-What about faith
being made perfect by works? James
2:22,26
The works it is talking about
here are works of belief:.James
2:23. Here it is talking of Abraham
so very long ago.
He was a man who believed
God and acted upon it. Do you believe God when He says you too will be
rewarded for your works?
One
cannot believe unto justification.(verse
24).unless
the Infinite One has given him the gift of belief.
And our works cannot produce
any kind of perfect faith necessary to be saved. Those works were
done by Emmanuel, also so very long ago. But the works we now do have nothing
to do with salvation, only with our reward in salvation; saved now, but
yet to rule with Christ in the kingdom of God, the government of God to
be on this Earth.
Only the result of spiritual
work in us, called Christ's works in us, in the Holy Bible.(Ephesians
2:10; Hebrews 12:2).can
produce perfection:.Colossians
1:27. Only by having the faith
of Christ in us can we be saved:.2Timothy
1:9.
James is saying here that
belief alone is about as good as a vehicle battery with only a positive
terminal. It won't do anything:.James
2:18-20.
He is saying that God gave
us the gift of belief to be used. If you believe you are saved, do
something with that belief, do something because you indeed do believe,
do something to make a positive improvement in another's life.
We
are excited about and appreciative of just what it is that we together
have in God. We want to share and contribute to one another's joy and spill
this over to those not yet believing who may need help and are suffering
many hardships.
The reason we care for one
another.(1Corinthians
12:6-26.note
especially verses 6,7,25 and 26;.James
2:1 "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Emmanuel the Christ
the Lord of glory with respect of persons.{partiality}."),
is because we love. 1Thessalonians
1:3 talks of this work of faith.
Faith and love are inseparable:.Galatians
5:6 ".....faith which works by love.".Christ
is
watching
our works:.Revelation
2:19.
The
difference between belief and faith is a subtle
one.
Now we need to keep ourselves
in the faith of Christ.(Revelation
14:12).and
build ourselves up in it.(Jude
1:3,20), bewaring of any alternate
gospel that could cause us to make Christ of none effect in us:.Galatians
5:4. To keep yourself on the right pathway of joy, be sure to meditate,
contemplate
and of course, pray; however it is that your soul is sending signals to
you to participate in at the time. Listen inward!
To overcome the bad things.(hate,
resentment,
anger,
jealousy
{example},
greed,
selfishness.and
such:.1Timothy
6:11).about
us and gain a reward, we need to work on our faith:.1John
5:4..'Our
faith'
is what we have received from Christ specifically and individually:.Romans
12:3. Our faith is the measure
of God's Spirit we have received to do things.
And how
do we get this faith? Things can be added to this faith:.2Peter
1:5-9.
Our faith is to be in God.(1Peter
1:21).and
not in our works.(Matthew
7:22,23).as
was the Pharisees' credence.
But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do good works.
It means that you do not
begin to think on the self as being better due to all the good works you
have done.('patting
yourself on the back as a great guy') (Philippians
2:3;
Psalms 51:17),
but rather, realize that your good works count with God in getting
you a reward. You leave the thinking about your good works to Him. It is
Christ in you that is responsible for your good nature and attitude toward
others, and actions:.John
14:10,12 ".....the Father that dwells in me, he does the works...He
that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also....."
Realize that a reward accrues
to you as works are done. And if you ask, God will grant you similarly
as
He did Jabez.
It is never advantageous
to focus upon the self if a chance exists to be puffed
up in pride. It is also never advantageous to focus upon the self if
a chance exists to depress you. Both these
take your mind off Him and put it on you.
Doing these things gets your
mind on your performance.(or,
lack of it).and
leaves off thinking about the reality of Christ in you; that you are part
of the family of God; that you feel for and increase in emotional attachment
to your brothers and sisters in Christ and to others in the world, to anyone
needing
compassion and encouragement:.1Thessalonians
5:12,13;
Romans 14:19;
1Thessalonians
5:11;
1:3.
The purpose of the faith
you have is to ensure your salvation.(1Peter
1:5,9), so you no longer have to
worry about performance to please the Creator and now can concentrate on
works of loving and caring for others, so that you are highly rewarded.
Your faith works with your
heartfelt desire to help others.(Galatians
5:6; 1Thessalonians 3:6).to
produce good works.(1Timothy
4:12;
1:5),
for which you gain a reward:.2Thessalonians
1:3. And sometimes it's a sacrifice to help others as the subject on
compassion shows:.Philemon
1:5.
Rahab the prostitute is
listed with others.(such
as these midwives).because
of the righteousness that comes from knowing
who one really is. See her story.
Nothing is said that Rahab
had changed from being a prostitute:.Luke
6:37. Perhaps she did. Perhaps she did not. It does not matter
as our Creator looks at one's intent in one's heart:.1Samuel
16:7. Her faith is accounted unto her for righteousness.
Ours too. Rahab's story.
Aren't you glad you are not
being judged and condemned for the sins you
may still have? I'm sure glad nothing
is held against any of us. We are judged for our good works of kindness
unto others towards a reward, not for any lack
of performance in keeping bygone Old Testament Mosaic
Law rules and regulations or for using untruths the type of which the
good midwives and Rahab used.
Now that we are justified
by Christ,
we should go out and live, doing good unto others as we seek and
find opportunity:.Matthew
18:35; Ephesians 6:6.
When we are rooted in love
for others, we bring more of Christ's nature out from within:.Ephesians
3:17; Galatians 6:10; Hebrews
10:24.
Emmanuel took all the judgement
upon Him for our bad works, all of our past, all of our present and all
of our future bad works. That's how much He loves
you
and me. You're
now free. Free to love and have good works towards your reward, free to
get a lesser reward or no reward.
Free to learn to live better
or not.
His performance was sufficient
for a perfect gift of righteousness.(Romans
5:17).to
be made available unto all who believe. That's
what He did for us!
