James 2 can someone tell me what faith is?

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In light of James 2, can someone define for me the meaning of faith?
 
@Jacob1, what is your difficulty, exactly? The title you put on this thread suggests that you understand the meaning of “faith” in every other book in the New Testament, with the sole exception of this one. Is that what you mean?
 
In light of James 2 faith is to believe that God is. And that is certainly consistent with demons believing.
 
Faith and belief for James are two dirrent things. Faith is trust, loyalty, which is demonstrated by action.
 
James is explaining that believing Jesus is God and our savior is only one part of faith - perhaps the first major step. The second major step is obedience to this One you “believe” is God. St. Paul teaches the same when he speaks of the “obedience of faith” ( Romans 1:5 and 16:26 ) Without obedience it’s not faith - it’s only a type of belief similar to Satan’s.

Jesus Himself teaches us the necessity of both belief AND obedience:
John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; He who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.”

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. " (Mt. 28:19)
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My priest once said “Faith is our response to the presence of God” and recently I read a quote from Andrea Corr "Faith is not against reason, it is beyond it.
 
James is trying to explain that very thing! What exactly is confusing you?
 

Heb.11​

  1. [ 1 ] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen .
 
Jacob1 said:
In light of James 2, can someone define for me the meaning of faith?
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To have faith in God does not mean to believe that God exists; to have faith in God means to trust God, to believe that He is infinitely good and loving, to commit ourselves entirely to Him.
Demons believe that God exists but they do not believe that He is good and despise Him.
 
Jacob1 said:
In light of James 2, can someone define for me the meaning of faith?
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The Hebrew word aman is translated as “believe”, “trust”, “have faith”, and also “support”, “nourish”, and “make lasting”. A derivative word is omenat , meaning “pillars” or “supports of the door” as in 2 Kings 18:16. Another cognate is emunah , which is “faithfulness” or “trust”, as in Exodus 17:12 where God brought victory to Israel as long as Moses would hold his hands up. Aaron and Hur held up his hands so that they “remained emunah until sundown”. IMO, all of these illustrate that faith is an action that we take.

The Catechism expresses this by saying that faith is an act of the will in which one turns toward God and away from sin; in which we decide that we will cooperate, with our intellect and will, with the divine grace that God gives us to enable us to comply with the moral law; it is a free response of the human person to the initiative of God; it is a personal adherence of the whole man to the God who reveals himself. It is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith “man freely commits his entire self to God.” For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will. “The righteous shall live by faith.” Living faith “work through charity.”
 
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CelticWarlord said:

Heb.11​

  1. [ 1 ] Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen .
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I’ve never understood how people think that that verse can be treated as a definition of the term, or that it’s easy to understand. I find it to be one of the Bible’s more difficult passages.
 
neophyte said:
I’ve never understood how people think that that verse can be treated as a definition of the term, or that it’s easy to understand. I find it to be one of the Bible’s more difficult passages.
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The answer to this mystery of faith expressed from Heb.11: 1 is love and hope.
Faith becomes visible to us in the mysteries of the Sacraments or what is sacramental.The reward from faith expressed via the Sacraments is Grace and blessings.
Example; the Eucharist. The Eucharist sacramentally is a visible sign revealed from bread and wine to our natural senses which does not take faith. Faith then is the evidence of things not seen in the Eucharist, although the eye’s of faith makes an action of hope that is triggered by the faith in the true and substantial Presence of Jesus body, blood, soul and divinity, and that hope expressed from Faith in God’s Presence believes time and space in the natural order of things where we see God (sacramentally) as if in a mirror, ends in hope of seeing God face to face.

In Eucharist we can agree with Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”.

The divine Grace which God Sacramentally parts to those who believe in His Son comes to us in the Word of God. When Hebrews proves faith in God is a reality that supersedes the natural order of things, when the Word of God states; Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was ordered by the word of God, so that what is visible came into being through the invisible.

Thus it is the Word of God that makes things visible both to our natural senses and to our Souls and Spirit which are born from the invisible Grace that opens our hearts and Love to God and neighbor.
Has anyone seen Love? Yet we have faith that Love exist, when the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that God is Love. It only takes the faith the size of a mustard seed to first believe and God will meet us the rest of the way.

Peace be with you
 
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Of course it is . You see the spiritual realities described in Spiritual terms are foolish to the natural person and secular world. Did you not know that the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a sign of contradiction?
Thank you for the blessing and yes they called my Lord drunkard who eats with sinners, because Jesus revealed such spiritual realities to our humanity and His witnesses wrote some of them down.
The most beautiful things on earth and in heaven are seen more clear with the heart than with eyes.
Peace be with you
 
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neophyte said:
I find it to be one of the Bible’s more difficult passages.
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And there are plenty of them to be sure, my friend. In my own case the latter half of that verse is what makes the most sense. But this is based on experiences that have a relevance only to me; things that are too numerous to be written off as coincidence or happenstance yet have no substantive evidence I could present to someone else. The bottom line is that faith is not something most of us can simply conjure up out of thin air, but is the result of many years of dialog with God and a trust in the ultimate value of this life. Admittedly that still may not satisfactorily answer the question, but each of us must find our own way in what has to be a very personal conviction toward the Divine. And, I would add, most of us still have a long, long way to go in this pursuit.
 
The RSV reads; “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Heb 11:1
Things not see, e.g. God yet we believe and seek to have a personal relationship with him.
 
@Jacob1, a dozen or more posters have given their answers to your question. Did you find any of those answers satisfactory? You never posted again on the thread, after your OP.
 
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