Traditionally Protestants believe that salvation comes through faith alone, but the letter of James disputes that idea. Faith without works is dead, he asserts in no uncertain terms. So the question remains, "Do we practice a living faith, or do we possess a dead faith?"

James and John come to Jesus saying: "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you. The disciples have a different object in view from what they ought to have. How would our lives and our world be different if we as followers of Jesus would say to him: "We want to do for you whatever you ask of us"?

How do we enter into the Mind of Christ? We should follow his example. What did he do? He didnt lay claim to power and position (although he could have done so), but chose to serve others.

In Jesus Christ, God has erased all the human distinctions we draw to make ourselves feel superior to others. Gods love has a way of doing that; and St. Paul is fed up with those who would say otherwise.

Jesus Christ is making a new creation out of us, out of our lives. Being made new, however, means that we will change and change is a fearful process for most of us. The question is, do we trust God to change us, or are we going to just be stuck with the people we have made out of ourselves?

St. Paul makes the outrageous assumption that everyone is gifted. There is not a special class for the gifted among the followers of Jesus. Now lets just get down to the business of putting those gifts to use.