Faith and works and loving God

I recently had a question about the relationship between faith and works, and why we don't emphasize loving Jesus more. Here was my response:

Excellent question! Jesus says the first and greatest command is to Love to Lord our God with all our heart and soul and strength (Mark 12:28-34//Matthew 22:34-38). He also says we must love him more than anything else, more than Father, Mother, wife children or our own life (Luke 14:26-27//Matthew 10:37-39; Matthew 16:24-27, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). To love Jesus above all else IS to love the Lord our God with all our heart. Paul says that if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be accursed! (1 Corinthians 16:22).

I think Child Evangelism Fellowship is a wonderful organization but they COMPLETELY missed it with their little song that says, "Faith is just believing what God says he will do." NO! Even the demons believe what God says he will go....and they tremble! (James 2:19).

Others define "faith" as the kind of trust one has in a chair...it’s not enough to believe the chair exists, you have to trust it enough to sit in it. That view is a little closer to the truth—but it also misses the mark. It is entirely possible to sincerely "trust" that Jesus is going to take you to heaven but have a heart and life that is in complete rebellion against God. Jesus will say, "depart from me, I never knew you, you workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:21-23)!

Faith has an intellectual element. If we don’t intellectually believe that Jesus died for our sins there is little reason to trust him. If we don’t believe he actually, bodily rose from the dead, there is little reason to believe him. Faith also has a commitment element. It is not enough just to believe the facts. We also have to turn to him alone for salvation—not to Jesus and Muhammad, not to Jesus and ourselves, not to Jesus and our good works. We must trust Jesus alone. But faith also has a “heart” element.

When someone is saved, the Holy Spirit changes their heart. He takes away a heart or mindset of rebellion against God and replaces it with a heart of love-devotion-dedication-commitment to Jesus Christ. I think this is what Paul means by "the mind of the Spirit in Romans 8:5-8.

This "change of heart" is called repentance/faith. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. Faith looks at the heart of loving devotion to Jesus Christ. Repentance is the change of heart from a heart of rebellion against God to a heart of loving devotion for Christ. Regeneration is about the new heart given by the Holy Spirit.

Repentance/faith/regeneration does not mean we will be perfect people. Unfortunately we still fail. But it does mean that faith produces works. Faith produces a change. Even for the repentant thief on the cross who couldn’t do any works, his repentance or change of heart was demonstrated by his rebuke of the other thief (Luke 23:29-43). Faith produces works (James 2:14-26).

Paul and James were not in contradiction. Paul begins and ends the book of Romans with the phrase, "the obedience of faith"—which, I think is accurately translated, "the obedience that comes from faith" (Romans 1:5; Romans 16:26). I think this is an “enclusio” meaning that the entire book is about the obedience that comes from faith. In the middle of the book, Paul writes about those who “obeyed from the heart” (Romans 6:17). Paul even says God will judge people “according to what they have done” (Romans 2:6-9). Paul agreed that faith produces works (cf. Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

How could it be otherwise? If someone genuinely loves and is dedicated to Jesus (faith) with all their heart, how could they not want to please him--not in order to be saved, but because of his great love for us! (Someone in our chapel one time said we should stop trying to please God! He was ignorant of Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:9; First Thessalonians 2:4; First Thessalonians 4:1; Hebrews 11:6; Romans 8:8).

One of the characteristics of being saved is a heart that genuinely wants to please God. Jesus said, if we love him we would keep his commandments (John 14:15). If we genuinely love the Lord and want to please him, how could that not—through the power of the Holy Spirit—began to change our lives?

The relationship between faith and works is like a wood fire in a fireplace. If there is a wood fire in the fireplace there will always be smoke coming out of the chimney (unless, of course, the chimney is blocked). Smoke is a natural byproduct of a wood fire just as works are the byproduct of faith. But it is the fire that heats the house—not the smoke. It is faith that saves, not the works.

If you want to read more about obedience and loving/pleasing God, please check out my blog post on Pleasing God.

The bottom line is that I think you are absolutely right. We have neglected to emphasize the loving God/loving Jesus aspect of faith.

The gospel of love and tolerance

Last Sunday while on vacation, I attended the church of a well known pastor, theologian and author for whom I have a great deal of respect. I even use one of his books as a textbook for one of my classes. But last Sunday, I was disappointed in what appeared to me to be a very one-sided sermon.

