The faith that works produces a life of integrity...

At the church where I serve we are spending our time looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of James. The book of James was written by a man named James, who was the half brother of Jesus who repeatedly doubted Jesus claim to be God, but became a follower of Jesus who was the pastor at the church in Jerusalem and who was ultimately killed for believing that Jesus was God. James turned from being a doubter in Jesus to being a pastor of Jesus church and an author of this letter that is recorded for us in the Bible after seeing Jesus after He was raised from the dead.

And as we look at this letter that was written by the half brother of Jesus, our hope and our prayer is that God would enable us to wrap our heads, hearts, and hands around several timeless truths that occur in the life of the faith that works in such a way that results in us living lives that look like Jesus.

This week, I would like for us to spend our time addressing one of the most common objections and accusations that those who are far from God have when it comes to Christianity and the church. If you are not sure you buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing and you may have made this accusation against Christians. And if you are a follower of Jesus, you may have heard this accusation made against the church and Christians.

The accusation and objection that I want us to address this morning is this: the church and Christians are a bunch of hypocrites. Maybe you believe that the church is full of hypocrites and if we could have a conversation at the courtyard coffeehouse, one of the first questions that you would ask me is “Well Dave, don’t you see that the church is just full of hypocrites? That’s why I don’t like to come to church, because the church is full of hypocrites. How can you say that the church is not full of hypocrites?”

If we were able to have that conversation, here would be my response. First, what do you mean when you say that Christians are hypocrites? The word hypocrite literally means to join in playing a part of pretending and was used to describe someone who was an actor in the Greek theatre. In our culture today, we would refer to such a person as a poser.

A hypocrite creates a public impression that is at odds with ones real motivations or purpose. A hypocrite, by definition, is someone that says “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. A hypocrite fails to follow the message and teachings that they impose on others.

However, a follower of Jesus who strives to follow the message and teachings of Jesus, yet sometimes falls short is not to being a hypocrite. Instead they are being a human being. So if you define a hypocrite as someone who falls short of the standard that they are striving to live, then we are all hypocrites. If that is how you define being a hypocrite, you will fit in quite well at church. You would fit in quite well here because even if you don't buy the whole Jesus, Bible, church thing, you have a standard that you set for yourself when it comes to how you live your life. And there are times that you fail to live up to the standards that you set for yourself, don’t you? So if that is how you define a hypocrite than you will fit in here quite well.

Unfortunately, the sad reality is that there are followers of Jesus who are hypocrites. There are followers of Jesus who say “here is the message and teachings of Jesus, and you need to follow them, but I am not going to follow them”. And hypocrisy in the life of a follower of Jesus gives the distinct impression that Christianity does not work. I mean, if Christianity worked, if a life of faith in Jesus was supposed to work, then why would anyone not strive to follow the very message and teachings that they would attempt to impose on others? And what is so fascinating is that the issue of hypocrisy is not a new issue; the issue of hypocrisy is a human nature issue. So how does the faith that works address the issue of hypocrisy?

To answer these questions, I would like for us to spend our time together this week by picking up where we left off last week by looking at the next section of a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible called the book of James. And it is in this next section of this letter to early followers of Jesus that was written by the half brother of Jesus that we see James reveal for us a timeless and true principle when it comes to the faith that works and the issue of hypocrisy. And that timeless and true principle is this: The faith that works produces a life of integrity. Just as it was for followers of Jesus in James day; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history, the faith that works produces a life of integrity.

However, to fully understand this timeless and true principle, we first need to wrap our minds around what the word integrity actually means. The word integrity does not mean perfection. Instead, the word integrity literally means to be whole and undivided. Integrity is a consistency between attitudes and actions. Integrity is a consistency between character and conduct. Integrity is a consistency between what we say and what we do. Integrity is a consistency between our public life and our private life. Integrity is a consistency in what we strive for and what we call others to strive for. Integrity is walking the walk and not just talking the talk.

Now a natural question that arises here is “Well Dave that sounds great, but how does the faith that works produce a life of integrity? And how can I grow when it comes to living a life of integrity? In James 1:19-17, we will see James reveal for us four different ways that the faith that works produces a life of integrity.

Tomorrow, we will see James reveals for us the first way that the faith that works produces a life of integrity…