Love Never Fails

 

Read 1 Corinthians 13

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Love God with everything you’ve got. Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

Let’s raise the bar. Love each other with everything you have.

If you can get this love business right, you have fulfilled the demands of the law. You have fulfilled the heart and essence of the law.

The story was improbable if not impossible. Jesus had to go to the cross. The Jews wanted to stone him, but that would not align with prophetic parameters. His bones could not be broken.

He had surely angered the self-righteous, but had not sinned against his Father. He and the Father were and are one.

Two choices were available to those who wanted to maintain the status quo.  They could throw in the towel and follow this guy or kill him.

Killing seemed more palatable to the self-proclaimed righteous people than seeing the truth and adjusting their own lives.  These people were oblivious that God used their sinful natures to facilitate the sacrifice required to atone for sin once and for all.

There is one constant in all of this: God’s love. God’s love wins every time.

This early morning service and present excitement over something that took place two millennia ago is all rooted in love.

Some years, we break from whatever homiletic course we are on for Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday. This year, our journey through Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth put us on Chapter 13 for this Sunday.

It’s the love chapter. We find it between two chapters about Spiritual Gifts. It begins at the end of Chapter 12 with these words: And yet I show you the most excellent way.

 Hear it once more.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

But today is about Jesus rising from the dead. Today is about the promise of our resurrection and eternal life in the reality of his resurrection.

Remember his words: I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though this body that carries us around in this life will die.

Today we sing, He Lives! He Lives! Christ Jesus lives today!

Remember his words. The moment you believe in Christ Jesus, you have crossed over from death to life.

Today is about resurrection, life, and for us, life eternal.

But why?

All of this life business has been rooted in love from the beginning, for God is love. In his very essence, God is love.

If I can do all sorts of impressive stuff but don’t have God, I am nothing. If I am putting points on the scoreboard of life but don’t have God, I gain nothing.

God is all of the qualities that we desire—patience, kindness, honor, selflessness, and joy in what is good.

Everything we can touch, feel, see, and taste will melt away one day. Only God is eternal.

We know a little, but not everything, but one day our eyes will be opened to so much more.

Once my thoughts were governed by the world that I had been conformed to, but now I have put away those immature thoughts for the ways of God.

One day, it will make more sense to me, and this choice to abandon the ways of the world might just make sense to those who condemn me now.

I won’t paraphrase the last part. It’s too good just as it is.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Consider these two statements. God is love. Love never fails. God never fails.

God never fails!

Love never fails!

That means that we can count on his promises. His word never fails. It will not return void.

We have some powerful promises. Today, we focus on one.

Your belief, which today we recognize mainly in our professions of faith and the act of obedience we know as baptism, shows that you have crossed over from death to life. These are the visible signs. God sees the heart and knows the moment that you believe.

You didn’t surprise him. He knew you would come around and receive the gift.

His heart desires that you spend eternity with him. That part of eternity you live now is to be engulfed in and governed by love.

Yes, today we celebrate resurrection, but there is no atoning sacrifice in the blood of the Lamb without love, and there is no resurrection without the death and burial of our Lord.

There is nothing without love. God is Love. With Love all things are possible.

And Love never fails.

When you have those conversations we are commissioned to have with others we encounter, introduce God as your best friend, Love. Introduce people to Love.

This whole story is rooted in love.

Celebrate resurrection as the best victory ever. Jesus conquered the grave.

Now live a life of love.

Set aside the world's worries and consider the One who overcame the world. Consider love. Listen and rest in these verses one more time as we close.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Celebrate resurrection.

Live a life of love.

Love never fails!

Amen.

All You Need is Love, without apology to the Beatles

 Read 1 Corinthians 13

In the next service we will do the love chapter. I thought I would do a round robin on the topic of love for this service, as most of you are here for both services.

Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 16:14

Let all that you do be done in love.

Every, all, all yall, with no exclusions is the essence here. Thats when you are in worship or at home making your fourth peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the kid who is eating like he was rescued from the Sahara.

It’s when you are in line at Walmart or stuck in traffic on I-40. It’s for early morning or late at night.

Everything is to be done in love, even the stuff that we don’t’ like to do. We don’t forgive out of guilt. We should do it out of love for the person whom we are forgiving, for ourselves, and for God who has commanded that we forgive.

