Faith that works – the evidence of genuine saving faith
- Jun 19
- 15 min read
Date: 21 Jun 2026, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan Sermon Text: James 2:14-26
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TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Blessed Sunday to everyone.
For all those who went to the church camp, thank you for the warm fellowship. Our time together was treasured.
For those who were not at the camp, your presence was missed. Thank you for taking care of things back home here in Singapore.
Our next camp will be in 2028 and I pray that many more of us will set aside time so that we can together build stronger spiritual roots in God’s Word and grow warmer towards each other.
Before we begin, let me take a moment to wish all our fathers a very blessed Father's Day.
We thank God for fathers, grandfathers, and spiritual fathers in our midst. We thank God for the many ways you have served your families, working faithfully, sacrificing quietly, and seeking to point your children towards Christ.
As we reflect on Father's Day, I think most of us would agree that some of life's most important lessons are not taught but caught.
Children often learn less from what their fathers say and more from what their fathers do.
A father may tell his children that prayer is important, but if they never see him pray, the lesson is weakened.
A father may teach the importance of church, but if worship is always secondary to other priorities, children notice.
A father may speak about trusting God during difficult times, but when trials come, his response often becomes the loudest sermon he will ever preach.
In other words, faith becomes most powerful when it is visible.
And that is exactly the issue James addresses in our passage today.
James asks a searching question - What good is it if someone claims to have faith, but there is no evidence of that faith in the way they live?
The challenge is not just for fathers. It is for every believer.
But fathers, perhaps especially today, we are reminded that one of the greatest legacies we can leave our children and grandchildren is not financial security, educational achievement, or career success.
It is the legacy of a genuine faith in Jesus Christ that can be seen in everyday life.
A faith that loves … A faith that serves.
A faith that obeys … A faith that endures.
For long after our words are forgotten, our example often remains.
And that leads us naturally into James 2:14–26, where James teaches us that genuine saving faith is never merely professed, it is demonstrated.
James and Paul
James 2:14-26 is one of the most discussed texts in the New Testament.
This is because at first glance, James appears to be saying something different from Paul.
Paul says in Rom 3:28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Meanwhile James is saying here Jas 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Someone has helpfully shared that Paul is looking at things from a pre-conversion angle while James is looking at it from a post-conversion angle.
Paul was ministering primarily to pagans who did not have a relationship with God.
He was answering the question, “what more can I do”. So Paul is saying, we cannot do anything to get to heaven, rather it is God who reconciles us to Himself.
In Christ we are justified.
James, was ministering to a different audience. Mainly Jews who grew up with biblical knowledge.
They assumed their heritage, their knowledge and their respectability guaranteed God’s favour.
James says to them, your works will vindicate your justification. You need to prove that your faith is real by deeds of sacrificial love.
I pray that last week’s Hermon’s editorial would be a helpful reference on this issue.
4 different test scenarios are given in our passage today. May each successfully authenticate our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Genuine faith produces compassionate action (v14-17)
At the end of James 1, Scripture says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.
Then at the beginning of chapter 2, James speaks about not showing favoritism for the rich against the poor.
God’s heart is for the last and the least in society. And James continues to ask us to consider how our faith addresses the genuine needs of those who lack.
Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith. To James, the issue is not whether faith saves, the issue is whether the person’s profession is authentic.
James is questioning as it were, the claim of faith, not the doctrine of justification by faith. And the way the sentence is structured, it anticipates a negative response.
Can that faith save him? The reader is to answer ‘No, that kind of faith does not save’.
And so test one is that of a sibling who lacks food and clothing. Here is not someone who is naked, but poorly and insufficiently clothed.
To lack daily food does not mean starvation but rather insufficient nourishment for normal healthy living.
This is a description of the poor. They have not received the answer to the prayer ‘give us this day our daily bread’.
James then says, some of you typically answer in a ‘well-meaning’ way - “Go in peace, be warmed and filled”.
James, says, that is totally hypocritical. To say ‘Go in peace” is like a benediction, saying “God bless you”.
This may sound well-meaning but at its core, is a total disregard for the welfare of others.
In those days, to say such things, were the equivalent of saying, we wish that God will take care of that person but we do not in any way intent to be a channel of that care.
Elsewhere, Scripture condemns such a statement -
1 Jn 3:17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Genuine faith is shown in us meeting the clear and present needs of our siblings-in-Christ.
James gives the devastating verdict. Such faith that does not meet the clear and present needs of others is not a weak faith, it is a dead faith. It authenticates instead that there is no evidence of spiritual life.
Since compassion begins at home, in the light of our church camp, may I share some implications based on our focus of an intergenerational church.
For those of us as younger members, let’s resist viewing older members as belonging to a different 'church demographic'. One that is different and thus irrelevant.
As we think about acts of compassion, could our genuine faith instead say, I want to show Christ love to seniors whom society increasingly overlooks. E.g (from the camp group bingo sheet)
Know their favourite worship song and learn to appreciate it too.
