I am always amazed that whenever you start to talk about the fact the Christians are supposed to make a difference in the World to reach out to people in need and care for those who are unable to care for themselves, some start screaming he is preaching Salvation by works again.
So let me say right up front, I believe these Verses in Ephesians 2 with all my heart, and praise God that it is true:
8. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9. not by works, so that no one can boast.Then we need to read the next verse which says:
10. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.We so often stop at the first 2 verses, because Grace all sufficient. But once we know him we can't just go on living the way we did. We can't just ignore the need around us. How can we see so many around the world living in poverty and just do nothing, while we waste resources as if they do not matter. Farmers in the West are paid to plough food into the ground while the billions struggle to get a bowl of rice in a day and the protest from believers to their Governments is muted.
We cannot keep living as if the poor don't exist. It is time for the Church to live as we are called. To listen to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles. Paul said if we say we have not love, we are as a clanging gong,... all outward show. In 1 John it says if we see need and feel no compassion, then how can God's love be in us?
FROM JAMES 2 IN THE MESSAGE
Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.
Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?
Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham “made right with God by works” when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are “works of faith”? The full meaning of “believe” in the Scripture sentence, “Abraham believed God and was set right with God,” includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named “God’s friend.” Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?
The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn’t her action in hiding God’s spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse.
