The Fuel of Love

faith works-nohostLiving in the Spirit
September 4, 2015

Scripture Reading: James 2:1-17

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. –James 2:14-17

Works vs faith, one of the great theological discourses of all times, often finds its way back to this scripture in James. One of my favorite church sign quotes I saw many years ago was “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it.” But faith is not merely what we believe. Particularly those of us who are inheritors of the science of reason. For what we believe is often rooted in what is provable, what the facts support. Faith is about trust and trust is centered in relationship.

True, it could be argued that trust itself is the result of our testing relationships, keeping a scorecard of how often what was promised was delivered. I am in the process right now of changing from a bank I have used for 30+ years because after hours of time spent on the phone and in actually going to the bank, I cannot access my account since the bank upgraded to a different computer system. I have lost trust in the bank to safely care for my money.

Faith and trust in God goes deeper than a checklist of services delivered or not. It rest in the sure and certain knowledge of God’s eternal, unconditional love. It is that fuel that fires our response to nurture the wellbeing of ourselves and others.

Prayer: Called as partners in Christ’ service, with your love as the source of our love, use our love to nurture the wellbeing of ourselves and others. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.