Help them with a tech issue and reassure them even if they don’t get it the first time.
Listen to their faith testimony and thank God for it.
At the camp we began to sit for 2 meals to fellowship across the generations. Would we continue this when we have fellowship back here in Henderson?
Regarding our seniors, let’s not merely tolerate them. But let’s treasure them as gifts from God.
Now, for those in our golden years, might we sometimes, feel that the young should be seen but not heard? Or that you can never understand them?
But could our genuine faith instead appreciate that the younger generation could really benefit from seniors being their prayer warrior? They might actually be living in a tougher and more complicated era.
Would seniors, truly be golden and encourage the next generation by being good role models of faithfulness and trust in the Lord?
At the camp, the younger ones saw how chill, how sporting the seniors were. You learnt how to dance, how to cheer and how to have a group handshake.
As an intergenerational church, may we seek that each generation connects so as to leave the next, better than their own.
Genuine faith is more than correct belief (v18-20)
Test 1 is that genuine faith produces compassionate action. Test 2 is that genuine faith is more than correct belief.
Jas 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
James now includes an imaginary objector. A person who will give a contrary view in the debate about faith and works.
This objector is saying that faith and works are independent spiritual gifts. So, they argue that my faith can be exercise through speech while yours is exercised through action.
To that, James rebuts, that is not the correct way to understand God’s commands.
Instead, James says, Scripture teaches that faith must be proven by a way of life.
Good works, righteous acts make faith visible.
Our claim of faith is vindicated by a life of holiness and good deeds.
James being the half-brother of our Lord Jesus, would be familiar with what Jesus taught in Luke 6 (I’ll begin and can the congregation respond the yellow verses)
Lk 6:46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.”
Genuine faith must be seen in right action. Without practical evidence or outworking of it, faith is absent.
Orthodox belief is insufficient. See, the demons also believe in the orthodox doctrines of the faith. James is quoting the Shema here. This is found in Deut 6:4. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one”
Demons know all that. They even acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. They know the faith, I might add, even better than pastors and theologians.
Not only do they have intellectual knowledge, James says, they even have an emotional response to that knowledge. They shudder.
Yet, they remain unchanged, they remain disobedient, thus they remain condemned.
Genuine faith means we must know and even fear God, but it must not stop there. Instead, we should then follow up with trusting in Jesus as Saviour, submitting to Him as Lord and ensuring being obedient to His instructions.
For many of our younger generation, we have inherited the faith from our parents. With the internet, information about the Christian faith is at our finger tips.
May I ask, are we on auto-pilot? Do we do ‘church’ because that is how we have been brought up? Do we just feed our spiritual curiosity by consuming content alone?
Our parents had to fight for the privilege to come to church to worship God each Sunday. For the 2nd generation, we often times, work hard to fight not to come to church for corporate worship.
We may know more than our parents about the Christian faith due to the knowledge availability. But the test is in the living. Are we living out what we know or are we so align to what society dictates of us?
If we honestly compare our lives with our parents, especially in the face of severe challenges, whose would be closer to the Demons?
I pray we would say none.
For our golden Hermonites, have years of discipleship lulled you into complacency?
Our speaker on 7 June spoke about Caleb. How he sought to finish well. How Caleb continued to be faithful even during the 40 years of wandering.
Hermonites, we may have started well, but are we finishing well?
May we been seen to have more patience, be more gracious than when we were younger. May we be less anxious, less insistent on our own way and be less judgemental.
In the autumn and winter of our lives, may we resemble Caleb.
Genuine faith is vindicated by costly obedience (v21-24)
Since James was speaking to a mainly Jewish audience, he now mentions 2 Old Testament examples. Firstly Abraham and then Rahab.
Jas 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Now Abraham and Rahab are on extreme ends of the spectrum. Abraham is the father of the nation of Israel. Rabah on the other hand, would be as far down the respectability pole as you can go.
I submit the reason for that is to be inclusive of all of us. We would likely be able to find our place within the two ends between Abraham and Rahab.
Here James is referring to the incident when Abraham went to offer Issac as the sacrifice as instructed by God in Genesis 22.
To understand how significant was this sacrifice we need to understand the history. We must know that Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren. She could not conceive.
In Genesis 15, God told Abraham, that God is His shield and his great reward.
Abraham then replied, if you are my great reward, how can it be? You already said it 10 years ago and yet, God, you have not provided a son as you have promised.
To that, God took Abraham outside and said if you can count the stars, so shall be the number of your descendants. Genesis 15:6 records, Abraham believed and God counted it to him as righteousness.
Since Genesis 15, Abraham had to wait another 14 years before God finally gave him Isaac. Gen 22 would then be about 40 years after God’s original promise of a son.
