Do You Believe It?

Let’s say that you are in an office building and someone bursts through the door, covered in soot and smelling of smoke, and screams, “THE BUILDING IS ON FIRE! GET OUT IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!!!” If you believe them, your reaction (if you desire life) is to run out of the building through the nearest exit. When you truly believe something, you act in accordance with your belief.

In the world we live in we easily pair belief and action together as one, and we logically deduce that those whose actions don’t match their claims are lying. What is strange, however, is that when it comes to spirituality and our religious beliefs, we don’t apply the same reasoning. Someone claiming Christianity may have any number of sinful practices in their life, but as long as they “say” the right things, they feel justified.

The truth that we see day in and day out is that when you believe something, you act in a way that supports that belief, and if you don’t believe it, you act in ways that are contradictory to that belief. James says the same thing about our faith in Christ, or “belief” in Christ, in James 2:14-26:

¹⁴ What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? ¹⁵ If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? ¹⁷ Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself… ¹⁹ You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. ²⁰ But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

²⁶ For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

James takes the same logic we use every day and applies it to our faith. If your actions aren’t the same as your words, you’re a liar, plain and simple.

There is another point that we draw from this passage. Some today claim that “belief” is all that is required for salvation. By that they mean a simple mental recognition of Christ as our Lord. Unfortunately some will not search the scriptures to find out that simple mental recognition only places them in the same situation as the demons, who are, without a doubt, going to be in hell in the last day. If we want to be saved, clearly belief paired with obedience is required.

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

-Matthew 7:24-27