Colossians 3:14

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Put on love. Thanks some unique verbiage. Think old self-new self, old clothes—new clothes, and human nature—God’s nature.

We are to put on God’s nature.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You will get this one again later, but it’s just too hard to pass up now. C’mon, I grew up with this one.  Faith, hope, love, abide these three but the greatest of these is love.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

That’s some serious love right there. That is true agape love—unselfish and unconditional.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

You might have heard that one once or twice. Our salvation is rooted in love. Our salvation comes from God who is in his very essence—love.

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

There’s the cool part of this verse.  God is love. That’s some cool beans. Then there is the admonishing part. If you don’t love then you don’t know God.

Consider this from the Parable of the 10 Virgins parable.  In that one, the host of the banquet says, “I don’t know you.”  Ouch!

Imagine God telling us, "I don’t know you," because we did not live lives of love. I’m really banking on a “Well-done, good, and faithful servant, not an "I don’t know you."

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Jesus took away our sins on the cross, yet we still sin. How do we lessen the pain for all involved? Love is the remedy.

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

How much love is that? Christ died for us—for his church. In those marital words of “I do” we—the men—are saying that we would die for our wives.  I would die for you.

You think our wives might cut us a little slack for saying we would die for them. What do we get instead?

That’s what you say but you never do it.

Ephesians 4:2

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

These all are plucked out of a greater context, but even as stand-alone, there is counsel for us. This whole business of working with others gets sticky without love.

So be patient, humble, gentle, and live a life of love.

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

OK, that’s not touchy-feelie love. That’s action love. That’s put my words into practice, love. That’s forgive them as I forgave you, love. That’s sometimes some tough stuff.

We are told that it is love that fulfills the law.  We can’t follow all of the rules. Only Jesus did that but we can fulfill the law if we live with love as our new nature.

How do we know that love is our new nature?  Here’s a litmus test.

Substitute your name for love in this paragraph.

I am patient, I am kind. I do not envy, I do not boast, I am not proud. I do not dishonor others, I am not self-seeking, I am not easily angered, I keep no record of wrongs. I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. I always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Did you get hung up on one or two of these, or am I in the company of the perfect people?

If you are here for the next service, you will get this again, but I will close with 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love

Amen.

 

The Image of the invisible God

 Read Colossians 1

We discussed before who might be with Paul at this time.  From this letter, we see that Timothy is with him as he writes to the church in Colossae.  He isn’t there the entire time as Paul later writes two letters to Timothy, but Paul often uses the term we in his letters.

This time it includes Timothy.  It might have also included others who came to Christ on his journey to Rome.  There may have been some come to Jesus moments that went along with the shipwreck on that trip.  We might have meant part of Caesar’s guard that had come to Christ.  It could have been others who came to see Paul and carried letters and messages to him and for him.

Perhaps there were those from the church in Rome who spent time with him.  He had written this church about 5 years earlier.  We sometimes refer to that letter as the Gospel According to Paul.

In any case, Paul was imprisoned in Rome and continued to minister to those around him in person and to those elsewhere by messenger and letter.

In the case of the letter to the Colossians, Paul had never been to this church.  He did not start it.  It grew up out of the outreach of the church in Ephesus. The gospel was on the move even though many of the original apostles had been exiled, put to death, or soon would be executed for their faith.

Commentaries tell us that this letter has more Christology than the other New Testament writings.  What’s that mean?  It talks more about the central and governing nature of Christ to our relationship with God and each other.

For now, let’s think about one of those Christ-centered themes.

He is the image of the invisible God.

How can we see the image of something or someone who is invisible? 

We are told that God is Spirit; yet Jesus came in the flesh.   Jesus said that if you have seen him, then you have seen the Father.  He told his disciples this before he went to the cross.

After the resurrection, he told Thomas, you believe because you see.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Jesus made an analogy with the wind and the Spirit when Nicodemus came to see him.  You can’t see the wind, but you know it’s there.

We understand what follows in this chapter.  Jesus is supreme.  He is over all things.  He was there at the beginning.  The fullness of the Father dwells in the Son.  He was the first born from the dead. Through him, all things are reconciled. Through him we are redeemed.

