We are about halfway through our series through the book of James and today, pastor Jim will bring us a review of what we've covered do far, in chapters one through three. If you're familiar with the Epistle of James, you know that James didn't pull any punches in his exhortations about serving God and living a life that glorified Jesus Christ.

Right now the book under the microscope is James. And we're in chapter three. This section of James is dealing with wisdom - and controlling the tongue - one of the most powerful parts of the human body.

Here on this installment of Growing in the Word, pastor Jim Jarrett contrasts the wisdom that comes from below with the one that comes from above. Obviously, the greater of the two is the wisdom that comes from God and so that's the one we'll spend the majority of our time talking about as we continue our pursuit through the book of James.

There's probably no muscle that is harder to control than the tongue. We've all experienced saying something that later we wished we hadn't... whether it be a curse word, or something that hurt another a great deal. It's amazing how such a small part of the body can have such a large impact. No wonder James likens it to a fire!

Today on Growing in the Word, as we return to our study of James, we'll be reminded of the power of words. They have the power to motivate millions of people to hang tough in a difficult situation, and they have the ability to cut a person to ribbons. Pastor Jim Jarrett is our teacher, and today he'll show us what James has to say on the subject of the unbridled tongue.

James was uncompromising in his exhortations to his readers about what their faith should look like. Now, that might seem like a strange thing to ask. How can we describe what faith looks like? Well our faith is very visible to those around us by the way we live our lives. If we truly live a life that glorifies the Lord, that's a living faith!

We are currently enjoying a verse by verse study through the epistle of James, and what a challenging book this is. James wasn't even a believer when his half-brother Jesus was walking the earth, but when he did become a born-again follower of Christ, he became an uncompromising advocate of the Lord. In chapter two of his epistle, James challenges his readers to have a faith that can be seen by everyone.

As we study James chapter two again today, the subject will be an important one - faith. We know that faith alone saves us from hell. But faith is not just something we hide in our hearts, it's something that should be displayed for the whole world to see. Does that describe your faith? James urges us to have a living, working faith, and that's the title pastor Jim has given to today's study in James two, verses twenty through twenty-six.

In chapter two of his epostle, James says "Faith without works is dead". Many a Christian has come to the conclusion that James is saying we are saved by what we do. That obviously contradicts the fact that we are saved through faith and faith alone. But that is not that James means. It is vitally important that we get this right. It goes to the very core of our Christianity.

Since our early days in Sunday School we've heard over and over again that we are saved by grace and not by works. We've committed verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 to our memory to reinforce that belief. Then we run across James chapter two, and we see that at first glance, James seems to contradict the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone: "Faith without works is dead." But today on Growing in the Word we'll see that these passages are actually complimentary.