Friendship with God: A Series in the Book of James
Sycamore Creek Church
James 2:14-26
Tom Arthur
May 2, 2010
Peace, Friends!
Friends. What makes a good friend? Is it someone who says they’re your friend or someone who acts like your friend? And what does a friend act like? I have a great friend from college named Bill. Bill and I both graduated in 1997, and while our paths split, we continued to keep in touch with one another. Amazingly, our paths came back together in 2005 when I decided to attend seminary in Durham, NC. Bill was working as a psychologist in Durham, and we decided that living in the same town provided too many opportunities to build our friendship to pass up. But we realized that if we weren’t intentional about it, those years of living in the same town would come and go and we’d say, “We sure wished we had spent more time together.” Spending time together. That’s what friends do, isn’t it? So Bill and I set a day each day of the week to get together in the morning for coffee. Out of the four years I was there, we probably made 70% of those man-dates. Pretty good if you ask me. During those conversations over coffee we’d also come up with plans for getting together on the weekend or for backpacking trips in the North Carolina mountains. We’d talk about our marriages and our future plans and our careers and vocations. We’d talk about kids. We’d talk about just about everything. We even helped each other out from time to time. Had we not intentionally taken time to spend together, we might have called ourselves “friends” but what would that word have meant? Not much. Friends don’t just talk the talk, they walk the walk. Friendship isn’t just about what you say you believe, but about how you act. Friendship with God isn’t much different.
Today we begin a series on friendship in the book of James. Each week we’ll be taking a look at a different kind of friendship. Week one: friendship with God. Week two: friendship with others. Week three: friendship with the community. In week four we’ll take a little detour for our Commitment Sunday with a special guest preacher on that day. Then in week five: friendship with self. James, the brother of Jesus, will be our guide throughout pointing out the way that friends act and live and show love.
Let’s begin with a teaching from the book of James. Watch for what James says about friendship with God.
James 2:14-26 (NLT)
14 Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith [belief] if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith [belief] can’t save anyone. 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, 16 and you say, “Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well” — but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? 17 So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith [belief]. Faith [belief] that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith [belief] at all — it is dead and useless.
18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith [belief]; others have good deeds.” I say, “I can’t see your faith [belief] if you don’t have good deeds, but I will show you my faith [belief] through my good deeds.” 19 Do you still think it’s enough just to believe [have faith] that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror! 20 Fool! When will you ever learn that faith [belief] that does not result in good deeds is useless? 21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was declared right with God because of what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see, he was trusting God so much that he was willing to do whatever God told him to do. His faith [belief] was made complete by what he did — by his actions. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” He was even called “the friend of God.” 24 So you see, we are made right with God by what we do, not by faith [belief] alone. 25 Rahab the prostitute is another example of this. She was made right with God by her actions — when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. 26 Just as the body is dead without a spirit, so also faith [belief] is dead without good deeds.
This is God’s story for us today. Thank you, God.
Abraham was called “the friend of God” because of what he did. How we live our lives is an essential part of what it means to be a friend of God.
Now if you’re like me (and many may not be…), you’re wondering how this teaching from James about friendship with God fits with what Paul teaches about being friends with God. Doesn’t Paul say that we are made right with God, or become friends with God, by our faith and not by our works? And here James is saying that we are made right with God by our works and actions. What’s up with that? Here’s a quick sample from Paul and James side by side.
Paul & James?
| James 2:23-24 (NRSV)
Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. |
Romans 4:2-3, 22 (NRSV)
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”…Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” |
It sure seems like Paul and James are teaching two different things. Paul seems to teach that we are friends with God by faith alone. James seems to preach that we are friends with God by faith and works. Let’s take a closer look.
First, it is helpful to realize that Paul and James are coming at this question of friendship with God from two different starting points. Paul begins at the beginning. You can’t earn God’s love by what you do. God’s love for you is unconditional. All you can do is receive it. James begins at the end. You can’t stay in God’s love without works. If you’re going to receive God’s love then that reception means cooperating with God’s love, participating in God’s love in the world. It means not just saying or believing you’re friends with God, but acting like you’re a friend of God. In this way James says, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17, NRSV).
