James 2 Discussion

Churches can spot a gold ring faster than a hurting heart, and James 2 calls that out with zero hesitation. We sit down as Pastor Plek and Pastor Holland to outline, observe, interpret, and apply James chapter two, starting with the warning against favoritism in the church. If we treat the rich, impressive, or connected better than the poor or overlooked, we’re not being “polite” we’re contradicting faith in Jesus and showing how shallow our values can get.

Then we move into the line that makes people nervous: “faith without works is dead.” We talk about why James and Paul aren’t fighting, and why the real issue is what you mean by “faith.” Intellectual agreement is not the same as trust and surrender. James even gives the most unsettling example possible: demons believe and shudder. Saving faith is different because it comes under Jesus’ authority, and that kind of faith obeys. Works don’t earn salvation, but they do reveal whether faith is alive.

We also get personal about church culture and appearance: honoring the Lord with our best without turning clothing into a gate that keeps the poor, the homeless, or the ashamed outside. We connect James to the royal law, mercy triumphing over judgment, and the hope of the gospel: we’re guilty under God’s law, and the only rescue is faith in Jesus Christ that truly saves and then produces fruit. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review, then tell us: where do you feel most tempted to show favoritism or settle for “demon faith”?

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Transcript

Welcome And James 2 Roadmap

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. That's Pastor Holland. We're talking James chapter two. We're going to outline, observe it, interpret it, and apply it so that you can walk fully committed to the truth of God's word in your day today.

Warning Against Favoritism

Pastor Plek 0:27

So James 2, uh verses 1 through 13 starts out this warning against favoritisms. Believers must not show partiality based on wealth or status or even perceived status when somebody comes in in fancy clothes versus someone in shabby clothes. Favoring the rich dishonors the poor. And that contradicts faith in Christ. Verses 14 through 26.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Pastor Plek 0:52

Faith without works is dead. Faith without action can't save. Uh-oh. Are we getting to a place where Paul and James are in conflict? All right, let's get into some observations. What do you think?

Pastor Holland 1:07

No, James and Paul are not in conflict. That's good.

Pastor Plek 1:11

That's good.

What Dead Faith Really Means

Pastor Plek 1:14

Because it says, let's let's just read what it says. Because this is the part where people are gonna like lose their mind, right? They're gonna say, uh, where was that? Um if you okay. So faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Yep. Okay, now so what does that mean? Are they truly not safe? Yeah.

Pastor Holland 1:47

What do you think? If your faith doesn't have works, then yeah, it's dead faith and you're not saved. It's not it's not saving faith.

Pastor Plek 1:55

It's not saving faith. Faithing save, faith saving faith, saving faith produces fruit. Yes. Um, so how much fruit do you need to produce? Well, at least some. Some fruit. Yeah. I I think this is the question that you're looking at here when someone says, Well, that person is showing no no fruit. Well, you don't know what fruit they've got have internally working. All you can see is on the outside, and there might be a dramatic shift on the inside that hasn't manifested on the outside yet. Or someone might get saved, and then they show zero fruit before they like immediately die or something. And you're like, Well, what fruit did they have? Well, it was just like a seed was planted. That doesn't mean it's a dead seed, it just means that the fruit hasn't come yet. It's coming. And I think at some point you have to say, like, God is working, he, whatever he starts, he's gonna finish. There will be fruit there. He is going to give a harvest of anything he claims is his own.

Pastor Holland 2:51

Yeah, it's James is he's dealing with you know, people kind of parsing out, trying to separate two things that can't be separated. So just like in chapter one, he was like, be doers of the word, not hearers only. The idea is that the Christian life is not just about hearing a bunch of information and

Demon Faith Versus Real Trust

Pastor Holland 3:11

doing nothing with it. Yep. You if you're not doing what it says, you you aren't really hearing the word. In the same way, if your faith, what does faith mean? You know, it's it's not just an intellectual agreement with certain terms. And he brings up the demons as an example of that. He's like, demons believe in God. You think they're saved? Of course not. They shudder. Yeah, they shudder. They know that uh they know the judgment that's coming for them, you know, and they but um their faith is an acknowledgement in the reality of God, but it is not a trust in God um and a submission to God. And so that's where like if if your faith is not, don't have demon faith that just acknowledges God exists. Have um saving faith that says, not only do I acknowledge you exist, but I surrender my life to you. I trust you. Um, I I come under, you know, your authority. Um and uh and that means I'm gonna do what you say. If you don't do what he says, you don't actually trust him. Um so saving faith is a faith that obeys Jesus. Yeah. Um, okay, let's go to uh that's what his examples are, with like Abraham. Yeah, right? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So his faith is what saved him, but that very same faith that believed God is what takes action. Yeah, was demonstrated with his actions. So the um uh the action is the demonstration that the faith is real, right? Yeah, that's good.

