the prostitute who was right with God

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from James 2:18-3:18. It's a delightful passage, and reminds us how important our actions are to our relationship with God. We can't just say, "I believe in Jesus" and go to heaven. It matters what we do. (If you've read my previous blogs, you know I don't get into the argument about whether works are part of our salvation process (as Catholics believe) or a result of our salvation (as evangelicals believe), but instead just point out what we agree on: works are important.)

And it's interesting to notice in these verses that James doesn't point out what people DIDN'T do. "Bob was right with God because he didn't break the ten commandments." Instead, each of them were shown to be right with God, or a "friend of God" because of what they DID do, and what they did was love other people. Rahab, whom James flat out calls a prostitute (no mincing words here), was "right with God" because of how she helped the children of Israel when they were in a foreign land. Every part of that story should teach us something.

Notice also that these examples don't tell us that the subjects who were "right with God" led perfect, sinless lives afterwards, either. While knowing God DOES help us to live better lives, we don't have to be perfect to walk with Him. Instead, walking with Him will teach us, day by day, mistake after mistake, getting up again and again after falling, how to be perfect in the end.

God, thanks for teaching us how to be "right with You."