All Talk and No Action

Re:Verse reading–James 2:14-26 (day six)

“Faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6) That is how Paul describes a faith that works, much like his pastor friend James does in James 2. They were very much on the same page; both tackling the same issue-dead faith.

Dead faith is all talk and no action. It is all sitting, thinking, speaking, but no going and doing. If we are not careful we will describe ourselves mostly as a people who gather together and sit; we gather for worship, we gather for Bible study, we gather for meetings, etc. That’s not faith, and it is not what it means to be the church. The church is not a place or only a gathering; it is a people who are working out their faith through love in a particular place. By faith the church is sent, it doesn’t just sit.

Faith–the door and the duty

Re: Verse reading–Proverbs 3:5-6; Galatians 2:15-21; Ephesians 2:8-10 (day seven)
“The life that I now live I live by faith in the Son of God.”  (Galatians 2:20)  We are saved by faith.  Sola Fides. “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  (Genesis 15)  “Not by works so that no one can boast”, says Ephesians 2:9.  This must never suggest, however, that work is permanently be out of the equation.  Jesus is the door.  Narnia-like, we trust Him and walk into a new world.  But Jesus is also the Lord.  Once in this new world, we, believers, apply ourselves to every assignment, every attitude that requires change.  Faith is the comprehensive word that describes both activities.  Notice the juxtaposition in Ephesians 2?  Salvation is not the WORK of any man.  We are God’s WORKmanship.  We are, nevertheless, made for good WORKS.  The same faith that leads us to the door and through the door teaches us the duty of hard and grateful effort.