We get those concepts.  We embrace that theology.  But how do we see what is invisible?  We were not there two millennia ago. We have not seen, yet we believe.

But how do we see the image of the invisible God?

We are told that God is love. Jesus—God in the flesh—is the ultimate manifestation of that love.

But how do we see this invisible God?  By obeying his command to love one another. 

Paul is writing to a church that did not see Jesus or did not hear the gospel from one of the original apostles.  He could have been writing to us.

We are told in Hebrews to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. We can see Jesus no more than we can see the invisible God in which we trust, so what are we seeing?

It’s love.  It’s love for God and love for one another.  It’s God’s love manifest for us in the blood of Jesus. 

If you want to see God, see Jesus, or see the Spirit, you must respond to the grace that you know in love. 

Love for those you call friends and love for those who might just be your enemies.

Love for those most like you and for those least like you.

Love for those who grew up in the church and for those who rebelled against God and the church.

Christ died for all.  If you want to see Christ who is the image of the invisible God, you must have eyes to see a creation that Christ reconciled to himself.  Our carnal eyes cannot see this.  Our human nature continues to judge, but if we will take on a Christ nature, we will have eyes to see.

Want to see God?

Want to see Jesus?

Respond to God’s mercy and grace in love and you will see that which cannot be seen by carnal eyes.

Respond to God’s mercy and grace by living a life of love and you will have eyes to see the image of the invisible God.

Amen.

John 1 - Part 3

Read John 1

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I often add the words, Merry Christmas, after reading this verse.  This is about as short a Christmas story as you will find. 

God—almighty God—entered this world in human flesh and stayed a while.  He didn’t just pop in.  He dwelt—he tabernacled among us.  He set up his home here.

While he likely had a home in Capernaum, that’s not what tabernacled with us means.  It’s not about a house of stone or stucco.  It’s about dwelling in the human condition on purpose. 

It’s about bringing the glory of God to humankind in person.  He came because it was his Father’s will which he fully embraced as his own.  He came to bring grace and truth.

We as people deserved condemnation but the truth that Jesus brought was centered in how much the Father loves us.  The Father desires mercy—forgiveness that we have not earned.  The Father desires to give us grace—blessings that we do not deserve.

What are the trademarks of the one whom the Father sent?  Mercy and grace!  He is the way, the truth, and the life, but we will get to that later.

Later on, it would be John who would pen the words, God is love.  We see the manifestation of that love in Jesus who came to bring grace and truth.

We don’t get the babe in a manger story here.  There are no angels and shepherds.

John skips the poetry of the birth and goes straight to the mission.  Jesus came to live with us and bring us truth and grace.  The truth—if we would really see it—would bring us to repentance.  Grace would bring us home, a home that we have forsaken again and again.

Much like the father in the Prodigal Son, God stood ready to receive his children once again in spite of what we had done.  He loves us so much that he sent his own Son into the world to be the light of the world, the hope of the world, and the sacrifice that brings reconciliation to the world.

God is love.  His Son came with mercy and truth.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Merry Christmas.

Amen.

Speak the Truth to Each Other

Read Zechariah 8

The guy flies by you in his fancy sports car with a duct tape fix on his left rear taillight then swoops right in front of you.  What was wrong with the two miles of empty interstate ahead that he couldn’t have gone a couple more car lengths before he changed lanes.

Now you find yourself on his bumper and you are angry, so you anger lingers and you ride his bumper for the next 22 miles before you have to get a better station on the radio or pick out an 8-Track tape and lose you interest in the yahoo leading this pairing of knuckleheads.

Fortunately for me, my new car will back off when an idiot armed with a car cuts in front of me.  It keeps a safe distance.  I don’t let my anger burn for very long.

We can get angry and then not be angry a short time later, often the transition goes unnoticed by us.  It’s some yahoo, some idiot, some stranger with whom I have no other relationship with other than we share the same road.  Anger passes.

When you deal with loved ones, anger can be more intense and sometimes more lasting.  Most people hold in their anger for a long time and put up with a whole lot, until one day OMG!  Here comes the anger and everything built up behind it.

