Faith without works is dead

A reflection given at morning worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 12th August 2025

In his Epistle, James urges Christians to break down the barriers of class and wealth in order to relieve the distress of the poor.

We can’t be certain who this James was, but an ancient tradition says it was James the brother of Jesus, a leader of the earliest church in Jerusalem. At the great council there, he and St Peter supported St Paul’s case that gentiles should be accepted into the Christian church alongside Jews without being circumcised.

Nor do we know what church or churches he is writing to, but in the verses immediately preceding today’s reading, it is clear they are riven by class divides – the wealthy are being treated better than the poor. He points out that God has ‘chosen the poor… to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him’. And he reminds them of the law proclaimed by Jesus, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’.

In today’s reading (James 2:14-26), James asks rhetorically, ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters if you say you have faith but do not have works?’ By ‘works’ he clearly means good works, deeds of love and compassion toward those in need. He continues, ‘If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food… and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?’ ‘So’, he concludes, ‘faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead’.

The message is clear. We have no right to call ourselves Christians – our faith is dead – unless we seek to relieve human distress when we see it.

For us in modern Ireland, this means that we should not evade the taxes which fund the social welfare system and the health service. We must also be generous in giving to the organisations which support those who slip through the cracks, to the extent we are blessed to be able to do so - organisations such as St Vincent de Paul, Protestant Aid, the Simon Community, and Pieta House, to name a few.

And our Christian obligation extends beyond our own community and country to all those in trouble, need, sickness and other adversities, wherever that may be. We rightly pray for them, and we must also give generously from the riches God has given us to the aid agencies working on our behalf with the poor and hungry in all too many places around our shamefully broken world. 

Among them is Church of Ireland Bishops’ Appeal. Set up by our church to bring good news to the poor and relief to the suffering around the world, it has an excellent reputation for working with partners with the local knowledge and resources to ensure that funds reach the people who most need support.