I remember in my second year at bible college how I was studying for an exam and stumbled across the word faith. You’d think that after I had been at college for a couple of years that I wouldn’t be surprised by it. It’s a word we use all the time in Christian circles . . . so and so came to faith, you’ve got have faith to move mountains. At bible college we would read the word everyday in many different contexts. Probably the most common was whenever we talked about the Reformation.

The reformation is a great period in history that was about 500 years ago. It was a significant movement that started with a devout German monk called Martin Luther. He had been sent to Rome on a pilgrimage and performed a ritual that people said would earn him favour with God.

The church had brought over from Jerusalem the very steps that Jesus climbed when he was to be judged by Pontius Pilate. Apparently you climbed these 28 stairs on your knees repeating the lord’s prayer and kissing each step on the way up. When you got to the top God would be so pleased with you that he released your soul from a certain number of years of purgatory. Legend has it that Luther got to the top and asked “well, how do I know this has happened?”

This doubt set him on a journey of discovery. After a few years he came across a verse in Romans that says we are made right with God by our faith. Until that point he was thinking more that we were made right with God by our rituals. He realised that there was nothing we could do on this earth that would make God look at us any differently because God’s love for us is unconditional.

There was nothing we could actually do that would make God look upon us with favour. The point was that if we have faith in Jesus, then we are saved, we are given eternal life, we are called his children. That is God’s gift to us and it is completely undeserved. What can we ever do to deserve his gift? We are He rebuked the church systems that claimed otherwise and separated and campaigned against them vigorously. The reformation was born. Well that’s the simple version anyway.

So faith became central to Luther’s understanding of our relationship with God. And faith has been central to our understanding of Christianity since then. That we are saved by our faith in Jesus Christ not by anything we do.

So when I was at college it dawned on me that I had no idea what faith actually meant. What is faith? I asked a few students, no real answer, looked up a few books : nope, nothing that really stuck out. So I rushed around the lecturers trying to find an answer. And people would answer from the bible in Hebrews 11.1: 1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Which is good, but it still needed unpacking. I wanted to know with small words what faith is.

My problem was this, that belief and faith look very similar, which is the point that James makes. He says that even the demons believe in Jesus, and tremble. So what is the difference between faith and belief?

So tonight I want us to break into small groups and come up with a definition that is no more that five words. Faith is:

So there is something about our faith that is more than just belief. It is more than just saying that we believe in a higher being. It is more than just acknowledging that we believe in God. It is more than just acknowledging that Jesus is the son of God. Faith is a belief that motivates us, inspires us, changes us, gives us purpose.

You see, if someone says they believe in something higher than us then I say “so what?” what difference does it make? Does it actually change anything for you? In fact I would go even further than that. Even the demons believe in God, but they tremble. You see the reaction there? The demons believe and tremble, because they know exactly who they are believing in. They know where they stand, that God is someone to be feared. Their belief is real. And so their response is real.

Those who say that they believe in God but have no visible response to that or can’t explain the so what, I suggest have no belief at all.

There is a difference between belief and suspicion or wondering. I reckon that most people who say they believe in a higher being are actually just suspecting that there’s a higher being. It’s easy theology. It’s dismissive for whatever reason. But at the end of the day, I challenge that they actually truly believe it.

Faith and belief are not the same thing, not at all. And the difference says James is in how you act.

James is blunt. He calls a spade a spade and for someone who was actually one of Jesus’ earthly half brothers, he has had far more experience with the practicalities of what Jesus was on about than any of the other disciples. He would have seen Jesus’ code of ethics from an early age. He would’ve seen how Jesus treated others all his life.

Jesus’ ministry started at the age of thirty but he was still the son of God before then. Nothing would have changed in terms of how he treated people and James would have seen this. James would have seen a life lived in perfection since the day he was born.

James saw this and closely observed a life lived dedicated to God and His plan for life. James was in a unique position to suss out the worth of Jesus life and words. Where the whole point of this life is to love God and love people and that the love of people was not an academic exercise. It was not something that happened up here. It was something that required action which Jesus did all the time.

The whole point of this passage is to show that our walk with Jesus is just that, it’s a walk, it’s a doing thing. And so he cites two stories from the Old Testament to prove his point.

To the Jewish people he was addressing these two examples are of great interest. He has selected two extremes.

First he selects Abraham. He is their first descendent. He is the one to whom it is promised that the nation of Israel will be descended from. Abraham is the father of a nation. The beginning of the line. He is respected and revered because he had tremendous faith in God. When it comes to faith you just don’t get better than him.

Remember the story? How God told him to sacrifice his son on an altar? And he was about to? He was about to kill his own son because God was that important to him?

Do you think for a moment that he wouldn’t have if God hadn’t interfered?

