Faith Working Through Love

Dear Sons,

How does the Christian life really work? How do old habits and ways die and new ones become established? How does what we read about become our own experience rather than just an idea we agree with? 

It begins with what God has accomplished through the life and death of Jesus. This includes atonement for sin, the work of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the church from the beginning to now. However, where does it begin with us? When does what God has done for us begin to have a direct impact within us?

What God has already done only begins to impact us personally when we "hear and believe." Through various ways, we will hear the message of the gospel and have the opportunity to receive it by faith or reject it through unbelief. 

What God has done is called "GRACE" and our response to His grace is called "FAITH." We are saved "BY GRACE" (God's part) through "FAITH" (our response).

Another way of describing this process is "faith working through love." This is what is happening on the inside, within our hearts, to produce the external changes in our behavior. The way this works is like this: we hear about the gospel and the promises of God - we believe what we hear and through this belief we receive the Holy Spirit. 

When the Holy Spirit comes He begins the ministry of developing God's love in our hearts. As our faith grows, our relationship with the Spirit teaching us God's love also grows. This growing love is what produces the right heart and attitude towards God's commands called obedience. Paul describes his ministry to the Gentiles as calling all of them to "the obedience of the faith."

As faith grows, our love for God grows, as our love for God grows our obedience to His word grows. 

The only way for our obedience to be fully developed is to have God's love fully developed in our heart. When we love God, the natural response of love is to honor and seek to please Him - this is the only way to grow into full obedience.

Jesus said - "If you love me - you will keep my commands." He also said "The one who does not love me will not keep my commands." When we are having a problem with obedience - the root of it is a problem with our love for the Lord. The person who fully loves God does not consider obeying Him to be hard - because He loves to do what pleases the Father.

So, my sons, consider your own lives. Is there an obedience problem in your life? Look inside and you will discover that God's love has not been fully developed in your heart. When you see that God's love has not been fully developed in your heart - check to see if you are really living by faith. When faith is working properly it produces love - when love is working properly it produces obedience. This is the only way for the Christian life to really work the way God intended for it to in our lives. We hear - we believe God - we love God - we obey God. The opposite works this way - We hear - we disbelieve God - we love ourselves - we obey our own lusts.

Hope this helps you,

 Dad

The above is taken from a series of letters Alan wrote to our sons several years ago.  It was his desire to put in words a simple approach to teaching them truths that will be foundational in the years to come.