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“Show me the money” became popular in the movie Jerry Maguire back in 1996. A football player was pushing his agent to negotiate a better contract by saying repeatedly, “Show me the money!” Today, people use the phrase when they want evidence that something is worth the asking price. When James wrote his epistle, he mocked people who claimed they had faith but their lives refuted their claim. He was saying in effect, “Show me the money.” They claimed to be followers of Jesus Christ, but were not living what He taught. In James 2 we read, “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? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Goodbye and have good day; stay warm and eat well–but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.” When we claim to be people of faith but are unconcerned about the poor–blaming their poverty on their laziness or ignorance, such faith is at least debatable. It is time to revisit that faith to see if it is merely intellectual assent to a body of truth, or if it is a genuine commitment of our whole self to God.