Clothing Reverence And Shame

Pastor Plek 4:43

Okay, let's I'm gonna change uh gears here. Okay, just going back to the first part, like what is this about wearing nice clothes versus non-nice clothes? Like what like you know, shouldn't we be dressing up, give the Lord our best?

Pastor Holland 4:58

Yeah, good question. Um, yeah, I think you should. And uh some for a poor person, uh, their best sometimes might be shabby clothing. Yeah, and um it maybe they're wearing the best that they have because that's all that they have. And James is saying, don't shame that person for um coming to worship the Lord, and just because they don't have as much, they don't they don't have the gold ring, if you treat the rich person better than the poor person, um, yeah, you've shown your shallow, worldly, materialistic values. Good. Um, okay. But I do I do think it's like it's right to, you know, want to honor the Lord with uh what what you wear, the way you carry yourself, your attitude, your reverence and worship. Um and uh but you know, when someone that shouldn't create a barrier to someone who doesn't have as much as you, right?

Pastor Plek 5:46

I I remember what what really stuck out to me about this first was when I was in college, uh, you know, I went to West Point, so we wore uniforms, and so we wore uniforms to church. And you'd always wear your not nice shoes to church because no one's gonna inspect them. And and so you wanted to kind of keep the best stuff for the inspection so you wouldn't have to work as hard and all that. Um, you just keep those shiny shoes shined up, ready to go for inspection whenever that happens. And uh so we go to church and I look down and and uh at my buddy JC, that was his name. And uh I go, bro, why are you wearing your your your um inspection shoes? And he's like, I'm going to, I want to, I want to give reverence to the Lord. And that struck me. I was like, man, I guess I probably should wear some better shoes. Uh it was kind of a wild thought. And it wasn't trying, he was trying, wasn't putting that on anybody else. Yeah, but there was a just a deep respect uh for the goodness of God and reverence for his holiness that he wanted to um present himself in a way that was the best. And I I really appreciated that, especially when the church we went to was like 10 old people and it didn't matter.

Pastor Holland 6:56

Matters, yeah. The Lord is there, and so I it's another story. When I was in college, we had a guy, a homeless guy, that um we met, and uh we ended up having him live with us for a little while. And he started coming to church, he came to Christ, started coming to church with us, but he wouldn't go in church one time. He was too embarrassed that he didn't have nice clothes. And he got missed, he he got told by someone one time when he visited a church a long time ago, like, hey, you can't come in here like that. And um, but he was wearing the the best that he had. Yeah, and so he was really hesitant to come with us. Um, and but he came in with us and he was loved and he was welcomed by people. And also we helped him save up some money and we pitched in and helped him get some some nice clothes that he felt proud. And I remember when he came to church with us wearing his nice new church clothes, he just felt so excited to honor the Lord in that way. Yeah. And so anyway, I love that.

Pastor Plek 7:50

And at the same time, I love a come as you are mindset because you know, we when in our church right now, we have a bar next door, and people literally walk out of the bar and come to our church, and I think that's the the greatest experience ever. So there you go.

Pride Partiality And Human Nature

Pastor Plek 8:05

Um, all right. So, what do you see about the nature of man here? I think first thing is that there is just this um pride that comes in uh when you perceive someone might be able to benefit you, you serve them out of your own selfishness.

Pastor Holland 8:19

Yeah. And just uh, we can be so shallow. We can focus on all the wrong things and think, oh, who should we honor here? The people with, you know, wealth, money, status, you know, that and um yeah, just have have have very um shallow kind of standards.

Pastor Plek 8:37

Yeah, that's good. Um what else, nature of man? Um I I think there's a reality though that a lot of people will kind of just go, I have faith, I'm saved. I you know, I don't need to do anything. I don't I don't have a and there's it's true to be justified before the Lord, there's nothing you can do. However, once you were saved, then you're now empowered, you're a Christ workmanship to do good work. So there should be something that you're called to do.

