James 2:18 You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works…..
I have always read this verse with the thought of works being things I do to earn what God has given me, salvation. Maybe not earn, but pay back for what God has done. After thinking a little about this, I think that what is being said isn’t paying God back by doing good things. Our works are a result of our love for Christ and what He did for us. Our works are our actions that we do day by day. Our actions are a result of spending time with Christ and learning from Him.
We need to truly be His disciples. A disciple is one who spends time with the Teacher, listens to His every word, watches how He acts, spends all his time with the Teacher, eating, sleeping, talking, traveling, learning, just like the disciples of Jesus. It is then that our actions will mimic those of Christ. The Bible says we can be no better than our teacher, but when Christ is our Teacher, we have the best.
When our actions are the same as His, people will no longer see us but they will see Jesus. Our actions, or works, then show the love of God to the world. Our ‘good’ works as far as we normally think of works, and our words do not mean a lot, but our actions speak louder than either.
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