FAITH WITHOUT WORKS

James addresses some words about faith without works at the Christian audience, the Church. He speaks to people who call themselves Christians, but who show no evidence that they are, in fact, Christians. It is true that salvation is based on our confession of faith in Jesus, and no works are included in this confession BUT as soon as a person makes his confession, the evidence for their faith ought to follow.

Put this another way. Imagine someone said to you:

You would expect to find that such a person had baked at least one or two loaves of bread? What would you think if there was no bread at all anywhere?

This man's confession is not supported by any evidence!

Now imagine a train. At the front is the engine, where all the power is. This represents God's Word, the FACTS of truth on which we base our Christian life.

Behind the TRUTH comes our FAITH. Notice that the FACTS pull the FAITH and not the other way round. The Bible is true because God wrote it, not because we believe it. The Bible is true even if we don't believe it.
Because we believe God's Word, we make a confession of our FAITH and then we show that we believe by our WORKS. If there are no WORKS following our confession, people are quite within their rights to ask us: "Are you really a Christian?"
WHAT SORT OF WORKS SHOULD FOLLOW OUR FAITH?
Practical works, done in love, care and compassion.

True Christians show they are following Jesus by being like Him. A false Christian says but doesn't do.