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One thing about God’s Word is that it is deadly serious. God’s Word is a double-edged sword. It cuts, as it is designed to do, like a scalpel. Paul says poetically that “it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow,” and “it judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

If you let it do its work in you, it will save your life, just as a surgeon’s scalpel saves lives. It isn’t often comfortable, but it is necessary, and it brings healing to our condition.

In the first chapter of James, he warns, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22 NIV) This is a sober reminder of what Jesus said about building a house on sand and trees that do not bear good fruit.

The person who hears the words of Jesus and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand (Matthew 7:24-27), and trees that do not bear fruit are cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 7:19)

We are created by God to bear good fruit. He plants His seed in us with the hope and the intention that we bear good fruit. If we are truly connected to the Vine (Jesus), we will bear good fruit.

God has a purpose and a design for the world, and he created us to engage Him to be an active, fruitful part of that purpose and design. So, how do we do that?

First, it helps to know what kind of fruit God desires. The fruits of the Holy Spirit identified in Galatians is a good start:

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All of these things have an object. These fruits are intended for God’s purpose that was summarized in the Old Testament and summarized by Jesus this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”; and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40) The fruit we produce is for the benefit of loving God and loving people.

At the end of the first chapter of James, true religion is defined consistent with these principals. This is the only place in the Bible I can think of where religion is defined, and this is what James says,

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

James 1:27

True religion is not just having the right beliefs. If your beliefs do not compel you to active love for others, your faith is not authentic (or maybe it is still undeveloped).

I know this may seem antithetical to the notion that we are saved by grace through faith, and there is nothing else we must do. Paul says that we are justified and made righteous by God’s grace that we access through faith (Romans 3:21-5:11), but authentic faith makes a difference in our lives. If our faith doesn’t produce a positive change in us, it isn’t the faith Paul speaks of.

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Paul also says that faith to move mountains is nothing without love. (1 Corinthians 13:2) Love is active. Love treats others as we want to be treated, and love lays down its own life for others. James says it like this:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

James 2:14-17

Faith without action is dead faith, and the action faith compels us to take is to love others. John says if we do not love other people who we can see, we do not love God who we can’t see. (1 John 4:20)

Jesus pushes the boundaries even further, which Jesus often did. James couched his words in the context of “a brother or a sister”, but Jesus said,

“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:46-48

If we love only the people of our own “tribe”, we are no different than people who do not know God. Authentic faith compels a person to love even those who do not love you and to love those who can give you nothing in return.

James mentions loving widows and orphans in his definition of true religion, but he would not have objected to including immigrants, because widows, orphans, and immigrants were usually included together throughout the Old Testament as groups God instructed His people to care for. (Ex. 22:21-22; 23:9; Deut. 14:28-29; 24:17; 26:12; 27:19; Jer. 7:5-7; 22:3; Ezek. 22:29; Zech. 7:10; Malachi 3:5)

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If you are feeling condemned at this point, that isn’t my intention. Nor is it the intention of God when He inspired these things to be written down, but we need to know where we stand in relation to God. If we are not well, we need an accurate diagnosis so that we can be properly healed.

If you are feeling the sting of these words (as I do), you need to turn toward the physician who can heal you. Jesus said he didn’t come for the healthy (the righteous); he came for the sick (sinners). (Mark 2:17)

The truth is that we are all sick with sin, and we all need God’s forgiveness and grace, which He freely gives to all who ask.

And how do we know we are healed? We know by the change that begins within us that occurs when we yield ourselves to him in faith. When we begin to love each other, truly, from the heart, we know that God is working in us. And if God “began a good work in you,” He “will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)