That intention and purpose is God's mission for us. Simply put, God's mission is to redeem and restore all things back unto himself--and our mission is to join him wherever we find him at work around us. That makes sense because if we are in relationship with God, and God can be found in a particular place or engaged in a particular activity, we would naturally desire to greet him and be with him!! Imagine a friend or family member whom you love with a flat tire along the road, or hosting a dinner party. Do you avoid this person, driving past or screening your calls, actively seeking to disengage with him or her? Or do we offer a hand, strike up a conversation, fully acknowledging and participating in life alongside him or her? Better yet, what would it say about your relationship with this person if you always ignored him or her rather than engage?
James is making a distinction between two words in his letter to the twelve tribes: faith is not being used the same as the word belief. In James 2:19, believers are compared to demons; what we have in common with demons is our knowledge and acknowledgement of God's existence. Why would demons shudder if they did not believe God to be powerful somehow? But what these demons do not have in common with us is that they lack faith in God, which is the self-assurance in God the Father, a relationship with Christ the Son, and heeding the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. Faith requires belief, but is so much more than just a mental admittance, "I believe in God."
But pastor! What about John 3:16?! "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." This is an excellent question you've asked, and is one worth discussing more deeply. It appears that this verse is in contradiction with James 2:19! (We are in luck! The truth is that whenever you find two Scriptures that appear to be in contradiction with one another, you have found an especially powerful opportunity to search and study more deeply, allowing God to inspire and renew your mind and heart in new ways!)
Our American obsession with belief rather than faith has allowed John 3:16 to become the most familiar and quoted verse of the Bible in our time; but ancient and medieval Christians did not use this verse all that often. But since we focus so heavily on obtaining salvation, this verse has been pressed into our memories, recited by our hearts, and written on our faces at sports games. That is not any problem, because it's a great verse! But let's read the context around John 3:16 more deeply to see what John really means by the word believe as he uses it.
*Remember that when you read the Scripture, you are reading different books and letters written by different people, each one inspired by God uniquely. Just like people use language a little differently in our day and world, so too did the apostles, like John and James.
In John 3 Jesus reminds Nicodemus about the situation in the Book of Numbers where Moses was instructed to fashion a bronze serpent in the wilderness. (Read Numbers 21:1-9 for the background story if you're not familiar with it.) Even though venomous snakes surrounded the Israelites' feet, if they looked up and gazed upon the bronze serpent, they were spared. Now, what kind of person would actually take their eyes off of the ground, away from poisonous snakes crawling all around, in order to look up at a bronze statue?! Only someone who really believed, with enough faith in God working through Moses, would actually follow through with the command. You could discuss how much you think God would or would not command you to do so; you can say you believe in theory but not in practice; you can claim other gods or doctors or whoever could possibly save you instead; but when you are bitten by a snake, no belief, understanding, ideology or position is going to save you from the venom. You need an anti-venom. Salvation, that is, God's anti-venom of sin and death, is only being used by those who believe in God and actually trust him enough to look upward for an unlikely panacea, rather than starting downward, trying to resolve the situation without God. What good is anti-venom if you aren't going to use it?!
True faith has what we call "works" or "actions". Faith is rooted in trust of God, and directs us to operating in a particular way. Rather than trying to create our own anti-venom for our sins, we trust in God's healing as we look up--and, out of our love for others, we encourage those around us who are sick with sin to look up as well, so that they can have access to the anti-venom too!!
So when Jesus is speaking in the Book of John, we find the verb believe to be referring back directly to the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which is the verse immediately beforehand, 3:15. The "belief" found in this story, as we have already demonstrated, is not simply a mental note, but is a conscious decision that leads to action in a change of behavior. In the Book of John, the word believe is used in the same way that James uses the word faith. Since both are discussing different issues, in different contexts, and each has his own writing style, it is not upsetting to see these near-synonyms "faith" and "belief" being used in different ways, each apostle focusing on a particular aspect or facet of the word.
Faith leads to action, and, over time, those actions will be evidence as whether or not you truly lived by faith. Those who live in faith will bear good fruit, because they will be nourished by their relationship with Christ, who is the True Vine. Mental admittance of "I believe there is a God" but nothing further is simply not what Scripture is talking about; the modern English definition of "believe" emphasizes a mental agreement rather than any action following as a result. Changing your old behavior, having your life conform more deeply into God's love, and acting in the sincere interests of your neighbors is the intention of the faith, or "belief", as it is understood both by John and James.
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