Key Scripture: “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. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) (p. 89)

The objective of The Faith and Works Approach is to correct Jehovah’s Witnesses’ false view that “justification by faith” is a license to sin and to show them the biblical relationship between faith and works in the Christian life. (p. 89)

What usually happens and why

 The usual faith and works discussion between Christians and Jehovah’s Witnesses pits Paul against James and goes around in circles. Christians insist that salvation is by grace through faith apart from works. Witnesses talk about “exercising” faith and quote passages which stress the importance of obedience, endurance, and good works. No matter what passages we quote from Paul, they counter with James and use as a mantra James 2:26: “…faith without works is dead.” (pp. 89-90)

Jehovah’s Witnesses misunderstand us. They think we are saying that all we need to do is have an intellectual faith in Jesus without repentance of sin in order to get a free ticket to heaven. Meanwhile, we engage in immorality and believe that obedience, endurance, and good works are irrelevant to the Christian life. While we go to church sporadically, they are attending five meetings a week and investing countless hours preaching “the good news of the kingdom” door-to-door. (p. 90)

The unexpected approach

Instead of beginning with Paul’s “faith” verses and waiting for Jehovah’s Witnesses to counter with James’ “works” verses, start the opposite way. Get them out of their prepared Watchtower presentation at the outset by quoting “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26) first and then expressing your belief in the importance of works and obedience in the Christian life. (p. 91)

Taking the role of their student, then ask for their take on how they reconcile the teachings of James and Paul. Ask them to explain the meaning of Romans 4:1-8 and later Ephesians 2:8-10 verse-by-verse. Now they will be required to defend and explain Paul rather than simply ignoring him in favor of quoting James. When they cite works verses from the Bible, agree with them that God wants us to abandon immorality and do good works. Then get back to having them teach you what Paul means when he says that good works have no role in saving us. (pp. 91-92)

This approach has the added benefit that Witnesses may come to see that obtaining a proper understanding of scriptures requires us to examine all the passages that bear on a topic and try to reconcile them rather than relying on a favorite proof text and ignoring “problem” verses.

Study Questions

1. Jehovah’s Witnesses expect us to side with Paul (salvation by faith alone) while they keep citing James (“faith without works is dead.”) How might our quoting James first and asking them—as teachers—to explain what Paul means and how both can be God’s Word be helpful in getting them to think instead of just giving us their prepared presentation? (pp. 89-91)

2. How can this procedure help Witnesses to see the importance of examining scriptures in context instead of simply quoting isolated proof texts?