James 2:1-26

Faith can be a very dangerous thing.  It is impossible to please God without faith, but there are many kinds of faith that do not please God.  Unfortunately, there are many who have these counterfeit faiths that think God will be pleased with them.  The sad truth is that God does not know them and they continue to be lost in their sins.  This chapter points out two of these useless faiths.
FAKE FAITH: A fake faith is a faith that exercises personal favoritism based on a person’s wealth.  It seeks to use faith as a means of self promotion and power.  God hates hypocrisy as it undermines the basic principles of His Word.  A true faith is a faith that exercises unconditional love that does not seek to benefit oneself; rather it strives to serve others out of humility.  When we treat the rich differently than we treat the poor within the context of the church or any of our personal relationships, we reveal that we are seeking our own self interest and not the interests of our Lord.  God has called us to love and serve one another with a spirit of humility.  A person’s social status should have no bearing on how we love and serve them.  When we exercise faith in order to promote our own personal position we are demonstrating a fake faith that has no ability to free us from our sin.
FALSE FAITH: A false faith is a faith that does not go beyond an intellectual assent to certain facts about Christ.  It is a faith that may recognize and accept truths about the person and work of Christ, but it does not truly embrace the cross of Christ.   A genuine faith will always be accompanied by works that demonstrate that our faith is real.  Salvation is not simply rescue from hell and condemnation, it is rescue from sin.  God frees us from the penalty, power and presence of sin when we place our faith in the cross of Christ alone.  This freedom from sin will inevitably produce the works of faith in the form of obedience to the Word and submission to the will of God.  When God saves us from sin by faith He releases us from the slavery to sin and enables us to do works that are pleasing and honoring to Him.  We are not saved by these works but by faith we are saved for these works.  The absence of works is a clear indication of a false faith that does not set us free from sin.

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