The Devil Can Say the Creed

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     "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without deeds is useless"? (James 2:19, 20).

     The general epistle of James, half-brother to our Lord according to the flesh, was probably one of the earliest of our New Testament books. It is also by far the most "Jewish." James was a leader in the church at Jerusalem. He writes to Jewish Christians, and addresses them in terms borrowed from the Old Testament --"the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad" (1:1). He speaks of the assembling of his readers in terms of a "synagogue" (that is the Greek word he uses at 2:2). Scholars are agreed that practically everything in the Epistle of James could have been written by a pious Jew before Christ even came, so far as the teaching of the epistle is concerned. That is not to say that it was written before Christ, for it was not, but it shows the very Jewish setting and background of this Christian letter.

     Our verses above also reflect the Jewish situation. James' readers have been accustomed all their lives to repeating the Jewish creed, known as the Shema, which began, "Hear 0 Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one God." This creed was found in Deuteronomy 6:4, and was quoted by Jesus Himself in prefacing the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29). This was the Jewish confession of faith. But many individuals came to think that faith meant simply believing and saying the Shema, quite apart from a daily life based on the truth it contained!

     James tells his Jewish-Christian read-

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ers that saving faith is not simply the ability to "say the creed" correctly. He observes that even the demons know and confess true doctrine, and it causes them to shudder. Yet no one would say the demons have saving faith. The rest of the chapter illustrates from the Old Testament that the faith which pleases God is not confined to the mind and mouth, but that it shows itself in an active life of obedience and good works. Just so, Christians are saved by faith--there is no quarrel between James and Paul on that point--but this saving faith is a working faith and not just a confessing faith.

     Let us keep this in mind today as well, for it is still true. A proper life is based in a proper knowledge. Heart-faith must precede any active-faith which pleases God. But it is not enough to know the truth on a given subject, to "take the right stand" on every controversy, or to "say the creed" exactly right. The devils could qualify for salvation on those counts! The faith which saves will lead one to work, just as it did in the cases of Abraham and Rahab long ago. And when the man of true faith has finished working, he rests content in what God has done for him, gives thanks for the privilege of doing something for God, and knows that his faith has made him whole.

--Edward Fudge in Bulletin, Kirkwood, Missouri, December 10, 1971.