Theme: COMMENTARY ON JAMES CHAPTERS 1 – 2
Text: “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” – James 2:14-17.
Comment: Love is the identifying mark of true Christianity. Jesus Christ said it is by the love we show to one another that people will know that we are his disciples. God Almighty commanded the Jews through Moses that that they should not harden their hearts and refuse to help any of the poor among them. “But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.” The law also states, “For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.” (Deuteronomy 15:7-11) Solomon the prophet makes us understand that God Himself would reward who help the poor for His name’s sake. “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.” – Proverbs 19:17.
The fact of making sacrifices for our fellow man out of our love for God is stressed in Scripture which says, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” – 1 John 3:17,18. See also 1 John 4:20-21.