Is charity perfection?

In James 2:14-26, the author talks about faith coupled with works; these verses go into detail on how faith without works is dead.

James offers a couple of instances in the Old Testament as examples of God’s blessing faith in action. One of which is where Abraham was blessed by acting out what God asked of him, and another is when Rahab was blessed when she protected the Hebrew spies, knowing who their God was.

Although very different in their respective lifestyles, in both instances, we see a distinctive similarity. While Abraham was a devout man of God, and Rehab was far from God, they both had knowledge of God and knew that acting on that knowledge would save them and their households.

Both Abraham and Rahab understood who God was. Whether it was from personally seeing God work and move, such as the case of Abraham, or hearing stories such as the case of Rehab, they had both experienced the reality of God in some way. In Verse 22 (King James version), the Scripture says, “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?”

To be clear, I am in no way saying that works save us, I am speaking the contrary – works do not save us. It was the actions of Jesus that saved us from the utter destruction of our souls. However, I am saying that works are the evidence of us being saved.

What am I getting at, you may ask? Well, just this, if we have faith that God can change situations in the world around us, whether it be homelessness, hunger, suicide, depression and even fear, should we not start acting out in faith? Shouldn’t our works as Christians be sheltering those who are homeless, feeding those who are hungry, and uplifting those who have no hope by sharing the hope that is in Christ Jesus? In this our faith is made perfect, knowing that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17).

I will end with this simple verse: Galatians 5:14 “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Pastor Scott Acklin ministers at New Fire Ministries.