The Proof of the Heart
Text: James 2:14-26 (with references to Mark 10:17-27 & Ephesians 5:15-20)
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
If you’ve been in the Lutheran church for any length of
time, you know our cornerstone. It is our battle cry and our comfort: We
are saved by grace through faith, apart from works of the law. This is
the beautiful, liberating truth that sets us free from the crushing burden of
having to earn God’s love.
And then we open the book of James, and we hear this: “What
good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no
deeds? Can such faith save them?” (James 2:14).
It can feel like a contradiction, can’t it? It can make us
uncomfortable. It’s like James is crashing our grace-filled party with a
checklist of good works. Martin Luther himself struggled with this book,
calling it an “epistle of straw” precisely because he feared it would be used
to drag us back into the slavery of earning our salvation.
But my friends, what if James isn’t contradicting Paul? What
if he is, instead, giving us a vital diagnostic tool? What if he is asking us a
question that cuts to the very heart of our life here, in this complex and
beautiful nation we call home?
James is not asking, “How do you get faith?”
He is asking, “What does your faith look like once you have
it?” He’s drawing a stark distinction between a living faith and a dead one.
He gives a simple, piercing example: “Suppose a brother or
sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in
peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs,
what good is it?” (v. 15-16).
We don’t have to look far to see this scenario play out. We
live surrounded by brothers and sisters in need. We see it in the economic
inequality that scars our landscape, in the poverty that persists, in the young
man standing at the robot, in the domestic worker who travels hours to clean
our homes. The need is vast, and it can feel overwhelming. And our response, so
often, is the response James condemns: “Go in peace.” We offer a polite,
distant blessing, but our hands remain closed. Our schedules remain full of our
own concerns. Our lives remain comfortably separate.
James calls that faith dead.
This is the uncomfortable word of God’s Law. It holds up a
mirror and shows us not what we profess, but what we practice.
It shows us a faith that is all claim and no action, all talk and no walk. It’s
like a tree that appears to have life, but when you look for fruit, there is
none. The tree is dead.
This Law finds its full force in our reading from Mark. The
rich young man is the epitome of respectable, intellectual faith. He knows the
commandments. He’s kept them since he was a boy. But when Jesus tells him to
sell his possessions and give to the poor, he walks away sad, because his
wealth was his true god. His faith was in his own moral record and his
comfortable life, not in the person of Jesus Christ.
And this, my friends, is the diagnosis for us. For those of
us who have lived with privilege, with comfort, with a history of separation,
the great danger is not that we reject Jesus, but that we create a Jesus who
fits neatly into our lives—a private Jesus who demands nothing of our wallets,
our time, or our deeply ingrained prejudices. A Jesus who asks only for our
Sunday morning attendance, but not for our Monday morning integration. A Jesus
who blesses our “Go in peace,” but never commands us to actually get
involved.
This Law is meant to crush us. It is meant to show us the
idolatry of our own comfort. It is meant to drive us to ask with the terrified
disciples, “Who then can be saved?”
And here, at the point of despair, the Gospel breaks
through. Jesus looks at them, and he looks at us, and he says, “With man this
is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Mark
10:27).
Salvation is impossible for you. It is impossible for me. We
cannot generate a living faith from our own dead hearts. But with God, it is
possible. He has done the impossible in the life, death, and resurrection of
His Son, Jesus. Your salvation is secure. It is finished. Your standing before
God does not depend on your perfect track record of good deeds. It rests solely
on the finished work of Christ, received by the gift of faith.
So, if we are saved by grace, why does James bother us with
deeds? Because a faith that has been given life by the Holy Spirit cannot
remain dead! A tree that has living roots will, by its very nature, bear fruit.
This is where Ephesians shows us the way. “Be filled with
the Spirit,” Paul says (Eph. 5:18). The power for the Christian life does not
come from our own guilt or willpower. It comes from being continually filled
with God’s own Spirit. The good works James demands are not the cause of our
salvation; they are the fruit of the Spirit who lives within
us. We do not work for God’s love; we work from God’s
love.
So what does this living faith look like for us, here, now?
It looks like a faith that is no longer content with just
“Go in peace.” It is a faith that is stirred to action by the Spirit. It is a
faith that understands that our “brothers and sisters” in James’s example are
not just the people who look like us or speak our language. They are our fellow
South Africans, all created in the image of God, all for whom Christ died.
It may not mean selling all we have, but it will mean asking
the Spirit to show us what idol we need to sell. Is it the
idol of fear? Of prejudice? Of comfort? Of power? It means asking for wisdom to
live not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity in these
complex days (Eph. 5:15-16).
A living faith might look like:
- Intentionally
building a real relationship with the people who work in our homes and
gardens, seeing them as fellow God image-bearers.
- Using
some of our time to volunteer or support a ministry that addresses poverty
or education.
- Partnering
with a sister church in a different community for a specific, humble
project.
- Simply
making the conscious, Spirit-led effort to greet, acknowledge, and show
Christ-like kindness to people of all races in our shops and streets,
breaking down the walls that history has built.
This is not a call to fix South Africa. That is God’s work.
This is a call to a living, active, costly faith that proves the reality of the
Christ who lives in us. It is the proof of the heart that has been truly
captured by grace.
You are saved by grace, through faith. That is your anchor.
That is your hope. Now go, and live like it. Let the world see the proof of
your heart, not for your own glory, but for the glory of the God who loved you
first, and who empowers you to love your neighbor.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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