Faith Without Work Is Dead and Human Rights
James 2:15-17; 26
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? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
These are strong words. Comparing faith without work with sending a needy brother or sister back empty-handed without help. Faith and words without action loses credibility.
He goes to the extent to say it is a corpse. What use is there for corpse? The longer you have it - it starts to smell and it becomes a nuisance. The only right place for it is the grave.
I feel the same way about the Church. If it is not involved in the civil society and social justice, the Church will lose its credibility and becomes irrelevant and marginalized.
I believe if Dr. Martin Luther King was not involved in the civil rights of African Americans most of them would have become muslims.
What would have happened to the church in South Africa if it supported apartheid?
Through history the Church has been in the forefront of social justice issues; abolishing slave trade, starting orphanages, schools, hospitals e.t.c.
The church’s presence and actions must be felt everywhere in the society - in political, social and educational institutions. We have to be light and salt, not light under a bushel but like a village on a mountain.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. Desmond Tutu
Kamal Fahmi
Set My People Free
International Executive Director
www.freedom2worship.org
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? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
These are strong words. Comparing faith without work with sending a needy brother or sister back empty-handed without help. Faith and words without action loses credibility.
He goes to the extent to say it is a corpse. What use is there for corpse? The longer you have it - it starts to smell and it becomes a nuisance. The only right place for it is the grave.
I feel the same way about the Church. If it is not involved in the civil society and social justice, the Church will lose its credibility and becomes irrelevant and marginalized.
I believe if Dr. Martin Luther King was not involved in the civil rights of African Americans most of them would have become muslims.
What would have happened to the church in South Africa if it supported apartheid?
Through history the Church has been in the forefront of social justice issues; abolishing slave trade, starting orphanages, schools, hospitals e.t.c.
The church’s presence and actions must be felt everywhere in the society - in political, social and educational institutions. We have to be light and salt, not light under a bushel but like a village on a mountain.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”. Desmond Tutu
Kamal Fahmi
Set My People Free
International Executive Director
www.freedom2worship.org
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