“What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?”

I was told recently that there are two kinds of people.  Those who are “all talk and no action” and those who are “all action and no talk”.  It was easy to decide which one I’d like to be. I’d probably add that there are those who take action but still want to be recognized for it, but we must be careful there for when we talk more then the action that has been taken can get overlooked, drowned out if you will, and all of a sudden it’s back to the perception of not enough action and too much talk. That’s when you might hear, they just “talk a good game”.

Jesus pointed out, more than once, that those who talk a lot but don’t take action with their faith aren’t leading the kind of lives that He desires for us.  We are also told that when we say we have faith and don’t act that not much comes from that.  I was struck by the second half of the James 2:14.  What it is saying is that putting our faith into action isn’t for winning something for ourselves, it is about winning others to Christ and the Kingdom. That puts a whole different slant on the importance of not just talking a good game.

Reference:  James 2:14 (New Living Translation)