James 2:26, “…faith apart from works is dead.”
No big write up today, I suppose that yesterday’s makes up for the lack 😉 James’ words here are pretty self-explanatory—and sobering. The Spirit is crystal clear that the sort of faith in Christ that is “counted as righteousness“ (2:23), is the faith that bears fruit. As we know—but need ever to remember—this doesn’t mean that the “fruit” produces the righteousness, but that the sort of faith which is counted as righteousness will and must produce fruit. And this fruit is most specifically lives of increasingly Christ-like self-giving love (thus the wound in Christ’s hand in which the believing heart is rooted and the fruits borne by that heart are the same color in the above picture).
May the one who grants saving faith by grace, grant us to have increasingly fruitful faith that bears witness that we are Christ’s disciples and so brings glory to the Father (John 15:5, 8).
