Worldwide Outreach Teaching School
www.WorldwideOTS.org
Faith with Deeds and Wisdom
Scriptures: James (雅各書) 2:14-17, 12; 3:1-12
Preface:
A person claims to have faith buthas no deeds, can such faith save him? Suppose a person is without clothes and daily basic food; if you say to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warmandeat well,” but does nothing about his physical needs,what good is it?In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied byaction, is dead. Ja.2:14-17
We have to concern others’ needs by showing our faith from what we do. And doing with wisdom, wisdom came from God, otherwise, it is not easy to always help others, but consider it is a pure joy, your faith will develop perseverance, by being patient with one another.
Commentary:
1. Faith with Deeds-Don’t wait until grow up or wait until being mature to learn, if you wait too long to learn, your learning will have to go through many trails or conflicts. For example, saw makers beat the mantels many times; then put those mantels into water, blow over and beat them again and again. Saws must go through big fire, consistent pressure must be used. Perseveres under trial. ‘As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deedsis dead, deeds are put into action will work. (身體沒有靈魂是死的，信心沒有行為也是死的’。(雅各書James 2:26) 因此，有了信心就要有行為。
James is a brother of Jesus- After Jesus resurrected, James became a witness, he wrote the Book of James to all Christians.
Faith without Deeds is Dead – Faith without work and action is death. Deeds mean works and behaviors; deeds also mean action with love. Christians should not show up favoritism, because it is opposite with love.
‘What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith buthas no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food; if one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warmand well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs,what good is it?17 in the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied byaction, is dead. (James 2:14-17) ‘若有人說自己有信心，卻沒有行為，有甚麼益?呢？這信心能救他嗎？ 若是弟兄或是姐妹，赤身露體，又缺了日用的?食，16? 你?中間有人對他?說，“平平安安地去吧！?你?穿得暖吃得?”，卻不給他?身體所需用的，這有甚麼益?呢？17 這樣，信心若沒有行為就是死的。(雅各James 2:14-17)
What James talking about is the truth of Love; it is to be concern of the needs of others. We know God’s love, but we must see others who are hungry. We will show you my faith by what we do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that. (2:19),’ ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one (De. 6:4); the demons believe in God, but they are not saved, we claim to have faith, we believe God and we are saved.
Abraham had a good example of FAITH, he considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” So faith without action is dead. (James 2:21 -26)
Abraham became a great nation, his faith was by his action, and even he obeyed God by sacrificing his own son, Isaac. He had a real action to show his love to God and obeyed God. Our body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead (James 2:26).
Why more people come to be Christian?
Christians claim to follow Jesus, a real Christian become joyful and loved, but some of us are dead, because we are not making impact. We must consider our own faith, do we act out right? What is our deed? Deeds done in the humility come from wisdom.
2. Wisdom and Deeds: We need act out PEACE and Understanding:
The Book of James is very practical; it is for us to apply when we have difficult time. God uses our trail to develop us be strong and harder our character.
James began being a concreted example, a Christian should control his tongue; tongue is small but it has great impact; it just like a boat that has a small impact but can control the boat to move forward.
Word is very powerful, it can destroy the life of children; it can destroy the intimate relationship between husband and wife. Church pastor’s word may cause to be frightening. Therefore, tongues are the principle to follow.
James 3:13, ‘Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him shows it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility comesfrom wisdom.’
Two Kinds of Wisdoms: Earthly Wisdom and Heavenly Wisdom.
1. Earthly Wisdom: James 3:14-16, ‘14… if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in yourhearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find
disorder and every evil practice.’ Most of them happened from jealousy.
There are Positive and negative jealous, how do we define them?
a. Positive Jealousy in the OT:: God’s Jealousy, passion and love in Ex.20:5 and Joshua 24:19, God said, ‘You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,’(Ex.20:5) God created the earth and heaven, He created you and I, He has a plan for us, plan is to prosper you and plan is give you a hope and good future (Je.29:11), He doesn’t want you to worship idols and devil, because he doesn’t want you to get hurt.
