JAMES DAY 19 - How Much Does It Cost?

DAY 19
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
James 2:20-26

I hate buying new cars.

Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about new cars: the smell, the feel, the total lack of maintenance problems. 

But I hate car payments. I also hate the constant anxiety about gettting a stain, scratch, or ding on this expensive new investment.

We care more about things that cost us something. On the flip side, I’ve noticed people care less about things that cost them nothing. If a child has fifty action figures, it’s no big deal if one breaks. If a child has only one, it’s a very big deal if it breaks.

James doesn’t explicitly talk about risk or cost in the two biblical stories he uses in James 2, but his point about faith and deeds only makes sense if we see how important they are. Abraham believed God, which means he accepted what God promised as true. Abraham also trusted God to deliver on that promise. But Abraham’s belief about - or his faith in - God’s character and God’s promise weren’t “complete” until he acted on his faith. This meant giving up something costly, his son, Isaac, and taking a risk based on the conviction that somehow God would still keep his promise about Isaac.

The same is true of Rahab. She told Joshua’s spies that she would help them and honor their God, but her faith was just words until she acted to help them. Helping the Israelites was a risk that might have cost her life if she were caught (spoiler: she wasn’t!).

We could summarize James 2 like this: faith is no good unless it does good for others. But “doing good” should cost us something. We might even have to risk something to help people in need.

REFLECT
When have you helped someone in need in a way that cost you something or even put you at risk?

PRAY
Lord, you risked everything to help me. Don’t let me only do good from a distance. Show me how to help people in a way that costs me something. Amen.