"What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? Jm 2:14
"...as a result of the work, faith was perfected. Jm 2:22

James makes it pretty clear that saying we have faith means little and proves nothing. He gives us a pointed example of what he is talking about in verse 15 & 16 of Chapter two, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?" We are told in 1Jn 3:17 "But whoever has the worlds goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the Love of God abide in him?" John and James are saying very much the same thing. If we Love God, if we have faith in Christ we will love the brethren not with empty words but actions that demonstrate faith and love.

It seems very difficult for us to understand that we can act in love toward someone and not love them. Emotion can be a powerful aspect of love but love can be given without the emotional bond that we think is required for true love. Stopping on the highway to render aid to someone who has been in an accident is love. Just because we may not know the person or have any emotional bond does not negate the fact that we did a good thing for that person. In effect we acted in love. When enemy soldiers are bandaged and returned to health and given adequate food and shelter is a behaviour that was not the norm in warfare until the western world began doing it when the west could still be called Christian. The norm in ancient warfare was to kill captured enemy soldiers or sell them into slavery and they were generally killed in the most brutal and cruel manner possible. The development of hospitals and orphanages was a Christian concept.

Originally the word now translated as love in the bible was most often translated as charity. The one act that most epitomized the early church was charity. Giving to those in need. We have managed to take something that is simple and straightforward and twist it into something tortuously difficult when it's not. What we most often think of as love is unrighteous sentimentality and lust, far removed from Godly love.

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