responsibilities. You cannot fulfill a functional spiritual life by giving in to feelings of guilt once or twice a year.
God evaluates you for your spiritual life and spiritual production, not for what someone else does or does not do.
Your spiritual obligations are daily, weekly, monthly and so forth. The needs of folks out in the world are daily, weekly, monthly and so forth.
Your spiritual tests will occur moment by moment throughout your life. The most obvious test is your willingness to monitor your fellowship status from moment to moment, and whether or not you will confess as needed in order to remain in fellowship. Review 1, 2, 3 Jn.
Your daily test is with your compliance with a daily study, with your compliance to consider what you have learned and to ponder those things, with your willingness to submit yourself to Gods mandates and to begin trusting in His care, and worrying less about your situation in this world.
Pretending for the benefit of the observation by people, does you no good. Your obligation is to God and His observation, not to people.
Your life is between you and the Lord, for He is the only one who can promote you, support you, bless you, keep you, protect you, and bring you through any imaginable situation.
When you begin to realize this truth, then and only then, will your spiritual life begin to grow and thrive.
