When I was working as a nurse, the cardinal rule of patient care was that you have to tend to physical pain and needs before you can encourage a patient to do anything else. For example, before you get a patient out of bed for their physical therapy, you need to make sure that they have had their breakfast and pain medicine. Otherwise, their physical needs will consume them and they won't be able to mentally or physically accomplish the requested task. It's psychology 101: Maslow's heirarchy of needs:
Maslow was on the right track with that rule, but he missed the point (I'll get to that in a minute). James says that if you really care about someone's physical needs, you need to help meet the needs. Merely having good intentions for other people isn't useful and doesn't show that your intentions are real. It's like giving a patient physical therapy without pain medicine--a complete waste of time and a painful experience for the patient. In the same way, claiming you have faith, but not backing up that faith with actions is useless. No one's going to believe you have faith unless you demonstrate the faith, and you could really hurt your testimony.
As to the rest of Maslow's pyramid, he got really confused, huh? There's not even a place for spiritual needs; instead, the top is self-actualization. If you want to know what a world with self-actualization would be like, just sit in a faculty lounge of any public university. It's nauseating and annoying that so many professors think so highly of themselves and their knowledge. What good does that do to the rest of the world? Not much. Professors exist solely to indoctrinate others with their ideas. Sometimes these ideas are good and useful (nursing school comes to mind), and sometimes they're worth the computer games that the students play during class.
So what should go on the top of the pyramid? How about "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Westminster Catechism. How do we get there? Faith first, then good works. Ephesians 2:8-10 says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Once we're saved, we should exist solely to glorify God. We should demonstrate our faith in Him through our actions to others. We should love others and meet their needs. We shouldn't just say "get well soon" but should bring them meals. We shouldn't just say, "hope you find a job." We should pay their bills if they can't. We shouldn't just teach poor people how to dress for work, we should give them the clothes they need!
If we say that we have faith that God will provide, let's put our money where are mouth is. If we say that we have faith that God will bring us a job, let's stop acting like desperate people. If we say that we believe God will bring us a spouse, let's stop hunting for and dating losers. If we say that we believe that God knows best, let's stop seeking the world's opinion.
Let's throw out the psychology pyramid and focus on the cross! Let's meet the needs of others and demonstrate our faith!
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