God Blog

Approaching God A Thought At A Time

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Stacks Image 556
Living Faith

Genuine faith is spiritually quantum in nature. Like the vertical and horizontal beams of a cross, both Christ's and our own, its journey must encompass learning to love God, and our fellow man, in ever increasing measure. To this end, embracing Biblical truth and directives are essential.

Yet, as Scripture asks,
how can we say we love God who we can't see without loving our neighbor whom we can? Jesus himself was unable or unwilling to identify the first great commandment without adding the second. In a Fatherly way, encouraging His children to love one another would seem to be how God desires we demonstrate our love for Him. So much so, it's the main consideration in many of Christ's greatest teachings on salvation, including humanity's coming judgment as Sheep and Goats, the story of the Good Samaritan and the Rich Man and Lazarus. In point of fact, the centrality of loving and serving each other, and thus Christ, is among the most developed themes within all of Scripture.

You see that a person is consider righteous by what they do and not faith alone. 


- James 2:24 NIV


Like all topics of importance, the difference between Living and Dead Faith is well documented in Scripture.  Today, for
modern Christianity within the First World, the definitions have become blurred, maligned and nearly lost.

Fortunately recovering the meaning of genuine saving faith is a relatively simple and straight forward process given the preponderance of comments made on the subject by nearly every Biblical author. From a plethora of scriptural passages, not to mention the examples of Christ's every word and deed, defining living faith becomes easy. 


The Brother of Jesus

During the church's first council the Book of Acts records the Lord's brother James, head of the church of Jerusalem, as rendering the final and decisive decision regarding church doctrine. It would seem the apostles, including Peter and Paul acknowledged James' lifelong insights into the message and character of Christ.  Like Jesus, James and his brother Jude clearly delineates between living and dead faith.  For example:
 

  • "Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?" James 2:14-17 MSG

  • ”So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. James 2: 17-20, 26

  • "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 MSG

The Apostle of Love
The great Apostle John, the "disciple whom Jesus loved" and author of such beloved passages as John 3:16 and 1, 2 and 3rd John known fondly as the "Love Epistles" agrees with James that faith and love without action is a lie:


  • "Here's how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. 1 John 2:2-4 MSG

  • "But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one you have had from the very beginning. This old commandment—to love one another—is the same message you heard before. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment..." 1 John 2:5-8

  • "We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God." 1 John 3:16-19

The Apostle of Grace

Like all his contemporaries, the Apostle Paul understood that good doctrine was designed to be an excellent motivator for good deeds. Even so, more than any other Biblical author his teachings on faith are too often misunderstood or taken out of context. As if to rectify such error, Paul leaves no room for doubt of the essential place living faith manifest through loving others plays in our relationship to God. Note:
Just as Jesus did when answering the Rich Young Ruler's question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" in this powerful passage Paul emphasizes the part of the Ten Commandments dealing with our relationship to one another to the point of excluding the first few commandments concerning our relating to God alone:

  • "Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love." Romans 13:8-10 MSG

  • ”Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived." Galatians 6:2-3 MSG

The Greatest of the Twelve


An overview of the Gospels reveals the special relationship and ministry Christ's twelve disciples, who later became His apostles, enjoyed with God. Of these, Peter, James and John were singled out for special training and time with Jesus. Peter figures heavily in the Gospel narratives, the Book of Acts and Epistles. In many passages, including Peter's teachings on
additions to faith, he joins his colleagues in harmonious agreement, in developing the crucial role love and good deeds plays in living faith.

  • "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." 1 Peter 1:22

  • "For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps." 1 Peter 2:21

  • "Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing" 1 Peter 3:8-9 MSG

  • Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8


Old Testament Examples


The New Testament is built on the firm foundation of the Old. Long before
Christ's great teachings on salvation, such as humanity's coming judgement as Sheep and Goats, the story of the Good Samaritan and the Rich Man and Lazarus, Old Testament prophets where blazing the path. The following are just a few revealing God's passion for helping the needy:

  • "He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done." Proverbs 19:17

  • "Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses." Proverbs 24:11-12 MSG

  • ”This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.
    What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.
    Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You'll call out for help and I'll say, 'Here I am.'" Isaiah 58 6-9 MSG

  • ”Look! Listen! God's arm is not amputated—he can still save. God's ears are not stopped up—he can still hear. There's nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn't hear. Your hands are drenched in blood, your fingers dripping with guilt, Your lips smeared with lies, your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities. No one speaks up for the right, no one deals fairly." Isaiah 59:1-3 MSG