There’s a great scene in the last Indiana Jones movie, The Search for the Holy Grail. In it Indy is rushing to find the Holy Grail because his father has been shot. He has to pass three tests. After passing the first test about humility, he comes to the second one: a great chasm. He must have faith that he can walk across the open chasm, but he sees no way to do so. Because his father is dying he is compelled to not just believe that he can walk across the chasm, but to actually do it. So he takes a step of faith out into the chasm. Just when it looks like his foot won’t hit anything and his whole body will go tumbling down the chasm, his boot hits ground. He realizes that he’s standing in front of an optical illusion. There is a bridge that he can walk across that he could not see until he took the step. His “faith” would have been worthless to saving his father had he not taken the step. Faith without works is dead.
Second, Paul has something to deal with in his churches that James does not. Paul has to deal with gentiles and Jews worshiping side by side. This brings up the question of the Old Testament law. Do gentiles, non-Jews, have to become Jews first before they can be full Christians? Do they have to be circumcised and observe all the rules about kosher eating and so on? Paul says, No, they don’t. James doesn’t have this issue to deal with. The very first verse of the letter says, “[This letter] is written to Jewish Christians scattered among the nations. Greetings!” (James 1:1b, NLT). James is dealing with Jewish Christians only and not gentiles too.
Third, what does the rest of the New Testament teach? I think the rest of the New Testament teaches exactly what James teaches: faith without works is dead. Consider John the Baptist who says, “Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God” (Matthew 3:8, NLT). Or a few chapters later in Matthew Jesus says, “Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:16, NLT).
There tends to be two ways that we like to talk about faith. The first way is what I will call “faith alone.” It has to do with having the right beliefs. Belief is important, but this is not the sum total of what we mean when we say “faith.” James makes this really clear when he says, “Do you still think it’s enough just to believe that there is one God? Well, even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror!” (James 2:19, NLT). It’s not good enough just to know the right answers. Yes, God exists. Yes, Jesus is God’s son. Yes, we can’t earn God’s love. Yes, Jesus will come back again to judge the living and the dead. Yes. Yes. Yes. But… Friendship is not made up just of beliefs.
Oecumenius, a 6th century bishop, writes:
Take note of what spiritual understanding really is. It is not enough to believe in a purely intellectual sense. There has to be some practical application for this belief. What James is saying here does not contradict the apostle Paul, who understood that both belief and action were a part of what he called “faith.”
Belief and action are both part of faith. I think Oecumenius hits it on the head, and that brings us to the second way that we tend to talk about faith. I will call this “faith plus.”
Faith plus is a belief that leads to trust that leads to actions, deeds, and works. James gives us a practical example of this kind of faith. He says:
Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, ‘Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well’ — but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” (James 2:15-16, NLT).
You can’t make it much more obvious than that.
Oecumenius says that Paul’s idea of faith included this kind of belief and trust together that leads to actions, works and deeds. I think that his reading of Paul is probably right. Can you really see Paul telling someone to bless others who are in need of the basics of life and not help meet those needs? No! Paul says, “Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to our Christian brothers and sisters” (Galatians 6:10, NLT).
Faith plus is friendship with God. Our faith is belief and trust that is perfected by our works, by our acts of love. Our friendship with God is perfected by our works. James says, “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?” (James 2:22, NKJV). He’s talking here about Abraham who in the following verse is called “the friend of God.” Not a friend of God just because he believed, but a friend of God because he also acted. He trusted God in two places. First, God told him in his old age that he was going to have a son. Well, if he’s going to have a son then for he and his wife it’s “business time.” And you know what I mean by “business time.” Abraham had to do something to have a son. He had to act on what he believed. Likewise, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice this son, Abraham trusted that God knew what God was doing. As crazy as it sounds, Abraham offered Isaac back to God, and thankfully, God stopped him at the last moment. In both cases, Abraham believed God and perfected that belief by acting. He was a friend of God because of what he did.
