Show Me
By Anthony Casperson
11-11-23

The sentence was a meme from the second it was originally said on screen.

“I know kung fu.”

You probably also heard it in Neo’s voice without even trying, despite the fact that The Matrix was first released nearly a quarter of a century ago. (I’ll take a second to let that little factoid sink in.) Yet it’s not this memed part of the movie that I want to focus on, but rather the line said afterward by Morpheus.

“Show me.”

Truthfully, Morpheus didn’t need proof that the data transference had actually happened. He wasn’t interested in verifying the words that Neo claimed. Instead, the captain’s reply allowed Neo to take action on the knowledge found inside of him. The idea behind his words, “Show me,” is actually a call of, “Show yourself the truth of what you believe.” Morpheus wants to continue the lesson by making Neo take action upon that which he confidently claimed.

This concept illustrates well the biblical definition of faith. It’s not just sitting in a chair memeing, “I know (fill in the blank).” Faith is taking action based off of what we hold to be true with utter confidence and surety.

James, the half-brother of Jesus, says as much in the last half of chapter 2 in the book that bears his name. In verses 14-26, he tries to instill this message of faith being more than just believing something to be true. “You believe that God is one? Yeah, well, so do the demons.” How is your belief different from theirs?

Instead faith is found in action. James says in verse 18, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” It’s through action that we find faith, not merely belief.

We even see this in the book of Hebrews—which I’ve mentioned in a couple of previous blogs and my book Hydroponic Spirituality—that Hebrews 11 incessantly hints at this aspect of action-oriented faith. That author says again and again that by faith a person in Israelite history performed a certain action. They repeat the formula so many times until they finally realize they could run out of paper if they continued to list the actions of faith that these godly people did.

I want to point out, though, that chapter 11 begins with a very similar statement about faith as what James states. Verse 1 begins, “Faith is the evidence of things hoped for.” If we take the definition of “hope” that I’ve repeated often as what I see is the biblical one—Hope is standing confidently in the security of God and the surety of his steadfast love—then we can see that faith is the proof of what we know for certain to be true.

Thus, faith is the action that flows through the truth that we confidently claim. Faith is hope in action. It’s the, “Show me,” to hope’s, “I know kung fu.”

We followers of Jesus today have many things that we claim to believe, but unless we actually act on those claims, we’re just repeating memes from the past. And I’m not talking about becoming overly vocal activists who only complain and hold picket signs. No, I mean actually giving time, energy, and money to live out the holy changes we know to be God’s call.

Since faith is hope in action, how we live out our daily lives shows others what we truly believe. About God. About ourselves. About others. And so much more. When we refuse to call out a brother or sister for blatant sin, we’re showing that God isn’t really that serious about sin. And when we beat others down with needless reproach for every tiny infraction, we’re showing a God who cares more about the rules he designed rather than the people for whom he designed the world and all of its rules.

So, the next time you hear yourself account the things you believe, remember the best response.

Show me.