  • ”God's Message came to me: 'Son of man, are you going to judge this bloody city or not? Come now, are you going to judge her? Do it! Face her with all her outrageous obscenities. Tell her, 'This is what God, the Master, says: You're a city murderous at the core, just asking for punishment. You're a city obsessed with no-god idols, making yourself filthy. In all your killing, you've piled up guilt. In all your idol-making, you've become filthy. You've forced a premature end to your existence. I'll put you on exhibit as the scarecrow of the nations, the world's worst joke. From far and near they'll deride you as infamous in filth, notorious for chaos. Your leaders, the princes of Israel among you, compete in crime. You're a community that's insolent to parents, abusive to outsiders, oppressive against orphans and widows..." Ezekiel 22:1-7 MSG

  • ”God's Message: 'Because of the three great sins of Israel —make that four—I'm not putting up with them any longer. They buy and sell upstanding people. People for them are only things—ways of making money. They'd sell a poor man for a pair of shoes. They'd sell their own grandmother! They grind the penniless into the dirt, shove the luckless into the ditch. Everyone and his brother sleeps with the 'sacred whore'— a sacrilege against my Holy Name. Stuff they've extorted from the poor is piled up at the shrine of their god, While they sit around drinking wine they've conned from their victims." Amos 2:6-8 MSG

  • ”I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals.
    I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making.
    I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want." Amos 5:21-24 MSG

  • “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel? No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves. 27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,[c]” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies. (Amos 5:27 Greek version reads No, you carried your pagan gods—the shrine of Molech, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made for yourselves. So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus." Compare Acts 7:43.) Amos 5:25-27

  • "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." Hosea 6:6


What You've Done to the Least...


Most believers understand the need for faith to please God. Many know the greatest commandment is to love God with all we possess. Yet few comprehend the importance of the second greatest commandment to
love our neighbor as ourselves. Yet, as these and countless Bible passages point out, the primary way genuine living faith expresses love for God is to love others. The reason for this becomes clear once we realize that in His amazing mercy, God takes everything we do to each other extremely Personally. Christ even goes so far as to warn our very salvation hinges on understanding His identification with the needy. His love extends to the helpless so completely that whatever we do or fail to do to the least we've done or not done to Him!

  • “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! That way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:43-48

  • "Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can't go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bank robbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It's obvious, isn't it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being." Luke 12:33-34 MSG

  • ”Jesus turned to his host. “When you put on a luncheon or a banquet,” he said, “don’t invite your friends, brothers, relatives, and rich neighbors. For they will invite you back, and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. Then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those who could not repay you." Luke 14:12-14

  • "When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why: I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me...Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'" Matthew 25:31-36, 40 MSG

  • ”Then he will turn to the 'goats,' the ones on his left, and say, 'Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because— I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, Sick and in prison, and you never visited.' Then those 'goats' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?' He will answer them, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me—you failed to do it to me.' Then those 'goats' will be herded to their eternal doom, but the 'sheep' to their eternal reward." Matthew 25:41-46 MSG
Genuine and honest Biblical study and application requires spiritually quantum balance and equilibrium. For example, as a decades old prayer partner once noted in regards to resolving the tension between accurately discerning Scripture and the centrality of the Holy Spirit, “Evangelism without prayer is Fruitless, Prayer without Evangelism is Faithless. Scripture without the Spirit is Lifeless, the Spirit without Scripture is Baseless.” With this mind, let us more prayerfully study the Bible, recognizing Scripture itself must be "spiritually discerned."

Biblical faith can be spelled in a variety of ways. Risk is one. Cost is another. No wonder cheep grace accomplishes so little, and costly grace so much. In Saul/Paul’s case, grace was an almost inconceivable transfiguring force turning the chief of sinners and persecutor of the Church, into the most notable and persecuted of apostles! A miraculous transformation, according to Paul himself, intended to extend the same offer to all Christians.

The path to Biblical
salvation and genuinely following Christ has collective and individual aspects. The following resources should provide help in both regards. First, in priming the pump for drilling down into deeper aspects of Christian life. Second, in assisting with the identification and implementation of Kingdom citizen soldier directives. While not for the feint hearted, such insight and encouragement is vital for those ready to redouble their efforts to know and and be known by God.




More information

In the Red Dropdown Icon you'll find resources that we hope will both stimulate and facilitate your pursuit of and understanding of the God of the Bible. To get started simply place your cursor on a category of interest and see where it leads. You can also join the discussion in a variety of ways including posting comments to God Blogs as well as making comments or asking questions by email or text.