23 Mar Study Guide | James Week 6
Integrity. It’s the state of being whole or undivided, having a thorough consistency throughout. It’s about more than just honesty- it’s about conduct, direction, and action. You could define integrity quite simply as “doing what you say you will do.” So what does it mean for a Christian to have spiritual integrity? Here, in perhaps the most controversial passage in his letter, James will make the case that true, saving faith does not only involve intellectually believing the right things- it’s about doing what Jesus says we should do.
Many of us are well-acquainted with people who talk much about being believers yet have lives that bear little evidence of that claim. And, if we’re honest, a lot of the time we are those people. James is writing to a group of people like that- who were much more concerned with the talk than they were with the walk. And just as it was a huge problem for people in James’ day, this is a monumental issue for the church today.Elsewhere in Scripture, we are told that it is God’s grace alone that saves us (Ephesians 2:8-9). Yet here James appears to say that our works- the good things that we do- play some kind of role in our salvation as well. How are we to understand the connection between faith and works? James wants us to see that our actions are not the basis for our salvation, they do not save us, but they do expose the integrity of our faith and serve as important evidence of our salvation.
Click the image below to download the study guide for week 6 and begin preparing for this weekend’s sermon.
