See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Faith that does not give rise to works isn't saving faith. But it is exactly the sort of thing that can give rise to self-deception, to the illusion that we have faith simply because we have orthodox beliefs or positive emotions, even when those things don't issue forth in love.
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,”
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
It may feel like faith to wish others well. But if it does not motivate us to do what is in our power for them we can't say that such a faith really has much claim on our heart. It is in fact harmful to have such an attitude. We imagine that our duty is done as long as we maintain these positive feelings, even while others go hungry. True faith, by contrast, is not content to stop at good feelings or well wishing. It is inclusive of our whole being, involving our minds and hearts in a response that always includes some measure of action.
You believe that God is one.
You do well.
Even the demons believe that and tremble.
Saving faith cannot be content to stop at orthodox belief. Such beliefs must change us. It is possible to know that God is one and yet live like a demon. We are called instead to live from all of the implications of our belief in God, which includes the call to love as he first loved us.
You see that faith was active along with his works,
and faith was completed by the works.
Abraham was established in right relationship with God based on his faith and not because of anything he did to earn it. But had he gone on the reject God's call on his life when it became too difficult he might have finally rejected and abandoned that relationship. Abraham's faith was not so thin as to crumble, not even when the call on his life became almost unbearable.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar?
Abraham displayed faith when in his so-called work of offering Isaac. For it would not have been possible without faith. Indeed it would have been evil to do anything of the sort if it did not stem from absolute trust in God, from a deep, incipient belief, that God could give life even to the dead.
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death (see Hebrews 11:17-19).
Our faith requires that we not remain at the level of spectators surrounding Jesus, but rather that we embrace the role of genuine discipleship.
Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
Peter had has faith in Jesus challenged when it became clear that such faith would mean to embrace the cross, both that of Jesus, and his own. He would doubtlessly have preferred a faith was more superficial, that believed correct things, and experienced good things, as Jesus went from one success to another. But his faith in Jesus was not meant to stop at the level of belief or feelings, but rather to empower him to follow Jesus and become like him, to love in a way that would have been impossible to him without faith.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Without faith we have nothing to seek but the world, and no way to gain life. Faith calls us to live lives motivated by a bigger picture, by a true and lasting hope.
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.
As a brief litmus test of our faith we can ask ourselves whether there are words of Jesus which, though we profess to believe them, are nevertheless the cause of cognitive dissonance within us? Are there parts of the faith of which we are ashamed? If so, it is likely because we have only superficially embraced them. They are in our minds but at odds with our actions. We have not planted the seed deeply enough or gazed long enough into the mirror of wisdom. If this describes us it means that we will be less likely to speak up for those parts of the faith when the time comes. Instead of this, we must strive to more whole-heartedly accept the faith so that it can transform us into people who, like Paul, are not ashamed of the Gospel (see Romans 1:16).
Blessed the man who greatly delights in the Lord’s commands.
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