Believing in Love

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”—James 2:19

Do you believe in God’s Son Jesus Christ? And does your life reflect that belief? Consider for a moment our passage for today—James is writing to a group of individuals about their belief in God. However, he tells them their belief means nothing if it’s not followed by action. He explains that even the demons of hell believe in God and reminds them of their rallying cry and declaration of belief, the great Shema of Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”—Deuteronomy 6:4. But their belief only goes so far; it’s not followed by love. One can believe and not love, which goes to show that true love is only seen in what it does.

Think about it. Does Satan believe in God? Of course he does. He is probably the greatest theologian outside of God Himself. He has been around since the beginning of time and he knows how God works. He used to be an angel and had unparalleled access to God’s throne room, so he knows firsthand God’s ways—and how to distort them. Which is why he could come after Jesus the way that he did when Jesus was in the wilderness. The Scripture tells us that Jesus is the author of Holy Scripture (Colossians 1:16), which makes it all the more amazing that Satan would try to use the Word of God against the one who wrote it! He is a master deceiver who will go after anyone—even if it means the Son of God!

One just needs to go back and review what happened in the Garden of Eden to see how easily and subtly Satan distorts God’s Word and can deceive God’s people. What did he say to Eve when he tempted her? He said, “Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"—Genesis 3:1. What was he trying to do? He was trying to get her to doubt the goodness of God. He goes onto say, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"—Genesis 3:4-5. We know the rest of the story. She ate of the fruit, gave some to her husband and he ate as well. And the entire creation fell at that point of time—death entered in. God’s Word proved to be true that day—they would die—death wasn’t immediate—at least not physically. But it would come, they died spiritually and physical death would eventually occur. Up until that moment and time they lived in bliss—unending communion with God undisturbed by spiritual or physical death. But with the bite of the fruit, everything changed.

Not much has changed in Satan’s strategy since then. He still tries to deceive and distort God’s Word. He doesn’t live according to the truth of God and he definitely doesn’t love anyone. He wants us to be like him, believing but never loving. His belief, though orthodox, is missing the key ingredient…love. And love is always seen in what it does, “Love is patient, love is kind…” (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-8). If I believe in Christ, then I’m going to love, and if I love, I’m going to act.

The question still remains: does your life reflect your belief? Our belief must be seen in how we live. As James 1:26-27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” How is belief seen? In what it does. Here James shows that true religion, or true faith in Christ is seen in reaching out and helping the less fortunate. But that is only one side of the coin. True belief is seen in helping others and keeping oneself from being worldly.

How is your faith? Is Christ seen in your life? Are you loving God and loving others? Are you helping others in their time of need? Are you keeping yourself unstained from the world? Don’t believe the lie that we can believe and not act. Continually ask God to help you to love Him and others so that the reality of your belief might be seen in your actions and others might see Christ in you, giving God glory because of it. Amen.