Showing Our Faith By What We Do

I heard this awhile back, and it is always convicting to me:

If you lived in a society where being a Christian was illegal, and you were arrested and put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

For a whole lot of American ‘Christians’, for whom Christianity is more about a box they check on a census form than a way of life, I think the answer is a clear ‘no’.

James 2.14-18 is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture:

“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.”

Real Christian faith is supported by evidence; it is demonstrated with a lifestyle of good works.