The pastor—whom I will not name—began by quoting from a passage in Matthew 25 in which Jesus says that when you help those who are hungry or in prison, you are helping Jesus. This was illustrated with a poem that brought home the point in a very powerful way. So far, so good!

Then the pastor made the point that we need to have radical, unconditional love—first, for ourselves. We need to believe all the things the Bible says about us—about how God loves us and gave himself for us and how he accepts us unconditionally.

And then, loving ourselves unconditionally, we need to love others with the same radical, unconditional love. The pastor talked about loving the unlovable; the homeless and addicts, etc. He talked about loving even the Taliban and very evil criminals—he gave a particularly heinous example. We need to see absolutely everyone as people for whom Christ died.

The pastor then argued that we need to stop the critical and judgmental voice in our heads which finds fault with others. We need to stop trying to “fix” their issues. This need to “fix it” has caused endless bloodshed down through the ages. It is God’s job to fix it and we need to stop trying to do it for him.

The sermon was powerful, even moving some to tears.

I agreed with the basic point the pastor was making: Christians need to see everyone as people for whom Christ loved so much he was willing to die. We need to reach out to these people in love and compassion regardless of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual preference or sin. We need to be very careful about judgmentalism and self-righteousness. On this much, we agreed.

On the other hand, I had several significant disagreements with the sermon—and I take time to point these out only because this pastor’s sermon seems to be the emerging paradigm of modern Christianity. So I’m not just disagreeing with this one pastor. I’m disagreeing with the whole model presented by this emerging “Christian” paradigm.

First, the pastor seemed to be unwittingly replacing the God of the Bible with a modern politically correct, nonjudgmental god of unconditional love and tolerance. According to this pastor, following this god means putting to death the “demonic” critical, judgmental spirit that infects so many brains.

I’m sure the pastor was talking about the fault-finding and judgmental attitude of many people who feel the need to critique and condemn every little area of other people’s lives. Unfortunately, in the absolute, unqualified sense in which this pastor presented this point, I found myself thinking that the prophets, the apostles and even Jesus himself would have stood condemned under this pastor’s criticism.

Elijah, for example, mocked the prophets of Ba’al, saying that perhaps their god was in deep thought, sleeping, or “relieving himself” (1 Kings 18:27, ESV). Isaiah mocked those who cut down a tree and used part to cook their meal and worshiped the other part which they had crafted into an idol! Jude compared his opponents to “unreasoning animals” (Jude 10). In Second Peter the author calls his opponents “arrogant,” and likens them to dogs returning to their vomit and pigs wallowing in mud (2 Peter 2:10-22).

In Galatians Paul sarcastically comments that those who want to require circumcision for salvation should just go ahead and cut the whole thing off (Galatians 5;12). And according to the Book of Acts, Paul was “filled with the Holy Spirit” when he turned to a sorcerer and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness” (Acts 13:10). Finally, Jesus called some of his opponents “blind guides,” “hypocrites,” “whitewashed tombs,” “snakes,” “vipers,” and sons of hell (Matt 23:13-36)

It is certainly true that, generally speaking—and probably the vast majority of the time—Christians should “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) but it is equally true that the Bible teaches there also a time for anger. There is a time for righteous indignation, the condemnation of evil and the exposing of false teaching; and this pastor’s sermon seemed to imply that all judgment and all criticism is demonic. That would make the prophets, the apostles and Jesus demonic!

Second, while it is certainly true that God loves people so much that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), the pastor’s sermon left the impression that God is pleased with us regardless of our behavior. While many people may welcome this message, it flies in the face of the very Bible this pastor was purporting to proclaim. The Bible is clear that there are behaviors that please God, and there are behaviors that do not please, God.

Paul, for example, says that he speaks “not to please man, but to please God” (1 Thess.2:4). He urges the Colossians to live their lives “in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Col.1:10). Paul reminds the Thessalonians that he taught them how they “ought to walk [conduct their lives] and to please God” (1 Thess.4:1). He tells the Philippians that their sacrificial gift was “pleasing to God” (Phil.4:18). He tells Timothy that living a peaceful, quiet, godly life “is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Tim. 2:3, cf. 1 Tim.5:3-4). Similarly the author of Hebrews exhorts his readers, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb.13:16). By contrast, Paul writes that “those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom.8:8).