Abraham lived a life of faith by trusting God to provide a son for many decades. And he continued to show evidence of his faith in God by the sternest test now of sacrificing Isaac.
God gives us a glimpse of Abraham’s rock-solid faith in Hebrews:
Heb 11:19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
So by the testimony of Abraham’s life, the Reformers state – “Faith alone justifies, but faith that justifies is never alone”.
Abraham shows us that genuine faith is displayed in costly obedience.
Are we familiar with the hymn - I have decided to follow Jesus? This was written by Simon Marak, a pastor, schoolteacher, and missionary in Assam, India. It was based on the testimony of a martyr.
About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales. This led to missionaries coming to north-east India to spread the Gospel. The region known as Assam was comprised of hundreds of tribes who were primitive and aggressive head-hunters
One missionary succeeded in converting a man, his wife, and two children. This man’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity.
Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers.
He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man said:
“I have decided to follow Jesus.”
Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too.”
But the man replied:
“Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”
The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death.
Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.” In the face of death the man said the final memorable lines:
“The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.”
He was shot dead like the rest of his family. But with their deaths, a miracle took place.
The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a Man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago?
There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.”
In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
The song is based on the last words of Nokseng, a man from Garo tribe of Assam India.
Abraham’s was a living faith, is ours one too? His profession in God was evident by His action in sacrificing Isaac. Might the Lord be empowering us to face a discipleship decision that will be costly today?
Genuine faith can include radical action (v25-26)
It might be a no-brainer to use Abraham as a model, but Rahab?
She is a Gentile, a woman and then a prostitute. It’s like scrapping the bottom of the barren for a model. She is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Abraham.
Jas 2:25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
On 7 June, we were encouraged by the testimony of Caleb. One of the 12 spies who were sent by Moses to survey the Promised Land. The land, God had promised to the descendants of Abraham.
40 years later, now that Moses has died, Joshua began to enter the Promised Land, and he did it by first sending 2 spies to survey Jericho.
James is referring to this incident of Rahab protecting the spies as found in Joshua 2.
Let’s hear what is Rahab’s profession of faith:
Jos 2:9 and (she) said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10 For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
The spies were the enemy, but now that Rahab had identified with the God of the enemy, her faith was evident in how she protected the spies, hid them and sent them away safely.
All this was at great possible costs and danger to her and her family. Her actions were radical. Her actions shows the reality of her faith in the God of Israel.
Church, our faith is often visible when it becomes costly.
In Singapore what might be our costs of obedience, actions that may to our fellow Singaporeans seem very radical?
Could it be the way we forgo internships if it prevents us from having sufficient time to serve in ministry?
Could it be the way we forgo an attractive overseas job posting because we do not want to our family reside in 2 different countries?
Could it be the way we forgo a possible marriage because we are not of the same faith?
Could it be the way we forgo respectability amongst our peers when we hold true to God’s truth that God has made humans, male and female and that marriage is to be between one man and one woman.
There may be some of us who are at the crossroads of life, at the junction of big decisions and big plans – times when ambitions, hopes, dreams, destines and life itself are at stake.
May the lives of Abraham and Rahab encourage you. They were supremely committed to the Lord whatever the costs. They knew before even Christ came, what it meant to take up their crosses and follow Him (Mk 8:34).
Conclusion
According to James, a genuine believer demonstrates compassionate action towards others, possesses more than correct doctrine and lives out their faith through obedient action.
As we hold the mirror of Scripture to our souls, it will show that none of us measure up.
There are times when we have seen needs but walked away.
There are times, our faith has remained in our heads rather than reaching our hands.
There are times, we have professed Christ with our lips yet failed to trust and obey.
And this is where the Gospel give us assurance. The good news is not that we have produced enough works for God, no, the good news is that Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation.
Though union with Christ, we are justified by faith alone.
Now through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, our faith then has the ability to bear the fruit of good works.
Scripture is helping us to understand today that good works are not the root of salvation, they are the fruit of salvation.
They do not earn us God’s favour, they demonstrate that God’s grace has already taken hold of our lives.
Our closing hymn Servants of the Gospel, I submit captures James’ emphasis.
Not merely hearers but doers. Not merely professions of faith but practitioners of faith. Not merely receipts of grace but instruments through whom God’s grace reaches others.
Because Christ has saved us, our faith now works. Because Christ has saved us, our lives now bear fruit.
Because Christ has united us as His people, we now serve together across generations as salt and light in Singapore and beyond.
Reflection Questions
In what specific ways can I show Christ's compassion to someone from a different generation within our church family this month, and how might that strengthen our witness as an intergenerational congregation?
What biblical truth have I learned recently that God is calling me to put into practice, and how can my obedience encourage believers from other generations to follow Christ more faithfully?
As God has placed me in my current stage of life, how can I use my gifts, experiences, and opportunities to help pass the Gospel on to the next generation and advance Christ's kingdom in Singapore and beyond?
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