(or “Becoming a friend of God”)
In a recent discussion with friends about Christianity and another religious tradition, one of the discussion leaders made a comment about one (Christianity) being more concerned with orthodoxy, while the other religious tradition was more concerned with orthopraxy. His point was that Christianity was more concerned with right belief while the other was more concerned with right behavior.
A thoughtful email from a friend about this comment got the wheels turning in my own head about the themes of belief and behavior.
It is clear from the Bible that God highly values faith. Hebrews 11 explicitly says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (v. 6) And in the clearest example we have of someone being justified by God, the faith Abraham placed in God’s promise was the basis for that justification. (Genesis 15)
But, when the half-brother of Jesus, James, wanted to use Abraham to give an example of justification, he didn’t mention the patriarch’s faith in God’s promise. He referred, instead, to the time of Abraham’s testing. James takes us back to the point of Abraham’s obedience to God’s command that he take his son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice.
Confused? I get that.
Was Abraham justified when he believed, or was he justified when he obeyed God? We get help in understanding the point James was making by remembering a key to interpreting Scripture: chronology.
By the time he took Isaac to the place of sacrifice, Abraham had been justified by God for something like a decade and a half. Yet James says that he was “justified” when he obeyed God’s hard command. How could a man who had already been justified, be justified?
Here’s how.
The Bible speaks of two justifications.
One is a justification before God, involving the gift of eternal life which is always and only through faith. (Genesis 15:6)
The other is a justification before a watching world, involving a life worth living, and is always and only through works. [James 2:21] Was our father Abraham not justified by works…? when he offered up Isaac on the altar?
The upshot of Abraham’s obedience was that his faith was not “useless” (James 2:20), and he was called “the friend of God.” (James 2:24)
Abraham’s friendship with God wasn’t established before others when he went out of his tent one night, looked up, and believed that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Nobody witnessed that event. The only ones present were Abraham and God.
Abraham’s reputation as a friend of God, though, was “made” when he was seen by others to be willing to obey God when told to do the hardest thing imaginable.
Orthodoxy (right belief) was the one essential of Abraham’s justification before God. But that belief was no help to the world around him who didn’t know God. Hence, James’ question, roughly paraphrased, “If you have faith, but no works, what good is that?” (James 2:14-16) Indeed. Without orthopraxy (right living), our faith benefits no one around us.
God reckoned my faith in Jesus as righteousness when, as a teenager, I first believed. The issue facing me every day since has been whether or not to live consistent with that belief and obey God.
Orthodoxy is essential. Believe in Jesus. That belief is essential and sufficient to make you a daughter or a son of God. It is NOT sufficient, though, to make you a friend of God.
For that, orthopraxy is required.
You have a chance to be known as God’s friend, like Abraham was (Rahab, too, for that matter, James 2:25) when you live out your faith in hard obediences.
Friends of God shine when confronted with a pressing need. They help.
We stand out as God’s friends when we offer assistance to someone facing a disaster.
We show ourselves to be friends of God when we befriend the lonely or the lost.
People will see us as God’s friends when we show them His love; they will know that we are God’s friend when we tell them that Jesus offers them eternal life, if they will only believe.
Yours…His,
Dave
