James in Three Peanut Shells

Peanut Shell No. 2--Justification In James:

When James speaks of being "justified" by works, he is not

speaking of being justified before God.  He is speaking of

being justified in the eyes of his fellow man.  To be justified

is simply to be regarded as "alright" by another person.  It is

not automatically directed to God any more than the word

"save" is automatically directed toward God.

One is justified before God by faith in Christ.  

However, our fellow man is not capable of reading our

minds.  It would therefore be idiotic to maintain that our

fellow man regards us as "alright" based on what it is we

believe.   Our fellow man formulates his opinion of us by our

character.  And our character is reflected by how we

repeatedly conduct the affairs of our lives.  If believers who

have financial or material resources allow impoverished and

homeless Christian brethren to starve in the streets or freeze

to death, those Christians having resources are not "all right"

in the eyes of the watching world.  They are selfish and cold

hearted religious hypocrites.  They claim that Jesus taught

love and laying one's life down for his brethren, but they

won't lift a finger to save their fellow Christians.

The world does not think you are an "O.K." person simply

because you have trusted Christ.  No unbeliever would be

attracted to the church so they could make friends who would

watch them starve to death or freeze to death in hard times.

NOTE:  Neither James, nor the above paragraph, should be

understood as teaching that our good works or character

"prove" that we have been "justified by God."  James is not

discussing justification before God at all.  James is talking

about being justified in the eyes of our fellow man by our

works.

Contrary to popular teachings, not one verse of Scripture

teaches that our works prove the authenticity of our faith in

Christ.