If we truly love God we will want to live a life pleasing to him and will sincerely repent when we fail. In fact, those who really do not want to live a life pleasing to God and do not sincerely repent when they fall, need to follow Paul’s exhortation to examine themselves, to see whether they are really "in the faith" at all (2 Cor.3:15). The impression left by this sermon, however, was that God is perfectly pleased with us regardless of our behavior; and that idea is absolutely foreign to the Bible.

Third, we really need to be careful about throwing the word “love” around without defining it. Doing this allows every listener to fill that vague concept with any content they want. Many people probably associate love with some warm, fuzzy, sentimental feelings. Warm feelings may certainly accompany love, but love is not just warm feelings.

The re-defining of "love" is why so many people conclude that “a loving God” wouldn’t allow suffering; or, “a loving God” would let anyone go to hell. Rather than understanding love in its biblical context, they re-define “love” to fit their preferences, and try to impose their particular definition on the biblical writings.

Defining love requires a context. Biblically speaking, God’s love is defined in terms of statements like “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son” (John 3:16) or “but God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). That is the ultimate expression of God’s love.

Even today understanding the meaning of “love” requires a context. Imagine, for example, that you saw someone jump on a homeless man, violently throwing him to the ground and hitting him in the face so hard that it knocked the homeless man out. Would that be love? Most people would say, absolutely not!

But what if this homeless man were in the process of raping some little girl! If the use of violence was the only way to stop the attack, wouldn’t the use of violence be the loving thing to do?
Some will argue, of course, that this is a rather extreme example, but it illustrates a point. There is often no such thing as undiscriminating love. Sometimes loving one person means taking strong action against another. The police have to deal with this regularly when “love” for a victim may mean violently subduing or even shooting an attacker. Or when a judge shows mercy to some criminal, the judge is often (knowingly or not) demonstrating contempt for this criminal’s victims.

When people don’t think clearly about love, they often support such unloving actions as leniency or release for unrepentant criminals, or some people may even oppose war that is intended to stop genocide, imperialism or mass destruction because they think that war, by definition, is unloving.

The pastor often spoke in such broad generalities as to leave the impression that all Christians should always be loving (whatever that means) to all people regardless of the circumstances. The point is that when the idea of “love” is just flippantly thrown around and left undefined, the result is often worse than meaningless

Third—and this is just expanding on the previous point—the pastor seemed to be blurring (or erasing) the distinction between the responsibilities God gives to individuals as opposed to the responsibilities God gives to governments. You cannot just apply commands given to individuals directly to government, like for example, the command to “turn the other cheek.”

There were undoubtedly members of the police, the military, and the justice system in the pastor’s audience. Was he saying that the police should “turn the other cheek” when confronted with violent resistance? Was the pastor saying that all military conflict is evil and if so, what does that mean for Christians in the military? Should a Christian judge always show leniency and mercy to criminals? The pastor didn’t say this, but this was certainly the impression I got from the sermon.

Such teaching would fly in the face of the very Bible the pastor purports to proclaim. Paul talks about legitimate government authority saying that government is God’s “agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrong doer” (Romans 13:4). Biblically speaking, as a private citizen I do not have the authority to punish a “wrong doer,” but the government does.

Similarly Peter writes about governors who are sent by God “to punish those who do wrong” (1 Peter 2:14). God has not given private citizens the authority to take the law into their own hands by “punishing wrong.” But God has given that authority to governments.

Finally, against all pacifists and anti-war radicals, the writer of Hebrews insists that there are times when some wars are “just.” He writes in glowing terms about Jewish heroes who “became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies,” and who, “through faith conquered kingdoms” and “administered justice” (Hebrews 11:33-34).

Of course that doesn’t mean all wars are just—the vast majority are undoubtedly just plain evil. But it does mean that a sermon which implies that love means never judging, never criticizing, never fighting and always being tolerant of everything, is very unbalanced, misleading and even unbiblical.

In all fairness, however, this sermon was just part of a series the pastor was preaching so he may have covered (or was planning to cover) some of these other aspects in another sermon in the series, which is why I have chosen not to give pastor’s name.

Pleasing God

According to Katharine Jefferts Schori, the head of the Episcopal church, “the Scriptures should not be taken too literally. "We are not handed a rule book and said you must live this way, according to every jot and tittle of these rules." She added, "We're called to wrestle with our faith" (OneNewNow).

