Faith Without Works

A popular phrase among us Saints is a verse in the New Testament (James 2:26) Faith without works is dead... and how true that is. Lets look at it from a temporal point of view. Like a garden or fire, it needs constant watching and maintenance if you want to keep it clean and functional. Faith works a bit like the same way. Its one thing to say that you love Jesus but how can you love Jesus who you have not seen when you do not love your neighbor who you have seen? Faith is the evidence of things that are not seen. When we show faith we are showing that we are the evidence of God love for others through our charity and true love for others. When we show our work, we show that we know something like math or writing. You and I can claim all we want to we can do something but it is completely useless unless we do something.

While some might have an issue with my first paragraph because they would want to argue grace and works blah blah blah... I want to be clear that I am well aware of the grace of the Master but I want to stress emphasis that this world is a hard place to live in right now. It has been this way for a while (perhaps our whole lives) but it is important to do what we can to push back evil with good deeds and a righteous living. I recall the phrase 'bad things happen when good men do nothing' (Edmund Burke) and it could not be more true than it is today. Faithful men loose faith when we fail to show our faith.

We must be a faithful people and not just believers. Believers know and do nothing. We cannot be so overwhelmed by what is going on when the whirlwinds and tempests destroy what we know to be 'normal' and show that we are a faith building people by picking up the pieces when the damage pushes us down. Let us be eager to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that need comfort; than get up and build our lives by building the lives of others so that we can say that we are builders and not wrecking balls. Be it physical, mental or spiritual if you are a faithful person you can help others either through your work or direct others to where they can get help. Nothing but temporal things will be lost if we are constantly attempting to show our faith.  We must remember that temporal things are just that, temporal.

Image found here.