You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.
James 2: 19 (NKJV)
Scripture: James 2: 14-26
Some people do not believe in a Supreme Being. Some do believe there is a God, but do not give their lives to Him as their Father. Isn’t it enough to believe there is a God? This devotion will look at why head knowledge is not enough.
In the middle of his discussion on faith and works, James drops a little nugget in there. Of course, in my Sunday School class, we would call it chasing a rabbit. Rabbits, however, generally bear a closer look.
In the middle of faith without works means dead faith, James talks about there being only one true God. We can look at this a couple of ways.
God is supreme. Exodus 15: 11 says, “Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?” (NASB). The Bible does mention other gods: Baal, Zeus, Artemis just to name a few (Lev. 18: 21; Judg. 2: 13; Jer. 50: 2; Ac. 14: 12; Ac. 19: 24). If you look in the Dictionary of Bible Themes on BibleGateway, a whole list comes up.
But Psalm 83: 18 and John 17: 3 tell us that God is the only true God. Psalm 83: 18 says, “May they know that You alone – whose name is Yahweh – are the Most High over all the earth” (HCSB). John 17:3 says, “And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent” (GNT). The majestic Lord has done many miraculous things, of which He is deserving of our praise.
God alone is the giver of eternal life. The other gods can’t give eternal life, partly due to the fact they are not living. Deuteronomy 4: 28 says, “And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell” (ESV). Those gods can’t give life if they don’t have life.
Whether they are fake or not, God has them beat. Isaiah 43: 10-11 says, “‘You are My witnesses,’ says the Lord, ‘And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior” (NKJV). No other gods existed before Him. Those gods were formed, and God didn’t form them. God is the Alpha and Omega (sound familiar?).
If we look at “there is one God” another way, the Holy Trinity is One. Deuteronomy 6:4, part of what is known as the Shema, says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (KJV). James was affirming what the Israelites believed.
The Trinity wasn’t a new concept. The first mention of more than One was all the way back in Genesis 1. Notice, it says God in verse 1 and Spirit of God in verse 2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (NKJV). Later, it reads, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth’” (Genesis 1: 26 NKJV). Bible scholars agree that the Trinity had a council meeting here and agreed to make man in Their image.
Even if some of the gods aren’t real, demons are. James said that demons know the truth about God, and they shudder. Although the Bible doesn’t talk about Satan’s fall, it is believed that the demons are the angels who fell with Satan. If they are, they know how wonderful God is. Maybe they are shuddering because they realize what they gave up. Maybe, also, they know, in the end, they are toast. Knowing that the end means eternity in a pit of fire would make me shudder.
The demons have head knowledge that Jesus is the Savior, so just acknowledging He is Lord isn’t enough. In the rests of the section, James was telling us just restoring our relationship with the one true God, isn’t enough. To become a child of the King, you have to turn your life over to Him. Your life has to show His Hand on you.
Gracious, loving heavenly Father. You are the One true God. You are most powerful. You are love. Help us when we think we can earn our way back into a relationship with You. Help us to realize that what we do, we do in obedience to Your Will. You ask us to help show Your love and mercy to others. Give us the strength and commitment we need to do that. Amen.
What do you think? How is the best way to convince someone that God is real, and we should give our allegiance to them? Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you have not signed up for the email providing the link to the daily devotion and the monthly newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.
I love how you started off about the verse on “even demons believe and they shutter.” Sometimes I think the best way to “convince” someone is to pray and ask God to reveal himself to them in a new and mighty way. Other times I think teaching them (if they believe in demonic beings,etc) that id they believe those things, wouldn’t they believe in God?
Leah, I so agree! We may be speaking words to others, but only God can reveal Himself to them. Only God can convict someone. We do have to start where they are and teach them from there. Thanks for the comment. Elaine