Faith and Works

James repeats the theme of faith and works often through his short letter. If you take some of the verses out of context, you might think that he is teaching salvation by works. But looking at the whole you will see that it is salvation that leads to works and that works demonstrate salvation.

1:22-25 - Be a doer, not just a hearer of the word.
1:26 - Control your tongue
1:27 - True religion is visiting orphans and widows in their need and fleeing sin
2:14-26 - Faith without works is dead. We can't demonstrate our faith, if we are not doing good works.
3:1-12 - A tamed tongue is evidence of a changed life.
3:13 - Wisdom is displayed by good conduct
4:17 - Whoever knows to do right, but doesn't do it, is sinning.
5:12 - Tell the truth all the time, so that there will be no condemnation.

Your actions reveal what you believe. If you say that you are a Christian but are bitter, lying, unforgiving, abusive, lazy, rebellious or any other of list of sins, you really are not.

If your life is characterized by sins, then you need to evaluate if you have truly been saved.

You can't reform yourself and then trust in Christ. You have to trust in Christ and let Him do the reforming.