Pastor Holland 9:04

Yeah. Yeah. And to the people who are saying, like, I'm saved, I don't need to do anything, it's like, what what do you mean when you say faith? Like I believe in God. I I believe God exists. Oh, the demons do too.

Pastor Plek 9:16

Yeah, like demon faith. Okay, so you got demon faith.

Pastor Holland 9:18

Like, don't you know that faith means like I am I am following after, I am trusting in, I am obeying?

Pastor Plek 9:25

So, like, that's where I would press someone who's I think when we say demon faith, people go like, I'm not trying to kill anybody. I'm not trying. However, when you know God's word and what it says and you are explicitly denying it, isn't that what demons do? Yeah. All right, right. Anyway.

God’s Impartial Mercy And Love

Pastor Plek 9:45

All right, uh, what about character of God? What do you see here? God has expectations for his people. Like live a life uh that is worthy of the glory that he's laid down for you.

Pastor Holland 10:00

Yeah. Um I think of the you know, man looks at outward appearance, but um the Lord looks at the heart. God's impartial. Yeah, he's impartial, and so therefore, we should be impartial. We should not show partiality or favoritism.

Pastor Plek 10:15

Um, how about God's merciful? Mercy reflects his character character and it triumphs over judgment.

Pastor Holland 10:24

Um He wants us to love each other. Yeah, when it says you fulfill the royal law, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. Like, that's what all of God's commands ultimately amount to is like He's commanding us to love Him and love each other. That's good. Like His commands are a good thing.

Pastor Plek 10:43

Yeah, they're not burdensome.

Pastor Holland 10:44

Yeah.

Pastor Plek 10:44

All

Application Obedience Mercy And Hope

Pastor Plek 10:45

right, how about this? Uh let's get into some application, which is sin to avoid, promise to claim, example, follow, command, obey, and knowledge to believe. What do you see for application?

Pastor Holland 10:54

Knowledge to believe, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Verse 17.

Pastor Plek 10:59

Oh, okay, good. How about send avoid? Don't show favoritism or judge people by simply their outward appearance.

Pastor Holland 11:07

Knowledge to believe, even demons believe and shudder.

Pastor Plek 11:12

Okay, how about example? Follow, follow Abraham's obedient faith and Rahab's courageous faith expressed through action. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 11:20

Man, interesting. Rahab gets mentioned in Hebrews Hall of Faith and here in James as a positive example of faith. Isn't that wild? And she's a prostitute. Yeah.

unknown 11:29

Hmm.

Pastor Plek 11:30

Uh, which you know makes you wonder does she give up prostitution after that? Um I'm assuming so. Probably. Because she is in the line of Jesus, so she got married at some point. Right? Yeah. All right.

Pastor Holland 11:43

Uh he leaves that on there in verse 25. Rahab the prostitute. Right. Like, yeah, there's a bunch of Rahabs. The one I'm talking about was the prostitute one.

Pastor Plek 11:51

Yeah, she sold her body for sex. Yeah, that one. That one.

Pastor Holland 11:54

Okay. And uh and yet it goes down, you know, in the Bible as an example of faith. So that there you go. If knowledge to believe, God can transform your life.

Pastor Plek 12:03

Yeah, God can use anyone with whatever past to be transformed. Uh, command obey, uh show mercy to other people. Like take opportunity to be merciful when somebody doesn't deserve it, love them anyway.

Pastor Holland 12:19

Yeah, I think knowledge to believe too, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. Sometimes you can be like, I'm not that bad. I'm if I'm going, if there's a heaven, I'm going to heaven because I'm pretty good. I've only done this or I've only done that. And he says here, if you've broken it at any point, you're guilty of the weight of the whole thing. You're going to hell. Yeah. Other than the only way is by faith in Jesus Christ.

Gospel Summary And Closing

Pastor Plek 12:42

You are that bad, but God is that good that Jesus would die in your place, be raised from the dead. You could have eternal life.

Pastor Holland 12:49

Yeah. That faith can save you. You believe in Jesus and it will produce good works. Yeah.

Pastor Plek 12:54

Hey, I think we'll under there. Uh, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.