Verse to Abide In
And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” James 2:25-26 ESV
“The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.” James 2:25-26 MSG
Digging Deeper
From Bruce Hurt:
“(James 2:25) ‘In the same way’ (homoios) means Rahab was similar to Abraham in one important aspect, specifically that she like Abraham was shown to be righteous by her actions…James' juxtaposition of Biblical characters is his way of saying that from the "best" to the "worst" of saved sinners, good deeds are still an expected fruit.”
Like an Action Movie!
It didn’t take me long to want to go back to Joshua 2 and read this account of Rahab again. I keep thinking to myself how reading about Rahab is just like watching an action movie!
Here, this brave woman hides known enemies of Jericho. Then she takes it even further and defies the king’s orders, outright lying about the location of the spies—who were on HER HOME!
Why would she do this?
“and she said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the terror and dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted [in despair] because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan [on the east], to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted [in despair], and a [fighting] spirit no longer remained in any man because of you; for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” [Hebrews 11:31] (Joshua 2:9-11 AMP).
Rehab had genuine faith…
“By faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who were disobedient, because she had welcomed the spies [sent by the sons of Israel] in peace. [Josh 2:1-21; 6:22-25]”
Hebrews 11:31 AMP
Let's Pray
Lord, our God, God in heaven above and on earth beneath,
Once again, we are motivated to have sincere faith that overflows in righteousness and obedience through good works.
Show us if there is any insincerity in our hearts. Search us and reveal if there is any sin blocking us from serving you more fully. Please forgive me for…
We ask for your help and your training to prepare us for big steps of faith, like Rahab, by being faithful in the small, mundane steps of faith we take in our everyday lives.
Empower us to be of good courage and to walk by faith and not by sight. We aim to please you (2 Corinthians 5:6–9).
Strengthen us to do the next thing.
Remind us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds, because we know that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. Work in us, letting steadfastness have its full effect, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2–4).
We ask for wisdom (James 1:5).
“What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.
I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.
You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don’t see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you’ll get what you’re looking forward to: total salvation” (1 Peter 1:3-9 MSG).
Yes! Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen (Revelation 7:12 NIV)!
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:23-24 NIV),
Laura
This is the end of our James 2 series! Lord willing, next week we will pray for some upcoming events and then start in on James 3 the following week!