Faith/Works

Here’s one of my more recent writings, a little reflection upon the relationship between faith and works in the Epistle of St. James.

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Faith precedes works, is proven by works, and is increased by works.  What is meant by this word “works”?  The Greek term “ergon” has the simple literal meaning of “work” as in the plain English usage–a task or job, or the means by which a task for job is carried out.  As with most words their purpose is to serve a function within a context–the context of a sentence or a thought.  The meaning of a word is often determined by the context of its usage.

In the case of the epistle of St. James, 2:14-26, the word is used in relation to the other principal term “faith” (Gr. pistis).  Based on the usage by St. James we find that the two are not rightly understood unless seen as in a relationship of mutuality, complimentarity.  This is gathered from such statements as “..faith, if it has no works, is dead” (v. 17), and “…as a result of the works, faith was perfected” (v. 22).  The righteous Patriarch and friend-of-God Abraham is given as the example of one in whom both faith and works were embodied, “..and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.”

Now faith comes when one concedes to the fact of the limitation of his own knowledge while realizing there is much more to reality than his personal perception and/or experience of it.  For the Christian this means placing our hope in the incomprehensible yet self-revealing God Who has made Himself known to us as three persons in one essence–a relational-ontological unity.  This also mens, then, that God is the source of all knowledge, and that “knowledge” (Gr. gnosis) is a quality of relationship rather than a quantity (as in the phrase:  ”he knows a lot.”  

Faith, I believe, is hope in the potential–the God-given capacity–of human people to know God.  A relational knowledge of God is not static, it is not a state-of-mind (even of the active mind), it transforms the whole of one’s being, forms the thought of man by the Holy Spirit, and informs the actions of the one who is being transformed.

We cannot say “my faith is sufficient,” as if faith is merely an internal disposition.  In Christ we begin to regain the “birthright of beauty” [St. Athanasius] that had been sold by our first-parents.  What was beautiful about our first-parents was not an inherent beauty-of-self that made them greatly attractive, but the purity of their love and innocent knowledge of God.

All action of man prior to the Transgression was not an artificial attempt at expressing inner disposition, but was as much a part of his being as his thoughts.  So now we, by the gift of faith, gradually move toward living in the knowledge of God–which is rendered spurious if done as only inwardly (by “faith”) or only outwardly (by “works”).  The statement of St. James “…faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (v. 17b), is one regarding the essential unity of the human person.  Just as the God in Whose image we have been created is a relational unity in Whom there is no division between outward and inward, so we who are being re-made must not hold in ourselves a dead faith (a faith that belongs to the mind alone), but must allow for the enlivening of our entire being by enacting our faith.