James 2:14-26 What does it profit, my brothers, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? can faith save him?… Faith is the fountain-head, whence works proceed, and the justification of man ensues in course. Let me illustrate this by a familiar example: suppose a man to have a mill worked by a stream which ran out of one of our lakes; now it is quite clear that he owes all his water, and therefore all his prosperity on that matter, to the lake. And as the stream has no water of its own, but draws all from the lake, the truth, broadly and nakedly set forth, will be, that he is dependent on the lake only, without any water that the stream of itself supplies. Now with this statement we may compare the statement of St. Paul, that "a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law," which in themselves can avail him nothing; and it would be particularly contradictory to the assertion of all such as maintained that the man was supplied by the stream, without any reference to the lake; give the lake, and you have the stream from its overflow: so faith supposes works. But make a channel ever so broad and deep for the stream, you will have no water if there be no water in the lake: so works are nothing without faith. And so St. Paul's assertion was especially, contrary to the doctrine of the Jews, who would have the Gentiles justified by works. But suppose now the owner of the mill to say, I entirely depend upon the lake, and so presuming, entirely neglected the stream, never cleaning out its channel, nor repairing its embankments, would he not shortly find out that he must look to the stream too, and that he depended both upon the lake and the stream, and not on the lake only? Such was the mistake of those with whom St. James argues, who said that they had enough in their faith, and neglected works: and accordingly St. James tells them that they must be justified by works, and not by faith only. (R. W. Evans, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?WEB: What good is it, my brothers, if a man says he has faith, but has no works? Can faith save him? |
    |