Grace? Or Faith? Or Works?
AND Works? ???
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
How many times have you listened to a discussion, or been involved in one personally, where the topic of “Are we saved by belief or by works?” has been vigorously debated? Or sometimes the question is cast in the form of, “Do you believe we are saved by Faith Alone? Or is there something WE must do in order to be saved?”
Sometimes we are even so tradition-bound by our upbringing that we can’t hear the truth when it is spoken. Many of you will remember the reference that Willie Tollison made to this when he was spoke to us. (You can click HERE1 for a 49-second audio clip to refresh your memory – or to hear this for the first time.)
And sometimes when we look up the words (faith, grace, belief, …) in a modern-day dictionary they do not give us the “cultural” meaning they had during the times the Bible was being written, and so we miss out on the richness present in His Word.
When the words for Grace and Faith (charis and pistis) were used in the 1st Century they conveyed significantly more meaning than they do today, because of a particular cultural/societal practice referred to as the Patron-Client System.
What was that? And how is it relevant to our modern-day discussion of “Faith vs. Works”?
Oh, before I forget, those of you who prefer auditory or visual material instead of the written form may click HERE2 for an audio version of this discussion or, if you have a nice fast Internet connection, may click HERE3 for a 20MB video of this same topic. These links are each about 7 minutes long.
Most of us are probably more familiar with the system of feudalism than the Patron-Client system. There are many similarities, but the Patron-Client system in general pre-dated the development of the feudal system, and was different in several ways.
But underpinning any discussion of the Patron-Client system must be a discussion of the Honor-Shame system. In today’s time we see reminders again and again of the power of economics. We see people sacrificing honor to achieve more wealth. In 1st century Palestine (Israel) the more valuable commodity was honor. A man would expend vast sums of money to get honor. Conversely, he would do almost anything in order to avoid losing honor. If a man were shamed, he would lose honor. Not understanding this societal norm prevents us from fully understanding the depth of such statements as Hebrews 2:2 — Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. But that is a topic for another day. For now, know that one of the ways that a man could achieve honor was by having more Clients.
In 1st century Israel 2% of the population owned virtually 100% of the goods. They would hire 5% – 7% of the rest of the population to be their service providers – doctors, artists, builders, virtually anyone with marketable skills. The lowest 15% of the population were treated as expendable – prostitutes, the homeless, mentally retarded individuals, etc. The remaining 75% or so of the population were day laborers – they worked each day for the money it would take to eat that day – and there were a lot of days where they did not eat.
So, in order to survive, the 75% could see no higher possibility for their existence than to try to get into the good graces of the 2% who owned everything. If a person had a skill that was needed by a wealthy PATRON, that wealthy person would take on the poorer person as a CLIENT. What did that mean?
As a Patron, I want as many Clients as I can afford. I’ll provide them health care, a house, jobs, clothes, wife, i.e., all their daily needs. And what will my Clients do for me? They’ll come to my house every day and give me honor! They’ll praise me, they’ll tell anyone that walks by what a honorable man I am, they’ll tell about the time I sent my physician to heal their child, they’ll tell them about the year that the crops failed and I provided food for them, and so forth.
The Patron would supply all the needs of the Client, and the Client in turn would honor his Patron. The Patron gave gifts to his Client that were FREE. And the job of the Client was to make the Patron famous.
And the Patron was NEVER to mention the gifts he gave his Client; it would be RUDE for him ever to bring it up again. But the job of the Client was to NEVER CEASE praising his Patron.
So now we get to the good part! What do you suspect the Greek word for the gifts that the Patron gave his Clients was? GRACE (charis)
And what do you think the word was that described the job of the Patron’s Clients? FAITH (pistis)
When Paul says “by grace, through faith…” he was describing exactly this Patron-Client relationship that all of his readers were intimately familiar with. They were so familiar with it that they didn’t even have a name for it. It was just LIFE for them; it was “the way it was.” They knew no other way to live.
So, OF COURSE “works” are involved in the Client’s job! When the Patron gives you gifts, you will praise his name to all you meet, you’ll vote for him if he runs for office, you’ll provide any sort of service that the Patron asks for, you’ll follow him to the marketplace and tell the crowds what a magnificent honorable Patron he is… YOUR JOBS AS A CLIENT IS TO MAKE YOUR PATRON FAMOUS!
Does this relate to the “Faith vs. Works” argument? Of course! That is an argument that would not have even made sense to the 1st century reader. We get tied up in English, or in whatever language we read the Word, and we have little to no understanding of the sociological issues of the 1st century. The average 1st century “man in the street” would likely ask us, “What is your point? Faith vs. Works? How can they be different? It’s the same word!” Because they knew the job of a Client. They knew how the whole socioeconomic system worked. A Client would not be a Client for long if all he did was to receive the gifts of the Patron, and never fulfilled his responsibilities!
