In the
Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!
FAITH
& WORKS
The Gospel of Jesus Christ contains
the eternal truth for mankind, because it is a revelation of God directed
toward mankind for salvation. God fully revealed Himself in Jesus Christ our
Lord, but the Gospel Reading which we hear each and every Sunday, without a
doubt, contains a teaching concerning both, faith and works. These two concrete
realities are related, and together they constitute a solid basis for our
Christian belief. A true Orthodox Christian is someone who believes in the
right things, and, accomplishes his faith by good works according
to the teachings of the Gospel. The fruit of our faith, or for that matter the
fruit of any faith, is evidenced in the works produced by that faith. Saint Paul
The first Bishop of Jerusalem, Saint
James, elaborates further on this point in his Universal Epistle. The Epistle
of Saint James, unlike any other document in the New Testament, speaks plainly
about true faith, and more importantly, it articulates the importance of good
works as proof of the true faith. According to Saint James, faith
and good works are inseparable, especially when he says, “For as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” James 2:26.
According to our Lord’s teaching, God’s judgment will be based on the kind of
works that we do. Our Lord clearly states that, “those who have done good will
rise to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil will rise to the
resurrection of condemnation” Saint John’s Gospel 5:29.
What this boils down to is simple: The
Lord desires for us that we should not be like the hypocrites which he
condemned on several occasions. A hypocrite is someone who says or believes in
one thing and does another. If we believe in love, and yet we exercise hate,
that makes us hypocrites. One cannot say that God is love and yet acts in a
hateful way toward others. If God is love, and we believe in God, we should act
toward others in a loving way. As Saint
John
Finally, in retrospect, what is often
said in the secular world makes a lot of sense in here. You are all familiar
with the saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” This saying applies to
faith and works as well: Faith without works is dead, and works without faith
are dead also. “Someone will say, ‘you have faith and I have works;” show me
your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” Saint
James 2:18.
