#48 - Imitating Christ - Philippians 2:1-11 and Faith in action: James 2:14-26; Reflection by Tom Kettler

After reading James 2:14-26, the message is clear and unmistakable from the opening verse which poses the question “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?” to the final verse which concludes with ---”faith without works is also dead.”

Phrases bop into my mind like “You have to walk the talk”. My personal experience has always been that putting one’s faith into action ends up geometrically expanding one’s own faith from what comes back to you as a result of works- no matter how seemingly small or large.


As a member of Church Council, at our monthly meetings, we make a point of going through POP’s 5 core mission goals and one of those is “Direct Service to Others”. We review the past month and do a reality check as to how we as a church community are “Walking the Talk”.


The powerful thing about service is that each person can individually decide what their personal “works” can be at any given time. Works can be baking cookies for newcomers, singing in the choir, praying for those on our prayer list, sorting clothes for the annual POP Yard Sale, social ministry- the list is endless and so are the possibilities.


If you are familiar with 12 step programs that are the core of groups like AA, one of the final steps has to do with “Service” aka works. Participants are encouraged to “do what we can when we can and a life of sane and happy usefulness is what we are promised...”. So go do what you can when you can and your faith will be richer for it. - Tom Kettler

Philippians 2:1–11

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, ²make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. ³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. ⁵Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
⁶who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
⁷but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
⁸he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death —
even death on a cross.
⁹Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

James 2:14–26

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? ¹⁵If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, ¹⁶and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? ¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
¹⁸But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. ¹⁹You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder. ²⁰Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith apart from works is barren? ²¹Was not our ancestor Abraham justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²²You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by the works. ²³Thus the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ²⁵Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? ²⁶For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.