Is faith without works dead as mentioned in James 2:14 through 23 or is

it a gift from God not as a result of works as stated in Ephesians 2:8 through

9.

yeah, faith and works, this is an issue and a

problem that was basically created when Martin Luther during the Reformation ...

well, started the Reformation objecting the requirement of the Roman Church at

the time for people to have indulgences and pay money and and their

works was part of their salvation and the thing of money to have sins forgiven

and things like that was part of that process. And of course, Luther was

right that there was no such thing, that it could not be supported by the

Christian tradition and by the Scriptures. But he he went too far in

some ways to reject works and he used the scriptures to do that but did the

scriptures actually talk about works as he understood it or was it something

what I would say that, in the Eastern Church, in the Orthodox Church, there was

never a dichotomy between faith and works because faith produces works, good

works. And good works can be the reflection of that faith that we have so

we don't reject the one versus the other and we don't focus on the one

versus the other, the two go together and and we have had that all a long.

Now, what happened now with Luther is that he speaks about, he rejects the concept of

works based on what Saint Paul said and then

he focuses on faith alone and that Sola Fide, the faith alone

is really what that the emphasis of Luther on Sola Fide

is what people bring up today to basically dispute works. So, he's based

on the verse, "for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves

and it is a gift of God," which is from Ephesians 2:8 ... "not of works lest anyone

should boast," that's Ephesians 2:9 and I actually

agree with him and I think the Orthodox Fathers, the eastern Fathers

and the Orthodox Church still agrees with that. That it's not anything that we

would do that would save us but it is the faith in Christ. So our faith is

Christocentric, it is based on Christ and that is what saves us. But that doesn't

mean that we shouldn't do any works because at the same time Christ, in his

parable of the Last Judgement, says I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was

thirsty and you didn't give me water, I was in prison you didn't come to visit

me, I you know I was naked and you did cloth me. Well, isn't that works and he

in a way bases salvation only on works. In that case if you look at it

independently of everything else, okay. So, somebody can take the parable and say

look he's only talking about works, good works, so good works will help

you to enter the Kingdom of God. Is that so?

Not really. It's faith in Christ that produces good works that will save us,

that brings us to salvation. So, I think that that is reflected in Saints James, in

the Epistle of Saint James, in chapter 2 verses 14 to 22 basically, where

he talks about faith balanced by works. And he really gives a good

description of really how we should look at this and unfortunately it was Martin

Luther who saw this, because he was so focused on faith alone, he

actually wanted to basically discard the book of James and take it out of the New

Testament because it was working against his teaching. Of course,

he didn't do that in the end but that is an indication of how far to one side

Luther went and we need to be careful not to be one-sided either. There is a

balance and there is no dichotomy between faith and works. So, what does it

profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have good works

Can faith save him 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? What does it profit you and what does it

profit them? You can claim your faith but you left the person naked and hungry is

that really what the Lord is asking for you to do? Thus, also faith by itself, if

it does not have works, is dead. Faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.

But someone will say you have faith and I have works show me your faith without

your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there

is one God and you do well. Even the demons believe and they tremble. So the

demons have faith and they tremble in front of God but are they saved?

So the demons know who God is, they know better than we do and they believe

in Him, they believe in him as God because they, you know, I mean they are

under Him and they tremble in front of Him more than human beings. But are they

saved? That's the question but do you know, do you want to know, oh foolish

man, that faith without works is dead? I'll give you an example, Saint James says, and

he gives the example of Abraham. Was not Abraham our Father justified by

works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Ok, that was the ultimate

test of his faith. So do you see that faith was working together with his

works and by works faith was made perfect, faith was proved in Abraham

through his obedience to God that in a way that he was willing to sacrifice his

son at the command of God. So, I'll go back and say that this this debate about

faith and works is a deviation in a way from where we should be because

there's no dichotomy between faith and works and faith without works is dead

and works without faith have no effect on us. So, Christ is at the center,

our faith in Christ is really what's important and that faith in Christ will

produce good works in us. Now, we're simple talks about faith and works in

other cases he's talking about the Old Testament requirements or the Jewish Law

requirements of works and Saint Paul says that we moved beyond the requirements of

the Old Testament works of the Law to fulfill the Law and that may be another

way to look at what that was. But the commandments are still there and the

commandments are about good works. The Ten Commandments. It's faith in God,

honoring your parents, not stealing, not committing adultery, not lying, not coveting,

other people's things or wives or whatever they have. That is good works as

well and we still hold to that even as Christians. We never gave it up.

So the commandments are an expression of our faith in God

when we surrendered to Him and we obey Him and we do them. So, there are

multiple ways to look at these combination of faith and works and the

two belong together and the two are dependent on each other and one cannot

be without the other.