I like to think of faith and works like a banana. In a banana you’ve got the peel and the fruit. Which is which? Well, let’s call the peel the faith and the fruit the works. You need the peel to be able to make fruit grow. Fruit without a peel is going to be pretty bad fruit if it can be fruit at all. So the fruit, or works, need the peel, or faith, to grow. But what about a peel without fruit. What good is that? I mean, the fruit is where all the action is at. It’s where the substance is at. In fact, a peel without fruit is pointless. The peel and the fruit work together to make the banana. In the same way, faith by itself without works is dead. Faith is perfected by works.
Interestingly enough James points out that the opposite can happen too. We can be an enemy of God. He says, “Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God.” (James 4:4, NLT). It appears that we can’t be both friends with the world and friends with God at the same time. Either our actions are geared toward enjoying God’s friendship or enjoying the world’s friendship. It’s pretty hard to have a split-personality spirituality when it comes to friendship with the world and friendship with God.
So what kind of actions, deeds, and works do we do that perfect our friendship with God? There are both horizontal actions and vertical actions of friendship. Let’s briefly look at the first: horizontal.
Our friendship with those around us is part of our friendship with God. If I dive into this too deeply, then I’m jumping the gun for the rest of the series where we’ll cover friendship with others and with community. But for now, let’s get just a glimpse of where James is going with the horizontal actions of friendship with community. He says, “Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us” (James 1:27, NLT). So there is a good kind of religion here. I know we like to quote Bono who says, “Religion generally gets in the way of God,” but James has a little different perspective. He says that there is a pure and lasting kind of religion and it has to do with how we treat those who are the most vulnerable, the poor and poor in spirit. We’ll get into that more in the coming weeks.
Our friendship with God not only has to do with our friendships around us but also has to do with our direct friendship with God. This is a vertical friendship with God. Cyril of Alexandria, a 4th & 5th century leader of the Alexandrian church, says, “Just as faith without works is dead, so the reverse is also true.” There is a direct friendship between each of us and God, and just like any other friendship, a friendship with God requires time spent together. James likes to speak of this friendship with God in terms of wisdom. He says, “Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom” (James 3:13, NRSV). This wisdom isn’t something necessarily inherent in each of us. It comes from God, and if you don’t have it, then you can ask for it. James says, “If you need wisdom — if you want to know what God wants you to do — ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking” (James 1:5, NLT). Implied in all of this is spending time with God. How do you ask if you aren’t spending time together?
So how do you spend time with God? How do you build up your friendship with God? Here are a couple of suggestions. The first is obvious: prayer. Prayer is talking with God and listening when God talks back. One great way to do this is through journaling. If you have a hard time with a wandering mind, consider writing your prayers as a letter to God, but don’t forget to sit in quiet and listen for what God speaks back to you. It’s always a good idea to listen and discern that hearing with others in the church community. Another obvious way to spend time with God is in reading the “love letters” God has written us: the Bible. Spend time daily reading your Bible. Add to that daily time reading your Bible weekly time in a small group studying together. Like prayer, discernment of God’s leading in the Bible is best done in community. A third way to build your friendship with God is in community worship. If you’re here at worship this morning, then you’re already spending time with God building that friendship. A fourth way to be a friend of God is to spend time in solitude with God. This could be a weekly time or a monthly time or a couple of times a year, but whatever the frequency, make sure to get out and be alone with God. This kind of solitude can include silence (spend a day not doing anything except listening for God), prayer and Bible study (just like any other time except more extended), fasting (skipping a meal or taking a bread and water fast), reading a book (spiritual devotional or spiritual novel or poetry), or a host of other spiritual practices that nurture your friendship with God. The idea of solitude is to get away from all the distractions of your everyday life and just be with God.
Are you a friend of God? If not, the first step is simply desiring it. Maybe you’re not quite there yet. You don’t yet desire it, but you want to desire it. That’s good enough. Take the next step and act. Spend time with God. Pray. Read the Bible. Join a small group. Worship. Spend time in solitude. Friendship is built over time spent together. God will give you the desire later. Friendship with God is faith that leads to trust that leads to actions of love. Be a friend of God.
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