Do you have Performance Flesh?

 

James 2:14-26

If you have performance based flesh, you hit the jackpot when it comes to James 2:14-26.  It begins with a question; “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?”  Dr. Bill and Anabel Gilham in “The Life” give this definition of a person who has been programmed or influenced on performance-based acceptance.  “If your self-acceptance is tied to the flesh, it is only a matter of time until you encounter a crisis.  God never intended for you to get your needs met through your own resources.  The flesh is in capable of supplying what God intends to supply Himself.”  Performance-flesh ends up being perfection-flesh, that type of flesh is supersensitive to criticism.  So James is not dealing with performance-flesh, but abiding faith, faith that listens an acts on the prompting of the Spirit that lives within you.

James goes on to give the example of a brother or sister who is in need of clothing or food and your response is “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  And James finishes that example with this statement: “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  Jesus spoke on abiding faith in John 15:4-5, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

James goes on to give examples of Abraham and Rahab being justified by works, and in both examples they acted by faith on the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We are all called to be “as you go” Christians, walking in the light, being light to this evil darkness, and the only way is doing what our Lord has said, “Abide in me, and I in you.”  As a follower of Christ, set your mind on these words of Christ, “for apart from me you can do nothing.”  Yes, you can teach, preach, visit the sick, feed the poor, give to the church, but only abiding faith counts in the kingdom of God.  All other acts of your making may get the acclaims of men, but not of God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice