Clare Haddad

James  chapter 2 v 17 says “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

Reading this, one might ask the question “Did St. Paul and James disagree about the supremacy of Faith for salvation?” After all Luther’s highly influential teaching based on Paul, especially his letter to the Romans, was that we are “saved” by faith alone through God’s Grace. Actually I think both are right because people who offer their lives in faith to Christ cannot help noticing the needs of others and doing something positive. James, in his context, was a man of both faith and action. So it is not “either works OR faith” but rather “both faith AND works ( good actions)”.

Rudyard Kipling wrote:

“O England is a garden and such gardens are not made
By saying “O how beautiful” and sitting in the shade;
While better men (and women!) than we began their working lives
By digging weeds from garden paths with broken dinner knives.”

Faith in Jesus Christ is bound to overflow into action. In our world there are endless opportunities to express the love within us by “helping” others in the broadest sense. Faith is an active quality and leads Christians to do “deeds” of all kinds, quietly, one on one, and also as we work together in the context of our daily activities including work, leisure activities, charitable giving and general connectedness within our society and world.