Faith Works

In the passage James 2:14-26, we see James telling us to show our faith by actions, not just by saying we have faith. In Matthew 7, we see that we can recognize a man’s character through his fruits. In Galatians 5:22-23, we see some very important actions that we can show our faith by. They are commonly called the “fruits of the Spirit.”

Many of us learned a little song to help memorize the fruits of the Spirit. What good is it to memorize them if you don’t use them in your life? I’m not talking about being perfect in all of these actions. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m also not encouraging mistakes. I am saying that when we mess up, we must fix our mistakes. If you notice one of these qualities that you are not good at, try to work on it. Make your goal to be better at each of them, one at a time. The fruits are amazing qualities we can show our faith by, and are ways to show the world that our faith works!

The fruits of the Spirit that Paul records in Gal. 5 include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Rather than describing all of them, I want to take some time and look at a very important one. Love is an idea that demands action. First, let’s address the word. There are four different words for love in Greek:

Eros is a romantic love, like when the prince sweeps the princess off her feet and they are married and live happily ever after. Philia is a friendly, brotherly/sisterly love. This is how I feel about and treat my very best friends. Storge is a family love.  My family has a special bond that is stronger than any of my friends. But there’s an even stronger love described in the Bible. Agape, which is selfless, unconditional love.

Here in Galatians 5:22–23, when Paul lists the fruits, the word that he uses for “love” is agape. We need to have agape love in our everyday life to show our faith by action and not just words.

Agape love is the type of love the Bible says God shows for His people. It is selfless and shows much faith. Faith is shown when we do something, not just say or feel it. This kind of love isn’t just a feeling. It’s a choice to show our compassion for others through our everyday actions.

 I want to show you what agape love can look like when we apply it to our everyday life and use it to show faith and be an encouragement in our church family. We can see Jesus as the ultimate example of this kind of love.

Jesus tells a very powerful story to explain what actions of love look like. In Luke 10:25-37 a man was robbed and beaten, and several people who would claim to be “loving” passed by ignoring the man on purpose. Jesus then tells that an unlikely person, a Samaritan stayed and helped a complete stranger because he saw a need and fixed it. This is a tremendous act of selfless love, and this story is an amazing example of the word agape.

Another example is in Luke 23:34, when Jesus is dying on the cross (which in itself shows agape).  Jesus lived a life He shouldn’t have had to live, and more than that, he died a death He shouldn’t have had to die. On top of it all, to the very people that rejected Him and punished Him, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” That is the type of sincere, selfless forgiveness we need to have.

Jesus taught, and Jesus showed actions that matter. Since we claim to follow Jesus, let’s make every effort to identify the fruits that God wants us to bear, and make our faith work like Jesus did!