As powerful as our words are, they become virtually meaningless if they are incongruent with our deeds. The Bible is full of warnings of examples of people who claim to believe and say all the right things about God, but then contradict themselves by their actions. The Pharisees stand out as an obvious example -- religious leaders who claimed to love God and his Law, but who failed to love and serve the most vulnerable members of their society -- orphans, widows, lepers.
There is a refreshing clarity and directness about James's letter in the New Testament. There is a great divide between the rich and the poor in the community he is writing to, and some are showing favoritism to the powerful rich. Yet James reminds them that their faith must reveal itself in tangible acts of mercy and assistance to those who have nothing. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27).
Clearly, there must be an alignment of our words and deeds if we are to become the people God has called us to be. And of course each of us has areas of our lives where this is not yet the case. But God is not calling us to moral and spiritual perfection, but rather to open ourselves up to a process where he brings our words and actions into greater and greater alignment, most notably in the ways that we love and serve others.
Words matter. But they mustn't stand alone. "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." (James 2:18)
