Chapter 1

October 16, 2007 by Roger.

JUSTIFIED BY WORKS

It was our Lord’s brother who was directed by the Holy Spirit to inscribe the words
of James 2:14-26. It was a time in history that saw the rise of idleness and lethargy in
some disciples. Some had lost their first love that drove the early disciples into all the
world. When reading the first chapter of the letter, James indicated that there was a
problem among the Jewish brethren when he wrote, “But be doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Js 1:22). When he gets to chapter 2, he writes the
most direct material in the New Testament that demands good works in the life of a
disciple.
There is something deceptive about idleness, something that is dangerously cunning
in leading the believer to conclude that “all is well in Zion,” when actually a church is
nigh unto having its lampstand removed. We often associate deception with error, but in
James 2, James wants us to understand that this deception is believing that one can be
a disciple without good works.
“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his
natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself and goes his way, and immediately
forgets what kind of man he was” (Js 1:23,24). The one who loses his zeal for work has
forgotten from where he came. He has forgotten his cleansing by the blood of Jesus.
This point is the introduction to the context of James 2:14-26. By the time James
completes his inscription, our conclusion from what he writes is that the disciple who
does no work is not justified before God, and thus not a disciple of faith.
The disciple works because of his thanksgiving for the grace of God (2 Co 4:15). In
his appreciation for who he is in Christ, he labors in thanksgiving for the work of God to
(This series of blogs compose a book that carries the title, “Justified By Works.” )

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