It was sort of like that with God.  He loved his people.  He put up with much apostacy.  He warned his people and they did not listen.  He warned and they did not listen.  He warned and they did not listen.

Some of you might be thinking of raising your teenagers.  Others might be thinking to their own teenage years.  Warned but did not listen.  Warned but did not listen.

OK, for some it was their thirties and forties before they listened.

God showed much mercy and grace to his own chosen people until he decided that enough was enough and stood back from protecting them from the nations around them and let them be scattered to Syria and Babylon.  

Others fled the pagan conquerors to parts unknown.  But even this judgment executed by the pagans was God’s love.  He would not forget his people or let them grow even farther away from him.

Enough was enough and many of God’s people went into captivity.  And then God thought that enough was enough and he returned them to the land that he had given them.  But what relationship would God and his people enjoy?

God kept the enemies away and sent rains in season and the people began to prosper once again.  The people started feeling good about themselves once again, but did God feel good about them?

Would they return to their former ways?  Would the sinful and selfish human heart rule them once again? 

God, through the prophet Zechariah, sent words of counsel.

“Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.

We don’t see God using the H-word too much in our Bibles.  God hates the practices of the Nicolaitans.  God hates divorce.  God hates falsehood.

You want to anger your heavenly Father, then reject truth and embrace falsehood.  We will always be his children and he will never stop loving us, but that does not mean that he likes everything that we do.

We will never know his wrath—his condemning anger that will one day be poured out on an unrepentant world—but we should heed his warnings nonetheless.

God speaking through the prophet to his chosen people said speak the truth.  These words were for his chosen people, people who traced their bloodline back to Abraham.

We should heed this counsel not because of our human blood but because of the divine bloods shed for us.  God wants good for us and his words are for our own good.

So, when God says speak the truth we must understand that it is for our own good. 

But how can I speak the truth in a world where the truth is seldom to be found?  Television, Facebook, Twitter, and other media seem so imbued with bias that even if you get the facts the truth is often obscured in the telling.

How can I speak the truth?  I will give you the only counsel that I remember about public speaking.  Put on the best clothes that you have and talk about what you know.

I’m sure that the former is lesser than the latter.  That is, the clothing is less important than talking about what you know.

But how do I know what is true so I can speak the truth.  Are the Russians meddling in our elections?  Of course they are and so are the Chinese.  The Chinese are better at it and more patient but we are not called to be media referee when we speak the truth.  We must speak what we know to be true.

What?  That I made my kids peanut butter sandwiches for lunch today?

What?  That I still need to do laundry.

What?  That I don’t care what a she-shed is?

Is that the truth that I am to speak?   That’s what I can say with certainty.  Is that to be the extent of my conversation?

How about this for things that you can say and they are the truth.

God is good.

God is love.

God loves us.

We are to love one another.

I could continue but I won’t.  You can continue that list.  We have wristbands that can help you with that truth.  God loves you.  Love one another.  We can say these things and know them to be the truth.

Seek justice.  Love mercy.  Walk humbly with your God.  Can we not advise each other in this truth from the Lord. 

Zechariah would say render judgments that are true and sound.  Don’t plot evil.  Don’t love falsehood.

OK, I get the don’t plot evil and don’t love falsehood but I haven’t been called for jury duty in 30 years and I got out of that one so I don’t know about rendering judgments. 

There may come a time when you are called and do serve as part of a court, but most here hold court many times a week.  If you have children, you hold court.  Render judgments that are sound and true.

There is much that we can say that is the truth and never turn on the television and log on to the internet.  I know it’s hard to resist jumping into those online melees.  I usually don’t.  There is no real discussion there.  You like something or you don’t but the posted exchanges resemble artillery barrages more than sound discussions.

Sometimes I jump in anyway.  How could I not.  If people would read my post, that would settle everything.  How can you still think that way?  You read my post.

The prophet advised his people that one day their feasts would truly be those of joy and gladness.  The more his people obeyed the instructions God had given them, the more they would know happiness in this life.

We have the same promises in this age.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.  Seek his kingdom and his righteousness and he will provide all of those things that the pagans have made into their gods.

Come to God.  Bring your burdens.  Receive his rest.  Take his yoke and learn from him.

