• Download Video
• Download Audio
• Print
• Email
• Save As PDF

"What does it profit?"

Text: James 2:16

A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION

In order to strengthen his emphasis on the importance of works as an expression of genuine faith, James offered a practical illustration.

“If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace,
be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them
the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
James 2:15-17

1. “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food”

a) This is a hypothetical situation.

b) It is meant to serve as an illustration.

2. “And one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled'”

a) This is a verbal response.

i) These are nice and polite words.

ii) There is no rejection of the destitute person.

iii) Sympathy may even be felt and extended.

b) This is compared to a person who declares that he has faith.

3. “But you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit”

a) No physical provision is made for the destitute at all.

b) Would mere good wishes make the destitute warm?

c) Would kind words feed the destitute who is hungry?

d) A valid rhetorical question was raised: “What does it profit?”

4. “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead”

a) There were some who must have argued that faith is simply faith… it does not need to have works!

b) James disagreed strongly.

i) A verbal confession of faith is worth little!

ii) Faith without works is a dead thing!

iii) Of what significance is a dead faith?

iv) A genuine faith will naturally result in good works