The David Spoon Experience 12-15-23 part 1
A) James chapter two. Verse 13. It is one of those great verses that just launches our hearts into appreciation for God. Mercy triumphs over judgment. The Greek word for triumphs is to exalt or to reign over. If God’s mercy did not triumph over his judgment, we would all be toast. What’s necessary to understand is His mercy triumphed over judgment in the garden. You might say to yourself, how so since they were kicked out of the garden and introduced death and disease into humanity? The reason is that if God had used His full weight of judgment against Adam and Eve, there would be no Adam and Eve, and there would be no human race. That’s mercy.
B) Then the apostle steps it up by saying “Hey, you can’t just say you have faith.” I know way too many people who tell me they have faith. In fact, I only know them as having faith only by what they tell me and never by what they do. If they were trying to communicate to me that they have faith by their actions, I would have missed it. It’s pretty simple. If we have faith, it has to be there. It has to be used. It has to be a part of the process. When the words and the actions don’t sink, there’s a whole other problem.
C) One of the great challenges for Christians to be honest about is simply this: if they’re putting people in jail because they’re Christians…are we going to jail? Do we have enough evidence in our life that demonstrates we follow Jesus? Again, that’s gonna have to be more than words. It’s gonna have to be words made manifest into works. Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness. And he proved that he believed God when he was put to the test.
D) This next section is a deep indictment against the church and the people of church worlds. James says, “If somebody who is a brother or a sister, I repeat, a brother or a sister in the Lord does not have any clothing or any food, and we just say to them awesome sauce, smile, everything’s great, and do nothing to help them, we’re deceiving ourselves. Verbal faith is not actual faith. Faith that’s put into action is actual faith.
