Spears & Shields: Faith & Works

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." James 2:17,18 这样信心若没有行为就是死的。必有人说，你有信心，我有行为。你将你没有行为的信心指给我看，我便藉着我的行为，将我的信心指给你看。雅各书2:17,18

"Heaven never helps the men who will not act." Sophocles

A Maodun in the Market The Chinese word for contradiction, Maodun, is made of the words "Mao" [spear] and "Dun" [shield]. In ancient times, a weapons merchant hawked both a sword that could penetrate anything and a shield that could stop anything. This of course led onlookers to ask what would happen if the unstoppable spear struck the impenetrable shield. It was a "maodun"--a contradiction, an impossibility--much like the maodun of "faith without works."

Faith without action is not merely dead but stillborn; it never lived. For how can faith not affect what we are, and what we are not affect what we do? Faith infuses us with the unstoppable force of life and direction. The visible manifestation of that unstoppable force of faith within us is the visible life we lead--our actions and works. Faith that has no power to change or direct is not faith (unless we claim that the unstoppable force of faith has been stopped in its tracks by the impenetrable shield of the world--but is that possible?

We of course need both faith and actions. Ephesians 2:19 says works are not enough (lest we boast in them). But if a changed life does not follow the birth of faith, then there was no faith, or else it was faith in the wrong thing--perhaps faith in religion, rites, rituals, or even faith in ourselves.

Jesus' life and message is summed up by two words: love, and stewardship. We are to love our Heavenly Father, and to love others as ourselves, and we are to be wise stewards and bear fruit during the brief years we are allotted on this little planet.

Jesus said it is impossible for a good tree to bear bad fruit, or a bad tree to bear good fruit. How much more impossible is it for a good tree, rooted and nourished, to bear no fruit at all! If the tree bears no fruit, it is because it never took root, it has not received nourishment, it has refused training and pruning--or quite simply it is dead.

What actions? Brother Lawrence, the 17th century French monk, said "And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God...When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God."

When Jesus said we would be rewarded for giving a cup of cold water in his name, he did not mean for us to make a ritual of everything we do--tacking a "in Jesus name" onto every act to rack up Brownie points for heaven. He meant that, whatever our deeds, great or small, do them out of love, and we will reap the rewards of love.

The Spear of an Unstoppable Life If that unstoppable force of faith wells up within us, there is no impenetrable shield that can hinder our lives from bearing witness more eloquently than words alone of whom we love and live for. So don't just have faith but be faith and live faith.

An Excerpt from "Adventures in Contentment"
by David Grayson (quoted in Lin Yutang, "Between Tears and Laughter")

[The man said], "I have been a botanist for fifty-four years. When I was a boy I believed implicitly in God. I prayed to him, having a vision of him a person before my eyes. As I grew older I concluded that there was no God, I dismissed him from the universe, I believed only in what I could see, or hear, or feel. I talked about Nature and Reality."

He paused, the smile still lighting his face, evidently recalling to himself the old days. I did not interrupt him. Finally he turned to me and said abruptly, "And now it seems to me there is nothing but God."


"Without God, man cannot; without man, God will not." Anonymous
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