We Need Works

During Lent, I am reading the Desert Fathers. On occasion I will post sayings that strike me during my Lectio.

Abba James said, “We do not only need words, for at the present time there are many words among men; but we need works, for this is what is required – not words that do not bear fruit.”

This of course harkens back to the Letter of Saint James (2:14-18):

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone might say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.

It’s all well and good to say you have faith, or that you believe, but faith is not enough.