There are a lot of people who faithfully attend Sunday school and Church. They go on Sunday night and to prayer meeting, they put money in the collection plate, their children attend all of the youth meetings and go to Church camp in the summers. Sounds like the sort of people of whom you might say, 'They're there every time the Church doors are open. They read the Bible and say a blessing before meals. They are model Christians.' - if you judge them from the outside.
But they never do anything to show their faith. When a neighbor dies, they don't cook food to take to the house. If a neighbor becomes ill, they don't bother to visit. When a new family moves into the community, they stay at home. When a disaster such as a flood or a tornado affects the neighborhood, they don't volunteer to help clean up the mess.
Beggars and tramps make a detour around their house, for they know they won't receive food there. Solicitors for charitable funds also pass them by, knowing they won't contribute. Sound hard hearted? They're really very pleasant people - looked at from the outside, but they're barren in their acts.
The apostle James said, But can you not see you quibbler, that faith divorced from deeds is barren? Not to be barren, but to flourish as a spring makes the desert to bloom is to deny neither yourself, your material goods nor your service to any man. It is to serve, to help, to turn no man from your door. It is to help all people who need and ask for help - friend, stranger, foe all alike. It is thus that faith displays itself in action.