And the other example is a prostitute named Rahab who has gone down in history as being faithful and a friend of God. She lived in Jericho and she is part of the story of the walls of Jericho being blown down by trumpets. Well before the city was attacked by Israel, they had sent some spies to scope it out. She had heard about how God was looking after the Israelites and believed in his power. So she hid the spies in her house and asked in return that she be saved from the destruction.

Her faith in God was evident and the spies agreed. On pain of death for being a traitor she lied to the authorities to protect the spies. She laid her life on the line and put her trust in God.

And we all wipe our foreheads in relief because we know that God won’t expect us to do that will he? He won’t require such extreme expressions of faith where it’s a choice between life or death? Hmmmmm. There’s a question for us. There’s a pickle.

Do we really think that God will not treat us in the same extreme way? How solid is your faith that you think that? How would it stand with a bit of testing? You see Abraham’s faith was so strong that his actions reflected it. He would go all the way for God. There was no compromise. It was total and absolute dedication. And there was a lot on the line too.

If he killed his son Isaac, he faced having to justify it to the family. I’m not so sure if he would’ve been that popular with his wife. It was a tough call. But I can tell you one thing. At the end of the day Abraham didn’t just believe in a higher being. He didn’t just believe in God. He actually understood that God’s way was the best way and if that meant killing his son then that’s what had to be done. His life was motivated by God’s instruction. His life was motivated by obedience to God. His life was about doing the things that God wants over and above his own needs. That’s what loving God must be about.

Putting the desires of God over your own desires. Let’s not lay guilt trips here but let’s be realistic about things. Let’s try to have an honest appraisal of where things are at in our lives.

Let’s close our eyes and have a think. Let’s think about the decisions we make in terms of treating people that we feel are not as good as us. It might be your rowdy and inconsiderate neighbour. It might be one of the people at school who are just too cool and put you down or too un-cool so you put them down. It might be the boss, or any other workmate. The simple fact is that you don’t like them and often they don’t like you. What about the people who ask you for bus money? Or the drunk who is so staunch it’s laughable. How do you respond? How God oriented is your response?

You see I think it is at these points that faith stands out against belief. Because belief doesn’t let God into the situation. Belief doesn’t require that God be involved in our interaction with the world. Belief is head, not heart, it’s objective, not subjective, it’s the introduction to faith, but not it’s sum. You don’t die for what you believe, you die for something you have faith in.

If someone held a gun to your head and said: “do you believe in gravity? If you say yes I’m going to shoot you.” You’d probably say no. That’s because you don’t rely on gravity to make decisions in life, you don’t find any sense of meaning in gravity. But if it were to deny Jesus, to deny his impact on your life, it would be nice to think that we wouldn’t compromise on that. Jesus is able to be and really should be totally important for our lives.

Our faith brings Jesus into the day to day decisions of life. Jesus becomes a part of everything and we soak in his wisdom and beauty. Faith is costly because it means that if Jesus is to work we have to let go.

Why do we have the stories where Jesus talks about the priceless pearl? Where a merchant stumbles across an amazing pearl so he sells all that he has so he can own it. And this is the cost of our faith. Everything we have. And that includes dreams and aspirations. Faith in Jesus doesn’t just stop at walking up the front at some meeting. Faith in Jesus motivates us to give it all up and that is easier said than done.

This is what James is saying here. He is not saying that what we do will get us to heaven. He is not disagreeing with the thing that Luther worked out where our deeds say whether or not we are saved.

He is not saying that all our good deeds give us credit in heaven. Not at all. What he is saying is that when we claim to have faith in Jesus, then all our good deeds, our works, our attitudes to others, the way we handle conflict, the way we handle those who despise us, the way we handle our money, our dreams and our aspirations, the way we treat our family, the person at the gas station, the people who ask for money, James is saying that if we claim to have faith then the way we handle all these situations reveals the quality of our faith. Our actions speak louder than words.

Notice though that the actions are very practical and gritty. You can’t say you have faith just because you come to church and worship God. The measure of our faith is what happens when we are outside these walls too. When we are outside these service times. When we are interacting with a world that is hostile and mean. That is the crunch point. That is where faith is real.

Our faith means that we look at people around us with a new perspective, one that is God-oriented. One that accepts the fact that all people are precious to God—that’s right all people. Even the people we make fun of.

James finishes this section by saying “just as the body without God’s breath is dead, so faith without good actions is also dead.”

Works, or good actions, don’t get you to heaven, but they are a sign of a vibrant faith life.

This isn’t an easy sermon to preach but it’s an easy message. Not for one moment should we think that coming to church and singing worship is actually an indicator of a healthy faith. What we do for other people in God’s name, that’s the whole point. Love God, love people is a gritty and hard thing. But that’s the rule. Let’s keep it.

Think about the person you made fun of. Ask for God’s forgiveness. Work out how to make amends. And pray for the courage to do it.