"Living Faith" -3

Works, as per James 2:14, is a word that accomplishes something. Man cannot do any work to earn God's favor unto salvation; salvation is given by grace, and there is no way that it can be earned. So let's understand that the work performed by 'the thief on the cross' in rebuking his other malefactor, was not what saved him; it was his faith in Jesus Christ and the grace of God to bring that salvation upon him. This really is not rocket science; works that James is talking about are those that definitively involve faith as the initiator. James uses an example of a work in his demonstration of 'faith that must act', and it involves giving something to someone who is destitute. Just so you know, I don't think James was making a point to handing out blankets and food as the work which must be done; although, it is a work needed to be done, especially at this time of the year. More than the actual act of doing something, he was hitting upon the point of doing what was needed to accomplish a need. In other words, if you think that you are going to help a brother and sister in need of warmth and filling, by just saying, "Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled", and yet you have not given those things required to be warm and filled, then really, you have done nothing. I will take that just one point further, and say, if you are going to do that, then make sure you don't let them know what church you are from, because they will not be attending it for sure. James goes on to say in verses 17: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone"; with the dead he is speaking of meaning a corpse. If you have ever come upon a corpse, then you know, they don't do much but stink up the place, and cause people to walk the other way. Besides the fact that the faith is dead, there is also an inner death that takes place in the person who says that they have faith, yet they do nothing with that faith they say that they have. If a person has any faith at all, and does not use that faith in one way or another, then that faith will be dead, meaning that it is as good to that person as a dead corpse. Our faith must be living; and in order to be considered alive, it must be accomplishing something, anything that shows some form of life and existence...Is anybody in there?