The truth is and we must speak it daily is that God loves us very much.  We should be more concerned about taking that truth to this lost world than any political, social, or religious discourse that will not endure the age.

Speak the truth.  Begin with God loves you.  Help people get to Jesus is Lord!  Help them study the word and live as his disciples, who just happen to be known by our love.

Let’s consider the full clause as we find it in the prophecy.  Speak the truth to each other.  We should always speak the truth but it will often fall on deaf ears in the world that rejects God, but it will be encouragement to those of us who seek him.

Speaking the truth may be countered by the world’s falsehoods, but among believers it is received with joy and gladness by God’s people.

It is important that we speak the truth and beneficial that we speak the truth to each other.  God hates falsehood.  We must be people of the truth.  Speak the truth to each other.

A few facts and much speculation make gossip and rumors addictive.  

Being the first to know seems to give us power.  Thinking that we have some information that somebody else doesn’t seems like it gives us a leg up on our competition.  But these things are not about truth.

Speak the truth to each other.  We know so much that is true.

God is good.

God is love.

God loves us.

We are to love one another.

The directions that God gave us are for our own good.  How do we keep these things in the forefront of our minds?

Here’s a thought that God gave to his people a long time ago.

These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

God not only gave us directives for our own good but direction on how to internalize these directives.

Let’s be people of the truth.  Let us speak the truth because of who we are.  Let us make an extra effort to speak the truth to one another.

Regardless of what the world says, speak the truth.

Amen.

God is Love. We are God's Love in Action!

Read James 2:14-26

We have been proceeding through the topic of love.  In recent weeks we have looked at love and action and how we love God directly and how we love God by loving others.  Trusting in the Lord was surely one of the most direct ways in which we can love God.

I challenged you that trust leads to obedience.  Trying to obey God without trusting him is frustrating.  Trust is essential in loving God.  So too, faith comes into the picture when we talk about love and action.

Somewhere down the road, we will take on faith as its own topic.  Before then, we will make stops at peace and rest, but we need a dose of faith when we talk love and action.  So we come to a letter written by James to Hebrew believers scattered all over the known world.

These are people who knew the law, once lived by the law, and now surely are wondering how they are to live considering the fact that Jesus took care of their salvation in a single sacrifice.  The short answer to how are we to live is we are to live in love.  But what does that mean?

James says if you see a brother or sister in severe need, he says without clothes or daily food, and you just walk on by saying, good luck with that; you missed the boat on loving your neighbor.  You are disconnected from your discipleship.

Our response to God’s great love that we saw poured out on the cross is discipleship. It should be rooted in love, governed by trust, and demonstrated by faith and obedience.

Salvation is all from God, but how we respond is our discipleship.  We can say that we have faith and live in love, but our actions say more than our words.  This is not to say that we should all be mute.  On the contrary, we should acknowledge God in everything that we do.  We should share the good news at every opportunity, but our words and our deeds must be in harmony.

You can’t say that you love God and have faith in God and ignore hardship among others who cross your path, especially fellow believers.  Love and faith will produce action if they are genuine. 

James is not talking about the lazy and foolish—the Proverbs have plenty of counsel for those cases.  He speaks of those with legitimate need.  If we encounter someone with real need, we help.  Love compels us to help.  Our faith compels us to help.  Our discipleship which couples love and faith leads us to obey the Spirit within us and we help.

Our love, faith, and deeds are in harmony. We may not be able to dissect what was love and what was faith, but our response was our discipleship.  We helped because we obeyed the Spirit that lives within us.  Faith and deeds, love and action were in harmony.

James inserts what he expects will be a conversation among his readers.  One says that I have faith.  Another says I have works.  He tells us that just saying your have faith doesn’t amount to much.  It’s much more tangible to validate that faith by what you do.

For the hard cases that say, I have faith that there is one true God, that might seem impressive if you compare yourself to a bunch of atheist that are espousing a cosmic accident; but it’s nothing to put on your resume.  Even the demons believe that.   That sort of faith held by the demons does not lead them to obedience to God.  They know enough to realize that their day is coming, and they are shaking in their boots about that, but they don’t have faith.  Their knowledge does not lead to love and obedience.

