James 2:19

Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well: the demons also believe and shudder.

An examination of the demonic faith to which James referred here reveals it is nothing different in any particular whatever from the faith of all Christians, except in that one fatal flaw of being "faith only." The allegation commonly made upon the basis of what is written in this verse, to the effect that those James sought to correct were possessors of monotheistic faith in God but that they were not believers in Jesus Christ our Lord, is wrong for two reasons: (1) The ones being corrected were Christians. See under James 2:15,16. (2) The demons referred to fully believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God Most High, the promised Messiah, and the ultimate Judge who would torment the wicked (see Mark 1:34 and Luke 8:28). Thus the point of James here is that a person having "faith only" is not better than a demon, nor has he any better hope of salvation. In all fairness, it should be pointed out that the great majority of those preaching "faith only" are not practitioners of it, indicating that they themselves do not dare trust it. In the matter of baptism, for example, preachers of salvation by "faith only" are more diligent to baptize people than some who hold the ordinance to be a divinely imposed precondition of primary justification.

Demons also believe ... In this series of commentaries there have been included many essays on the subject of demons and demonic possession; but it is appropriate here to include the vital comment of J. W. Roberts:

It is no more difficult to believe in demons than to believe in God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, in angels, or in the devil. The Bible hints (though it does not state plainly) that demons were to be consigned to the abyss.[38]

It has been noted that the demonic faith in view here had all the elements of the distinctive faith of Christians. As Lenski put it, "James is not listing all that such a faith accepts, for quantity is not the point."[39] The point is that "all faith," even the faith strong enough to move mountains, if "alone" is worthless; and who said that? Paul! See 1 Corinthians 13:2. Regarding the possible reason why James did not spell out the fact of demons believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, see under James 2:7.

[38] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 91.

[39] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 585.