What does it mean to live out a genuine faith? Pastor Whit sits down with his former Wheaton College professor, Dr. Chris Vlachos to wrestle with that very question.
Together, they explore the book of James as a wake-up call, reminding us that real faith always shows up in action. They unpack how James pushes us to obey Scripture, form a biblical imagination, and bring Christ’s love into the everyday moments that can make someone else’s day.
When Dr. Chris Vlachos stepped away from the pulpit to enter the classroom, it wasn’t an easy shift. He had spent years preaching, but he sensed God saying, “I want you to step off the field and equip young men and women who are about to take the field.”
Teaching became his calling—pouring into future pastors and leaders so they could carry the gospel into the world.
For nearly two decades, one of his favorite books to teach was James. If Paul was the theologian laying out the foundations of faith, James was the coach in the locker room: direct, blunt, and unwilling to let anyone walk away without a challenge.
“If you’re looking for a guy who’s going to say, ‘Here’s what I want you to do,’ James is your guy.”
James is a wake-up call. He’s not pitting faith against works but exposing the difference between genuine faith and bogus faith. Real faith produces action. “What you believe is shown by what you do,” Vlachos explains.
At every turn, James points us back to God’s reality, plan, and purpose. Wisdom, then, is simply living in line with reality as God defines it.
This is why Dr. Vlachos urges us not to treat Scripture as an academic exercise but as a living word meant to be obeyed. He recalls his seminary days: “When I would study, I would study on my knees—Lord, help me understand, help me apply, show me what’s for me.”
His advice to anyone opening the Bible is simple: prayerfully listen, take something with you, and do it.
Start small. Think of how you can brighten someone’s day. As he puts it, borrowing from Clint Eastwood, “Go ahead and make my day.”
James would love that—ordinary people making other people’s day, living out the love of Christ in real, tangible ways. That kind of genuine faith has ripple effects.
A biblical imagination means more than simply knowing Bible verses or doctrines. It’s about allowing Scripture to shape our minds and hearts so we begin to see the world the way God does. Every word we speak, every decision we make, and every relationship we enter into gets reframed by God’s story of redemption.
James helps us here. Again and again, he calls us back to reality as God defines it—not the world’s shifting definitions. For James, wisdom is “acting in accordance with reality.”
That’s what a biblical imagination produces: the ability to live daily in sync with the truth of who God is and what He’s doing in the world.
This imagination isn’t abstract—it shows up in practical, ordinary acts of faith:
The way you respond to conflict
The way you treat the vulnerable
The way you use your words
The way you carry Christ’s love into a Tuesday afternoon meeting or a Wednesday morning carpool
Over time, this reshaping by Scripture creates ripple effects. Our imagination is no longer formed by politics, cultural trends, or self-interest but by the cross and resurrection of Jesus. As Dr. Vlachos puts it, everything we do should be “brought into captivity to Christ.”
That’s what James is after—a church full of people whose inner world has been re-ordered by God’s Word so their outer world becomes a living testimony to His kingdom.
So maybe the question isn’t “What do I know?” but “What am I doing with what I know?” James presses us toward that reality.
Get involved in a Bible study.
Read in community.
Approach Scripture with the intent to obey.
And then step into your day asking, “How can I live out God’s love in the next conversation, the next opportunity, the next need?”
Because when Christ’s love breaks through our lives, the world can’t help but notice.
Check out their weekend messages:
Whit’s Message: Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak: How James 1 Transforms Your Words & Anger
Gabe’s Message: How to Have a Christlike Approach to Anger
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