“For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through FAITH…
God has given us free gifts… but salvation is not by grace alone. Look at the verse again: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through FAITH…”
Our response to Him, as a Client to his Patron, MUST be “through faith!” We fulfill a Client’s responsibilities. We are to make Him famous. We are to direct all glory and honor and praise to Him. We are to be about our Father’s business.
So, is it by FAITH… or WORKS?
The question has no meaning; it is all the same.
Mark Morrow
9/7/2009
Footnotes:
1 – Willie Tollison, Leander, 2005
2 – Dr. Mark Moore, 2007
3 – Dr. Mark Moore, 2007
The short excerpts by Dr. Mark Moore are from a freely-distributable DVD he has produced, with the title “How to Interpret the Bible.” The video clip I placed on the web for this article is by nature low quality, to make it possible to download and view fairly quickly. The DVD, on the other hand, is a very high quality production. If you would like a copy I would be glad to obtain one for you.
As I read this, and so many others, I begin to wonder how we got so far of the course, yet we told ourselves we were on the straight and narrow. It makes you think about what you convey to others concerning your faith and beliefs.
A couple of weeks ago I attended a class taught by Keith Parsons here at Meadowbrook. I always enjoy his class because you are challenged and learn so much. I was teaching the high school this quarter so I missed the whole quarter, but got to here is summation, he’s a lawyer by trade)on the gospel of Jesus.
That Sunday he did a review of Christianity from about the second century to the present day. I wish everyone could have heard it, but here’s what I took away from it. The church has spent hundreds of years debating specific issues concerning communion, the trinity, baptism, grace, and many other topics mostly from the epistles, and primarily Paul’s. In the past few centuries most of the discussion has been around Paul teachings so much that if an outsider looked at us we maybe should be called Paulians! One scholar from Yale called Paul the central figure in Christianity.
If we are Christ followers and Christ is the center of our belief, then why haven’t we/ why don’t we spend the majority of our time studying Jesus and his teaching? Instead of spending our time on how to worship, why haven’t we spent more time on loving our enemies? Instead of debating and fighting over marriage and divorce, why haven’t we gone into deep study on what it means to deny ourselves, and service to others? What does it mean to be last; not to worry; associating with that society has no time for; determining who my neighbor is; honoring God; holiness; sacricice? The list could go on and on.
If we spent our time and our energy on studying Jesus and his teaching, and focused on modeling our life after his, so much of this wouldn’t be an issue.
Sam
James 2:14-26
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.
19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.
25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
How does this reconcile with the original post? It seems obvious that James treats faith and works as two different concepts.
Sam
Good stuff, Mark. One thought though…can a Client CHOOSE his PATRON, or does the Patron choose the Client? 🙂
Sam, w.r.t. your 9/22/2009 posting, where you finished with the note:
“How does this reconcile with the original post? It seems obvious that James treats faith and works as two different concepts.”
I’ve been so far away from blogland that I’ve sort of lost my train of thought on this post (just being honest), but I remember the day you left your comment I thought, “Hmmm, the answer he is looking for was discussed by Mark Moore in his lecture, so I need to go listen to it again so I can respond to Sam.” Except I never did. And I’m not saying he had the RIGHT answer, but he DID have AN answer. So, standby while I go listen to it again … OK, I uploaded it to a location you can hear it: PatronClientClip (It’s only about 7 minutes long.) You could listen to all of it (sorry about the poor quality, but the DVD I have with the recording was created in an echoey room and so you have to listen closely), but for just this part of the question you could skip to about 6.0 minutes and just listen to the last minute or so. Here is the gist of it, as it applies to your comment:
Wouldn’t you say that, perhaps, instead of James’ treating Faith and Works as two different concepts that he is rather saying THEY CAN NOT BE SEPARATED? Seems to me he is rather addressing “cheap” faith, i.e., “faith without deeds.” THAT KIND OF FAITH will save no one. (v14)
Considering the whole Patron/Client concept, if a man claims to have FAITH but has no DEEDS (v14), James’ point is that such a man does NOT have REAL faith, not the TRUE faith — instead, he has only a cheap imitation, not the substance.
–Mark
Mike, w.r.t. to your comment:
“One thought though…can a Client CHOOSE his PATRON, or does the Patron choose the Client?”
If you mean in the historical sense, my impression is that ALL the choice was with the PATRON, i.e., the CLIENT could APPLY to the patron to be chosen, but the entire choice resided with the patron.
I guess the difference today is that OUR patron has told ANY (ALL) who would want to be chosen by Him, “I have already chosen you; will you respond to me?”
What a gift that is!
–Mark