Proof of Faith

The letter that James wrote has a lot to say about proving our faith, which begs the question… does our faith need to be proven?...apparently so. James illustrates two ways faith is proven.

The first is by successfully conquering temptation to sin (James 1:2-3). When the Christian is faced with temptation and refuses to sin he has completed one leg of the race.

The second way faith is proven is by faith inspired works (James 2:14-26). The scriptures are replete with examples of faithful people whose faith inspired them to perform so called “works” and those works are illustrated in great detail.

The section on faith and works is concluded by the statement “faith without works is dead”. You may have conquered sin but there is still more to do. No one wants to have dead faith or even weak faith. Our goal is to have strong, vibrant faith.

The body builder goes to the gym every day to lift weights. One day is “arm” day another is “leg” day… so forth and so on. Eventually his physical body is transformed to the image of Herculean strength.

The spiritual faith builder exercises his faith by working good works every single day. As he does so he is transformed and his faith gets stronger and stronger until he is shaped into the spiritual image of Jesus Christ.

Our faith is proven in two ways; by refusing to sin and by proving our love for others by providing for their needs. Follow that formula and you will be well prepared for eternity.