Faith. Do you have it? Do you have complete faith in Christ? What is faith? Can you have faith without good works? I actually had a good discussion about this at work the other day with a group of people. The consensus was that a true faith brings about good works. They go hand in hand. You cannot have good works without faith. And you cannot claim to have a true faith, yet not do good works.
Faith is different from belief. The devil believes in God. He and all his demons believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They tremble. Yet they do not have faith in God. They do not have faith in Christ and His Love. They don’t have faith in love. Their faith is in sin, selfishness, themselves.
There’s a song I like, called “Most People are Good”, and the main verse in the chorus says “I believe most people are good.” In general, I do believe that most people are good, and that most people mean well and want the best for those close to them. I believe that was Peter’s goal in the Gospel today when he rebuked Jesus for telling how He would have to suffer and would be killed and then rise after three days. Peter meant well, but did not see the big picture, and did not see the world as God sees it.
I think that’s what happens with most of us. We mean well, we think we understand, but so often we do and say what best serves are own self interests. We’re human. Peter did not want to lose Jesus, his friend, as he knew Him in this world. Yet Peter was thinking in the only way that he knew, in worldly means. He did not yet truly know Jesus, truly did not have Faith.
And so many of us are like this. I think we all largely mean well. I think we largely want to do good things, but we let ourselves get in the way. It’s only when we surrender and turn everything over to God that we start to see true faith, and as a result, amazing works. As Jesus says, “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.”
When we do, we will see and do great things for others that we otherwise never do. It’s not that we can’t do good things without faith, but faith in Christ brings out so much more, so much more than what we are capable of on our own. These are works that can change the world, and those around us.
If we have faith in Christ, even the faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains, good works will come forth. It’s impossible not to. We can start to put others before us, and start to see the world as God does, and in the end, we will demonstrate our faith from our works.