‘Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.’ (Jo. 24:19) Therefore, we should serve the Lord even though He is jealous God, but it is a positive jealousy.
b. Negative Jealousy in the OT. Rage and bitterness (Pr.6:34; 14:30; and 27:4).
. ‘For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, and he will show no
Mercy when he takes revenge.’ (Pr. 6:34)
‘A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots thebones (Pr. 27:4) Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming, who can stand before jealousy?
Example of Earthly Wisdom: Three jealous stories in the OT:
1) Rachel was jealous of her older sister, Leah, (Ge.29:30-30:37)
‘Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years. When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” Ge. 30:3 Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.” Ge. 30:4, so she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, Ge. 30:5 and she became pregnant and bore him a son. (Ge. 29:30-30-37).
2) A Tale of 12 Brothers jealous of Joseph (Ge. 37-50)
All of Joseph’s brothers were Jealous of Joseph, because their father, Jacob loved Joseph most, so they sold him to Egypt. The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master, whose wife accused Joseph which caused him to go to prison; but he became a well known person by interpreting dreams very truly in prison. One day, Joseph was introduced into palace to explain a dream of Pharaoh; God had made Joseph father to Pharaoh and lord of all Egypt. The years of famine came Joseph had a chance to save his own brothers, father and the entire family 75 people from Canaan, and Pharaoh welcomed all of Joseph’s family from Canaan and provided land for them to stay. Joseph told his 12 brothers, ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children”. He reassured them and spokekindly with heavenly wisdom to them.
3) Saul Jealous of David: (1 Samuel 17-31)
Saul wished David to be killed, because Saul was jealous of the David’s strong well known power; David was well down that he killed more enemies than Saul did, that caused Saul jealous of David very much and tried to kill him.
A Jealous person is always afraid of losing something, example one, Rachel was afraid of losing her husband’s love; example two. Joseph’s brothers were afraid of losing their father’s love. 3. Saul feared of losing his popularity and position. These three stories involve anger, jealousy with deep insecurity, bad judgment, lack of proper loving relationship with God and full of fearfulness. The earthly wisdom is unspiritual and selfish.
Earthly Wisdom: James 3:14-16,It has envy and selfish ambition.
Heavenly Wisdom: James 3:17 -18, ‘the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy andgood fruit, impartial and sincere. Ja. 3:18 Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.
the years of famine came
1. Purity of Motivation: It is not strategizing so that one can ‘win’ the battle,
seeking to preserve the relationship with God.
2. Think about others, listen to others; open to reason: Maybe I am wrong.
Are you considering the feeling of others?
3. Be submissive: Christ has power to control, He put His interest for saving
people; who has full of mercy and good fruits. We need to serve one another.
4. Not showing favorites to one another. Who is peace maker, makepeace
and raise a harvest of righteousness.
‘LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on
Your Holy Hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,who speaks the truth from his heart (Ps. 15:1-2).
PARABLE OF THE WISE PERSIAN KING
A Persian king asked his three sons, what animal would you like to be?
The older son said, ‘Eagle is strong and powerful, I like to be eagle.’
The 2nd son said, ‘I want to be like goose to lead other geese.’ His father thought the 2nd son can be a good leader.
The 3rd son said, ‘A leader should be able to control his tongue. I want to be a swan, be able to control my speech’; so the father gave his wisdom to the 3rd son.
CONCLUSIONS:
We must apply principles of ‘Heavenly Wisdom’ by taming our tongues.
ü Purity of motivation.
ü Considerate about others, listen to others, open to reasons.
ü Power under control.
ü Giving freely a right to others of what they do and forgiving others.
ü Not showing favoritism to one side over another.
ü What comes from the mouth? Comes straightly!
ü We must come out and speak out with my sincere heart.
QUESTIONS:
- Concerning a trail you have experienced, what pressures did it bring on you faith?
What wisdom did you gain through it?
- What exactly is the ‘righteous life that God desires”? (James 1:19, 20, 27)
- For what reasons does James oppose favoritism (James 2:4-13)?
- How is ‘earthly wisdom’ hurting you? In which area do you need heaven’s wisdom? How will you cultivate that?
Faith with Deeds and Wisdom
