James 2-Part 5
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James 2:25-26
LET IT GLOW
Whenever it was hay season on the farm, my uncles, dad, brother, and cousins got together and all helped my grandfather. That was such a fun time for us girl cousins. We could play while our moms made lunch, the boy cousins were out of our hair, and dads were in the hayfields. One particular time sticks out in my memory, 50 years ago. We gals got some loose hay and made us a house out of it. (Sounds like the 3 little pigs.) It had been months since we had visited, and they lived in other towns, so we naturally talked inside our house of hay. (Hopefully, we didn't get any ticks, chiggars, or seed ticks.) I don't know how we kept the roof up, maybe with sticks. We were good house builders, because the proof was in the roof-it stood. That reminded me of Rahab hiding two spies under the flax on her roof. Let's look into the story closer.
When I hear the name "Rahab," usually it doesn't stand alone, but usually I call her "Rahab the harlot." What a stigma. Even after she rescued the two spies of Israel, she is still known as that. Rahab's works were done by faith. I don't know when she became a believer in God, Israel's God. Was it when the two spies came to lodge in her house and they shared what Jehovah had done? Or was it before that, yet she was stuck in "that" profession in order to make a living for her family? Guess I will have a chance to ask her one day in heaven.
What else do I know about this lady? I turned to Joshua 2 for the answer:
- Joshua, king and commander-in-chief of Israel's army, sent out two men to spy secretly the land of Jericho before they attacked. Where did they lodge that night? Rahab's Inn.
- The king of Jericho found out-news traveled quickly in that city.
- The spies must have told Rahab their purpose in being there, for she hid the two men on her roof, under the stalks of flax. Did Rahab figure that these men would be pursued after by the king's men? Apparently so.
- There was a knock at the door and the king's men were asking if she had any foreigners in her hotel. Rahab made up a story about them leaving out the city gate, so the regement pursued after them.
- Rahab has a conversation with the two spies on her roof. She tells them that Jericho had heard about their God drying up the Red Sea and giving victory with the Amorites. This made their hearts melt with fear. In verse 11, Rahab declares her faith-the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
- Since Rahab showed kindness to the two spies in protecting them, she asked that her family be saved when Israel attacks Jericho. They agreed-our life for yours if ye utter not this our business.
- Rahab let the spies down the wall, out the back window by a cord. She told them to hide for three days on the mountain, then the pursuerers would give up the hunt and return back to Jericho.
- She was told to hang a red cord out her window and have her family in her house whenever Israel attacked Jericho. If she kept this plan a secret, they would be spared from death. And so it happened that way, in Joshua. Verse 25 tells us she dwelt with Israel. Because of her act of faith, Rahab the harlot is mentioned in the Roll Call of faith in Hebrews 11. Also, Rahab is mentioned as the wife of Salmon and was Boaz's mother, in the geneology of Jesus (Matt. 1:5). Boaz became the great-grandfather of David, making her David's great-great-grandmother. What a reward!
Charles Swindoll describes Rahab as a pagan prostitute, a harlot looked on with disdain, considered insignificant, yet demonstraated her faith when she risked her life to protect the two Israelite spies.
William Baker says "Rahab's faith was thus "justified" by her courageous decision to take her place with the people of God. Her decision flowed out of her justifying faith."
Is my faith genuine? Is there evidence that it is?
By faith Linda...
Fill in your name: by faITH, ______...
LET IT GROW
In verse 26, James says that faith without works is dead. He compares it with a dead body, a corpse, without the spirit. This dead body does not move nor does anything. God regards the time someone is dead when the spirit/soul deparst from the body. When the soul sepearates from the body, that person is dead. So faith without works is dead because it has no action.
As much as you can have a body with no life, so you can have faith with no life, and faith without works is a dead faith. If we believe something, we'll follow through and act upon it. If we really put our trust and faith in Jesus, we will care for the naked and destitute as He told us to. We can see if faith is alive if accompanied by works, if not, then it is dead. (Guzik)
As a breathless body emits no indication of life, so fruitless faith exhibits nothing more than hypocrisy. (Falwell)
An intellectual faith and works done in the flesh are dead. Works done in the power of the Holy Spirit bring dead faith to life. We respond in active obedience to what God tells us. Forsake the life of the flesh in order to walk in the Spirit. Believe in God, deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus (Mark 8:34). Follow Him with active obedience, living by faith, and let your light shine so others see your good works and glorify our Father. (People's New Testament Concordance)
Man isn't justified by faith alone, that is, by a bare and empty knowledge of God; he's justified by works, that is, his righteousness is known and proved by its fruit. (Calvin)
Even if my body is alive, my faith can be dead. Are both my faith and body living, active, fruitful, serving? Can others see my faith by what it does?
LET IT GO
Wake up my dead faith so it is alive and walking with Jesus in obedience.
Leave the works of the flesh behind.
Bear fruit of the Spirit.
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