James 2.26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Just as money can be genuine or counterfeit, so too faith can be the real thing or just an imitation of the real thing. If it’s a faith that fails to produce good deeds, it is dead and useless! If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it. May we never forget that the ultimate purpose for our redemption and doing good works is to bring glory and honor to God. Bringing glory to God should be the very basis of all that we do in life. Any other motive is being like a Pharisee in 21st century clothing. Everything that we do individually and as a body of believers, beloved, should be done to exalt His glorious Name and to declare His greatness.
But here is the very essence and beauty of following The Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever we seek to live for the glory of God, inevitably, our lives are blessed and benefited by it. When we live to please our flesh, or ourselves, we always come away unfulfilled, empty and distraught. But when we live to please The Lord and for His glory, our souls are filled with satisfaction and meaning, because that is why we were created in the first place! Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ, when the question is asked in the Scriptures, What is the ground of justification before God? Paul answers, Faith, and not the works of the law. But when the inquiry is made, What kind of faith is genuine and acceptable to God? both Paul and James would answer, a “faith which worketh by love.”
