James 2:25-26.
2:25. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
2:26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Faith for Everybody
The concept of faith and works goes together as seemlessly as body and soul. The word used for soul is sometimes translated as spirit. It’s the word ‘pneuma’, the word where we get the English word ‘pneumatic.’ A body that has no spirit, or breath is a dead body. Compared to actions, the tangible thing that people can see, and touch, are dead actions when there is no faith in them.
The special thing here about the example of Rahab is that to have a living faith takes no special requirement on our part. Anybody can have a living faith. In fact, everybody should live that way.
Before, we had been given the example of Abraham, the father of the Israelite people, and religion as we know it from the Bible. A very upright and holy man. Of course he lives by faith.
On the other end of the scale, Rahab has everything against her. Women were considered lesser humans than men. She was the enemy that the Israelites were to conquer. Her profession was far from noble. It was,and still is, one of the furthest from all things churchy and religious. She was an outsider.
Despite all her shortcomings and humble station in life, Rahab recognized God at work. She acted on faith and helped the men who came into the town to scout it out.
In practicing a living faith, it doesn’t take any prequalifications, nobody needs to go through a preapproval process. It starts with a belief, and actions that are inspired by that belief. Those actions also become the proof to anybody who sees them what we believe.