We Need to Mature in Works
James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
A great many folks today want to dismiss the principle of works.
They love to quote Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”
While it is true that we are justified before God by faith because God looks
on the heart of man, it is also true that we are justified by works before
mankind because man cannot look at our hearts.
For anyone to have an effective testimony to his family, friends, co-workers,
and anyone God brings across his path, there must be the evidence in his life
of good works.
That is why God tells us in James 2:17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is
dead, being alone.”
Also we are told in Galatians 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth
anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
I like the story I read many years ago about a man who had placed a rope
from one side of Niagara Falls to the other and said he would place a barrel
on the rope and roll from one side to the other. He asked a by-stander if he
believed he could do it, “Yes,” the person said, “then get in the barrel,” the
man said.
We truly only believe that which puts us into action.