James 2:25
[25] “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?”
The testimony of Rahab is that she was a harlot. She was called a harlot in the Old Testament and the New Testament. You can read her story in the second and sixth chapters of Joshua. The Hebrew word translated “harlot” in Joshua can also mean “innkeeper”, but the Greek word in our text means an immoral woman. She ran a guest house of sin. If this were all there was to tell about this woman, then it would not be worth repeating, but we have some good news about Rahab; SHE GOT SAVED!
How do we know she became a believer? How do we know she trusted Jehovah? We cannot see her heart, and how could we trust the word of such a vile person? I’ll tell you how we can know; we see her faith by her works! Her works did not save her, but they testify to us that she had put her faith in the God of Heaven.
Her faith was not an intellectual faith that only produced a head knowledge. Her faith was not an emotional faith that only stirred her emotions but never brought her out of sin. Her faith was a faith that works! It was evident because she was willing to get involved, rescuing others and risking her own life at the expense of the truth. She believed the Word of God that judgment was coming and that she was worthy of death. We find the story of her faith in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
We never know who might trust the Gospel when we deliver it. It does not matter how hopeless someone appears to be; if they trust the message of salvation, it can change them just like it changed her. We should witness to everyone because the next words we hear could be, “She got saved!”