Of Faith and Works, v1.1

I happen to read Revelation 2 and it was about the church of Ephesu, at Rev 2:2-4

2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.

They worked hard, they do not tolerate wicked men, tested and found fake apostles, they preserved (note it was said twice!) and they have not tire, but that is not enough, God noted that while they were great examples of a gung ho christian, they forgot the very reason that they are what they are, the love of God in their life.

On a side note, going to post another christian themed post next week, been bz.

Of Faith and Works.

Thought I would update an older post for a start:

I was thinking of what to write, unsure what should I start 1st with. And decided on this one as its been bugging me for a while, I even left the related webpages open in my browser for more than a week but never got to reading them. Why? I have a minor case of insomnia and think all kinds of stuff. And sometimes when I decide to entertain a thought, it gets bigger and bigger as it incorporates lots of other things. Which then leads to more stuff which equates into no sleep. :S As I’m writing at the 4th line of the 3rd paragraph, i already thought of 2 related things i should blog about. (Edit: It will be posted here later.)

Now, as I go about my life, ‘collect’ sayings that I believe will be useful to apply to life in my head, among them is a Christian one “Works is the evidence of Faith”. A few weeks ago, it suddenly popped back into my head and I was thinking about it and did a basic research.
“Salvation by Faith”. This can be found at John 3:18 and 8:24. It seems all you have to do is believe in God, and have Faith. Simple eh?° Then how about Works? Is someone who believes in and to a certain extend, put their Faith in God automatically granted a pass to Heaven?° Sounds a bit too easy.

2 Corinthians 13:5 states that we should ‘test’ our Faith to ourselves. I’m guessing its kinda like a stress-test to see if its still there. 😀 Anyway, how else can you test your Faith besides how you live your life? This is where Works come in. Now there is a difference between Dead Faith and Alive Faith. James 2:14 says that Dead Faith cannot give you salvation. This is explained later in James 2:19 where he says even the demons believe in God. Makes sense, as ex-angles(read: Fallen), why would they fear something weaker or imaginary?

So, we gotta work for it now. But does that mean that Christianity is a Works = Salvation belief? *Pause Post* I have always liked the fact that the Bible said that Faith will get you Salvation. And the fact that having an active Faith means you would naturally do good works and so on. As opposed to majority of other beliefs, religions and followings which instead, dictates how you should live with lots of rules. Doing Works = having Faith instead of having Faith = doing Works. The latter makes more sense imo, as I know/seen Works not equaling Faith.° *Unpause Post*

1 Corinthians 13:2 tells us that we are nothing if we do not exercise our Faith, and Galations 5:22-23 tells us what kinds of Works we can expect from having Faith. Ephesians 2:8-9 gives the most obvious answer “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. (NIV)” So, we can agree that Faith and Works are important parts of our lives, but any amount of Works isn’t as important as the presence of Faith.

I have modded the saying into “Works without Faith is Dead as Faith without Works is also Dead. But Works Born of Faith is True Faith, Exercised.” Hope my grammar’s right on this. And I edited the saying.

Links:

A Constructive Look at Faith and Good Works(Dead Link, Retrieved via Internet Archive)
About Dead and Dynamic(Live) Faith
Faith at the office. Why not?
“You don’t have to leave your beliefs at home. In fact, some employers see the value of integrating religion and work in meaningful ways.”

This post is a updated post from a previously failed blog. I apologise for the false start.