That’s funny. The New Testament is filled with commands to live in obedience to the Word of God. I can’t think of a single place where we are “called to wrestle with our faith.” Whenever one of these apostates say we shouldn’t take the Bible too literally, it is usually code for, “We don’t believe or obey this part.” For example, when Paul says, “the works of the flesh are…sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envies, drunkenness, orgies….” the problem isn’t literal vs. non-literal interpretation. The problem is that we are guilty!

I recently wrote an essay on New Testament commands and obedience. I’ve pasted part of it below:

Love for Christ is essential to sanctification because the Word of God ties genuine love for Jesus to obedience. Jesus taught, “If you love me you will keep my commandments” (Jn.14:15). He said that anyone who loves him “will keep my word” (Jn.14:23-24, cf. Jn. 15:10). In fact, according to John, “Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar…” (1 Jn. 2:4)!

It is impossible, however, to obey the Word of our Lord if we don’t know the Word—and it is through the Word of God that we are sanctified. Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth” (Jn.17:17). Paul says that Christ gave himself for his church “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word” (Eph. 5:26, cf. Rom.12:2). The writer of Hebrews even implies that Christians who are not grounded in the Word of God are spiritually immature (Heb.5:13).

Being grounded in the Word of God means thoroughly knowing Scripture as well as you know your favorite movie—the one where you can describe all the scenes, identify the main actors, and quote many of the lines by heart!

James, the half-brother of Jesus and writer of the book of James, would insist, however, that that we are not sanctified simply by reading or hearing the Word alone, but by obeying it! James teaches that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17, 26) and that those who hear the Word of God but do not obey are like people who view their scruffy face in a mirror and walk away without doing anything about it. He says such people are deceiving themselves (Jas. 1:22-25).

James is simply reflecting the teaching of Jesus who said that it was those who hear the Word of God and do it who are his mothers, brothers and sisters (Lk.8:21). In response to a woman who blessed him, Jesus said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it” (Lk.11:28). In fact, Jesus said that it was those who keep his Word who shall not see death (Jn.8:51-52, cf. Jn.8:31). Evangelicals rightly place a great deal of emphasis on Jesus’ command to go into all the world to make disciples but we don’t often hear as much about that fact that making disciples involves “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). We are not really making disciples unless we are teaching people to obey Jesus.

What Jesus taught elsewhere about grace shows, however, that he was not thinking of salvation by works, but rather as Paul would later write, an “obedience that comes from faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26).

Throughout history some people have believed that Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace apart from works contradicted the teachings of Jesus and James on obedience, but this is not true. In a statement that looks like it could have come right out of the book of James, Paul writes, “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified (Rom. 2:13). In fact, many people might be surprised to learn how much emphasis Paul actually places on obedience. For example, roughly half of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians explains how we should live in obedience to God. Virtually the entire book of First Corinthians tells how Christians should live the Christian life; and in what may be regarded as the purpose statement for First Timothy, Paul writes, “I am writing these things to you so that…you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God” (1 Tim.3:14-15).

Paul went so far as to warn his readers that those who practiced such things as sexual immorality, homosexuality, adultery, idolatry, drunkenness, theft, and greed would not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor.6:9-11; cf. Gal.5:16-25). In fact, to his critics who said we should just live in sin to show how gracious God really is, Paul responded, “Their condemnation is just!” (Rom.3:8; cf. 6:1).

This emphasis on obedience is not just found in the teaching of Jesus, James and Paul (as if that weren’t enough) but appears throughout the entire New Testament. John, for example, wrote “…whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (Jn.3:36). The Book of Acts says God has given his Holy Spirit “to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32). The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb.5:9) and both Peter and Jude absolutely lambaste “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (Jude 4, cf. 2 Pet.2).

In other words, the Word of God is not some magic charm that works sanctification simply by meditating on a few verses and waiting for God to speak. Nor does it bring about sanctification even by rigorous scholarly study of the Hebrew and Greek text. Sanctification involves obedience to the Word of God.

Obedience, however, is not a popular topic in modern Christianity. In fact, anyone who would dare to preach biblical obedience too strongly is bound to be attacked as self-righteous, judgmental, and legalistic! The critic will insist that Christians are free from the law and that Christianity is not about rules and regulations but about relationship, compassion and community. The critic may point out that Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all” (Jn.6:63). That’s true, but Jesus immediately follows up with, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn.6:63). The words of Jesus are “spirit and life.” Spirit and Word are not played off against each other but go hand in hand.

