James 2:14-26
On one of my other blogs wrote an entry called "Would Jesus Fit Into My Spiritual Rubric".
Recently I heard a preacher try to encourage his congregation to make sure their faith was authentic. Good. Great, even. He then proceeded to say (through a fictional scenario) that the way we can know other people have authentic faith is that they
a) attend Bible studies at church
b) walk around carrying their Bible
c) pray aloud at church
What? Really? OK - I, too think that those three things are good things... but as proof of your relationship with Jesus? They might overflow from it - certainly - but... I don't know... seems a little Pharisaical to me if that is our rubric. But the truth is - we all fall into that trap.
So what if we have the rubric of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of being peacemakers, of being merciful, of being pure in heart?
James's rubric has two things: taking care of the poor's physical needs and offering your most precious child on the alter. Yes, our faith overflows in our deeds... but Lord! Please help us from being content with or even calling our "deeds" carrying around our Bibles.
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