"You can quote, “Faith without works is dead,” and at the same time say, “You do not need to do anything.” You can justify every contradiction to the commands of the Scriptures by saying to those who would want to obey, “That is legalism; salvation is a free gift.”
So, we see a religion full of gluttony, drunkenness, and even murder in the name of God, by people (including Martin Luther himself) who will justify their actions with the thought that they are “saved by faith alone.” But James boldly says, “Can that faith save him?”
James goes on to make the guidelines even tighter in writing to the believers, “If anyone one among you thinks he is religious, but does not bridle his tongue and deceives himself, this one’s religion is useless.”9
So what is the “useless religion” James is talking about? He is talking to believers here, isn’t he? They think they have “saving faith” because they think they are “religious” — but by simply “not bridling his tongue” such a one is exposed by his behavior as having useless religion.
So, what you do matters... if you have the faith that works.
He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1 John 2:4)
Is obeying His commandments “works”? Is keeping the commandments just useless works which have nothing to do with being “saved by faith”? What then are we saved for, except the good works that are prepared for us to spend our lives doing?
If you are the seed of Abraham, you will do the works he did, the Son of God said in John 8:39. James understood works, but he was obviously writing his letter to an element that had risen up in the early church that was denying the need to do anything, thus making the first church into a useless religion — one with no works to show their faith."
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