But doesn’t Paul say, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor.3:17). Doesn’t Paul insist that “we are released from the law…so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit” (Rom.7:6). Doesn’t he also say, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor.3:6). Isn’t Paul arguing that we are now free from the law and legalism?

Absolutely! But Paul was refuting the false notion that keeping rules, regulations or rituals can make us right before God. In Christ we are free from such legalism, but Paul never taught that we are free to live in sin. For example, in Romans Paul teaches that, “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death,” but in the same letter Paul writes that those who are in the Spirit “put to death” the evil behaviors of the body (Rom.8:13).

Galatians is another letter in which Paul argues so fervently for our freedom from the law writing that we “were called to freedom,” but in practically the same breath he goes on to exhort, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Paul ties the work of the Spirit to obedience saying “if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit” (Gal.5:13-26). Paul then closes his letter to the Galatians with extended exhortations to godly behavior and serious warnings against sin (Gal.5:16-6:10).

The freedom of which Paul speaks is freedom from thinking we have to work or strive to be good enough to merit God’s justification, but for Paul, being called to “freedom” never means freedom to sin and never eliminates the need to walk by the Spirit in obedience to God.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly, however, that this teaching on obedience is not salvation by works but rather an “obedience that comes from faith” (Rom.1:5; 16:26). Just as a wood fire in the fireplace produces the byproduct of smoke in the chimney, so faith produces the works. Works do nothing to save us; they are simply the byproduct of a deep love for Christ working through the power of the Holy Sprit in obedience to the Word of God.

Unfortunately, there are no magic formulas for sanctification. Holiness is sometimes just hard work. For example, Paul says things like: “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (Rom.6:12), “Do not offer the parts of your body to sin” (Rom.6:13). Paul says that just as we once made our bodies available to impurity and wickedness, we must now make them “slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (Rom.6:19). There is really nothing mystical or mysterious about all this. Paul says just do it, or don’t do it as the case may be. We don’t have to contemplate it, pray about it or meditate on it! Just obey it!

Of course this is all very easy to write but often so very hard to obey. In fact, it is nearly impossible to preach or teach on biblical obedience without being painfully aware of how far we personally fall short. While sanctification can be a crisis experience, it is also a long progressive journey. On this journey, temptation can often seem overwhelming. We need to be constantly aware that our “adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet.5:8) and that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against…the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph.6:12).

Paul counsels that we should put on the “armor of God” including the “Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” (Eph.6:17). We may need to be on the lookout for that “way of escape” Paul talks about (1 Cor.10:13) in order to avoid overwhelming temptation. Sometimes we may need to seek someone who will keep us accountable (Jas. 5:16). In more severe cases like, for example, obsessive-compulsive disorders involving sin, Christian psychotherapy or psychiatry may be helpful. When Jesus counseled plucking out an eye or chopping off a hand (Mt.5:29-30; 18:8-9), he was not teaching dismemberment, but as a good teacher he was using hyperbole to make memorable the principle that sin is extremely serious and should be avoided at all costs.

In any case, we always need to pray for the Sprit’s wisdom and power, and we certainly need to sincerely repent when we sin—and we will sin. John writes that “if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn.1:8). The biblical hall of fame is populated with repentant sinners: Moses the murderer, Samson the playboy, David the adulterer, Jonah the rebel, Peter the apostate, Paul the persecutor, etc. Being saved does not mean we never sin but it does mean that when we fall, we do not ignore the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, but sincerely repent and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, strive once again to live a life of obedience which is pleasing to God.

Last year, however, one of our chapel speakers argued forcefully that we should stop striving to please God since we are already accepted and pleasing in his sight. While this is true in a positional sense, it does not change the fact that walking in the Spirit in a life of sanctified behavior is pleasing to God.

Paul, for example, reminds the Thessalonians that he taught them how they “ought to walk and to please God” (1 Thess.4:1). Paul urges the Colossians to live their lives “in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him” (Col.1:10). He tells the Philippians that their sacrificial gift was “pleasing to God” (Phil.4:18). He tells Timothy that living a godly life “is pleasing in the sight of God…” (1 Tim.2:3; cf. 1 Tim.5:3-4). Similarly the author of Hebrews warns, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb.13:16).

Contrary to the leader of the Episcopal Church, the New Testament has quite a bit to say about obeying the Word of God and living a life pleasing to God. She just doesn't like much of what it has to say.