Talk and Walk

When you are a blogger you do a lot of talking.

Talk-y, Talk-y, Talk-y.

But, what about your Walk-y, Walk-y, Walk-y?

Does your walk match up to your talk? THAT is the question.

God points this out in His word. Consider these verses:

James 2:14-19 (NIV)
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Don’t get it? Try it on for size in this translation:

James 2:14-19 (The Message)
Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

Faith in Christ is the beginning of a new life. Your thoughts begin to change. Then your actions should follow suit. James would argue that if your faith doesn’t produce a change in your thought process and a change in the conduct of your life, then it is incomplete faith. When you put your faith in Christ, it should produce fruit in your life. Faith is not just an agreement with a set of Christian teachings. James reminds us that even demons know who Jesus is on an intellectual level. But, they don’t obey him.

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:3-4).

No, you cannot earn your way to heaven through good works. No you cannot ever impress God with enough good acts that he will open wide the gates and say “Come on in!” Jesus opened wide his arms for you as he died on the cross and he said “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent Me has eternal life” (John 5:24). That is salvation. Now, the question becomes how we will live our life in light of our salvation? How have we been changed by this unearned, undeserved gift of eternal life that He has poured out on us? Will we just talk the talk? Or will we walk the walk?

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).

The way you live your life is the evidence of what you believe.