James 2: 15-17

πίστις = FAITH


What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

One of the most striking lessons I learned in my early ministry was at the Richmond Rescue Mission just outside of Oakland, California. The location of the rescue mission was in the center of one of the worst crime district at that time in the 80s.

I wanted to learn about Christianity that went beyond liturgy and ritual. I wanted to see what it was like to see the Lord working in lives that had nothing else in this world. So I became a resident. I taught some classes in the mission, to be sure, but I also helped out with peeling potatoes, serving meals, helping cook and cleaning up. I slept in the dorm room with the dozens of men who slept on bunk beds through the night.

And I got to see some serious Christianity.

πίστις = faith... I saw this Greek word in a truer sense. There were men who sat and shared with others who had nothing but memories of an alcohol-soaked life in their recent past. I saw men come off the streets, covered with grime and puke ... and be loved and cared for. And I saw a director who was firm yet fair. He was a little man, and I cannot remember his name, but he stood less than 5'5", I'm sure. I'll call him Art.

Art was a man who stood in the face of men and berated them for lapses back into drinking, but Art was also a man who took these same men and sat with them, gave them clothes and food, looked for a job for them, and most of all gave them hope. He showed them Jesus, but he also showed them what Jesus could do. Through Art, men saw that Jesus could live in the slums, Jesus could be colorblind, and Jesus could work and serve until it hurt.

I learned about the truth of James 2 in that rescue mission. It was like going back to college.