So, if your stance is that I have faith because I believe there is one true God, you haven’t separated yourself from a very ungodly crowd.  James goes so far as to say that faith that is not accompanied by action is a dead faith.

How would you feel if every morning you were greeted with,” Hey, you’re looking good, but your faith is dead?”

Nobody wants to hear that their faith is dead.  But, but, but, I believe in God. But you have no actions to show for it.

This ersatz conversation is not for the purpose of determining who has faith.  It is not a litmus test that screens out the wannabes.  It’s not a heaven or hell discriminator.

It puts in juxtaposition two incongruous conditions—faith and lack of deeds.  For if there is faith there will be deeds.

James extends his previous thought in metaphor. 

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

Think of it this way.  We talked about loving God by trusting him with all of our heart, even over our own understanding.  Our trust in the Lord becomes visible in the deeds of our faith.  Our works are the visible image of our invisible trust and faith.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Our works are the image of our invisible faith.  Love in action is the visible image of our faith.  I can’t see your faith but I can see the works that proceed from your faith.

James is telling us that the person who receives Jesus as Savior but not as Lord is a preposterous creature.  Receipt of the greatest gift ever should result in the response of love and discipleship, but some don’t want the discipleship.

Some do not want to receive Jesus as Lord.  Thanks God for the get out of hell ticket, but I’m not much at having a Lord in my life.  This following Jesus business is just a little much for me at the moment. 

James is telling us that this response is outrageous, perverse, and abnormal for the new creation that we have become. New creation is Paul’s term.  Let’s say for the disciple that we have been born again to be. 

Our faith is made complete in what we do.  Our love for God is visible in our love for others.  This is our natural state as a born-again believer.  This is who we are made to be when we belong to the Lord.

What do you call a person who belongs to the Christ?  He or she is a Christian. 

How do you know a person belongs to the Christ?  They will know us by our love.

Can we belong to the Christ and not see our love and faith manifested in deeds?  Such a condition is unnatural.  It’s like swimming upstream; yet, it seems so many are trying to do just that.

Our response to the love that we know in Christ Jesus is discipleship.  Discipleship manifests itself in love, faith, and trust.  These become visible in obedience and in deeds.

God’s love in action is the visible manifestation of our faith.  Action completes our faith.  Action by itself is not pleasing to God. Faith without deeds is dead, so faith and action must be companions. 

Here are three unnatural conditions for those who claim to be Christians.  These conditions should not exist in the believer.

·      Faith without deeds.

·      A Savior who is not also Lord.

·      Salvation without discipleship.

Now here are three conditions that we might not think go together but God says that they do.

·      Peace granted to us without understanding.

·      Trusting God over our own understanding.

·      Forgiveness that comes without merit (grace).

There are things in the carnal world that don’t seem to go together but they do.  There are conditions that for the Christian should not coexist.

·      Faith without deeds.

·      A Savior who is not also Lord.

·      Salvation without discipleship.

We have been talking about love and action.  This discussion has taken us to trust, obedience, faith, and deeds.  It all comes under this umbrella of discipleship.  So the question to us is, do we want to be his disciples?

Jesus tells us to take his yoke and learn from him.  He says that his burden is easy.  The load is light.  He does not say that we won’t have trouble in the world.  We know the answer to that.  We will, but we can learn from our Lord.  His commands are not a burden to us.

He tells us that people will know we belong to him by our love.  Don’t we want to not only be his disciple but look different from those who are not?

His invitation is to follow him.  Are we up to this?

The answer for one who has received unmerited forgiveness from God—grace—salvation through grace—must be yes.  The answer must be yes.

Words like Christian tourist, Christian spectator, and Christian consultant, Christian commentator are oxymorons.  These are words that don’t go together.  Where there are disciples there is action.

Grace compels us to action. 

Many of you know this.  I see so much love in action every week.  What I hope that you understand is that action is now your natural response as a follower of Christ.  Action is your natural condition.  You are God’s love in action.

We understand that God is Love.  Now understand that we are God’s love in action.

The carnal man asks, “Should I help?”

The disciple asks, “How should I help?”  Wisdom and discernment follow—God grants wisdom generously—but action is automatic.  It is natural for us as a Christian.  We will do something to help with the real needs of people.

Our faith is made complete in our action.

Amen!