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5 Signs of Dead Faith
Dead Faith
James is a realist about religion. He frequently invokes the category of dead, deficient, or false faith as a foil to the living faith that the apostle enjoins on his readers. Indeed, James repeatedly warns his readers that verbal claims or religious self-assessments do not necessarily indicate one’s true spiritual condition. To properly understand the category of living faith, one must also acknowledge the category of dead faith. One category necessitates the other.
James wastes no time in introducing the category of defective faith. In James 1:5, he commands persons who lack wisdom to ask God for it. The apostle further notes that some persons who petition God for wisdom may not really ask “in faith” (James 1:6). In other words, they ask God but doubt whether he is good, able, or inclined to answer their petitions. James tells us, “That person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:7–8). James does not construct a nuanced continuum but only offers two ways of prayer—one in faith and one doubting. And the doubting man is double minded and receives nothing. We should observe that the doubting, double-minded man still has an outward religious expression—in this case, prayer for wisdom. Yet, that outward religiosity is condemned as tragically deficient.
James’s exhortation about praying in faith is reflective of much of his letter. James confronts his readers with stark spiritual dichotomies, similar to patterns found in wisdom literature, such as the book of Proverbs or in the opening lines of the Didache.1 James’s polarities confront the reader with the realization that, in the final analysis, beliefs and behaviors only end in one of two ways—life or death. With such a confrontation comes the invitation to respond appropriately.
Living Faith
Robert L. Plummer
Living Faith expounds on the predominant themes of the book of James to provide readers with a deeper understanding of this beloved letter and its important relevance for Christian life.
1. Prayers That Lack Faith
Christians with sensitive consciences may feel too easily condemned by James’s insistence that prayer be offered in faith. Indeed, for a modern reader to summarily tell other persons that they have not had their prayers answered because they do not have the requisite faith would likely be spiritual abuse. Yet, in constructing a full-orbed biblical view on faith, we must remember that Jesus repeatedly demands faith from those who approach him and qualifies his healings with statements such as “According to your faith be it done to you” (Matt. 9:29). When Jesus’s disciples could not heal a child with demonically induced seizures, they privately asked Jesus why. He replied “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matt. 17:20).
In noting the necessity of faith in prayer, however, James does not condemn the maturing cry of a striving faith (“I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24); he is instead describing the mindset of one who does not rely on God while emptily mouthing a petition for help. Praying while not trusting the goodness, power, or inclination of God fits in the category of deficient faith, hypocrisy, and empty religiosity. At the same time, it cannot be emphasized enough that to insist on faith for answered prayer is not the same as concluding that unanswered prayer is necessarily a sign of defective faith.
2. Sin
James’s statement about a lack of faith resulting in unanswered prayer is analogous to his later comment that a sickness might result from sin and, thus, that confession of sin could be appropriate for the sick person (James 5:15–16). The Bible’s teaching on sickness and sin is quite nuanced and will not fit into the reductionistic schemes one frequently encounters in popular religion. Sickness may result from sin (1 Cor. 11:30). Sickness and even death may be fatherly discipline—or even judgment—from God (Acts 5:1–11; 1 Cor. 11:29–32). More commonly, it would seem, a person’s sickness or disability has no correlation with sin, and yet, sickness is not outside God’s sovereign purposes of bringing glory to his name (John 9:3).
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3. Superficial Hearing of God’s Word
A superficial hearing of God’s word is also an example of defective faith. James avers that a person is self-deceived if he only listens to the word of God but does not alter his behavior in response to that word (James 1:22). He explains, “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:23–24). The key purpose of this analogy is to condemn superficial knowledge accompanied by lack of action. The world is filled with religious pretenders, and James repeatedly warns his recipients against the dire situation of being found in that category.
4. Sinful Speech
Sinful speech is another sign of insincere or inauthentic faith. James writes, “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless” (James 1:26). To “bridle the tongue” is a broad category that encompasses the idea of guarding one’s speech from all manner of sinful utterance, such as slander, lies, or coarse jesting (cf. Ex. 20:16; Lev. 19:16; Prov. 6:16–19; 12:22; 26:18–19). Speech is an overflow of the heart (Luke 6:45), and sinful patterns of speech indicate the true nature of one’s faith. To have a life characterized by sinful speech and still think oneself “spiritual” or “religious” is to be self-deceived, declares James. Over time, both our words and our actions show who we really are (Matt. 7:15–20).
Works and faith are not the same thing. Rather, works are produced by a genuine faith and are, therefore, evidence of it.
5. Sinful Favoritism
James further observes that a life exhibiting sinful favoritism is inconsistent with a healthy, living faith in the Lord Jesus. Only a dead, deceptive, or inconsistent faith is characterized by sinful favoritism. James commands, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1). Literally, the text translates as “My brothers, do not hold in favoritisms the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Even as James lays out such polarizing theological appeals, he reminds his readers that he is their spiritual sibling, and by calling them “brothers,” he assures them that he is appealing to them as a fellow community member. James’s imperative not to “have” or “hold” (echō) the faith in “favoritisms” (or “acts of favoritism”) is unusual. Rather than using the verb for believe (pisteuō), James chooses the expression “have faith in” or “hold faith in.” Perhaps this word choice serves to highlight the motif of objectively demonstrable faith—whether as a living or dead reality—that we find throughout James’s letter. The dative plural “favoritisms” (prosōpolēmpsiais) implies that a faith marred by sinful partiality will have varied manifestations of that favoritism. The genitive “of glory” (tēs doxēs), qualifying the implied repetition of the noun “Lord” (kyrios), instructs the readers that there is, indeed, one person who is worthy of special honor and preferential treatment—Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. If we rightly honor Jesus as glorious, how then can we mistreat his image bearers and fawn over some people for our selfish benefit? To treat someone preferentially within the Christian community because she is rich or socially connected or beautiful or famous is to adopt the world’s values and to deny the faith one professes. A living, healthy faith in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ will not express itself in opportunistic obsequiousness.
In James 2:14–26, the apostle homes in on a prime example of dead faith. He describes a member of the Christian community who sees a Christian brother or sister in need, presumably has the ability to help him or her, but fails to provide any tangible assistance. James declares, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). Thus, James instructs us that there are two categories of faith—(1) faith that has works and is thus living and (2) faith that does not have works and is thus dead. Works and faith are not the same thing. Rather, works are produced by a genuine faith and are, therefore, evidence of it. In fact, James’s explicit language would even call into question my use above of the verb “produced.” Genuine faith has works. Works are inherent and organic to living, saving faith.
Simply to affirm monotheism (“God is one,” James 2:19) is not sufficient to prove one has a living faith. Even the demons believe (intellectually) that there is one God and tremble in response—a response that, ironically, is more visible and measurable than the reaction one expects from a person of dead faith. Intellectual or propositional statements about God, while necessary and proper, are inadequate to discern if one has a living or dead faith. James provides this pungent summary: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26).
Notes:
- The Didache 1:1–2 reads, “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways. Now this is the way of life: First, you shall love God, who made you. Second, you shall love your neighbor as yourself; but whatever you do not wish to happen to you, do not do to another.” The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 3rd ed., ed. and trans. Michael W. Holmes (Baker Academic, 2007), 345.
This article is adapted from Living Faith: A Theology of James by Robert L. Plummer.
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