Faith And Love
"In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." Galatians 4:6
Here is the law of Christ's church and kingdom. This
is the believer's rule of life. And this must be the principle by which we
function as a church. "This is his commandment, that we should believe on
the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as he gave us
commandment" (I John
1. WE LIVE BY FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. "The Just shall live by faith." First and foremost, this means that we have
salvation and life by faith in the Lord our Redeemer. We trust his righteousness
as our only righteousness before God. And we trust his shed blood as our only
cleansing from sin. Child of God, ever bear in mind
that our only acceptance is in the Beloved.
But, this also means that we live in dependence upon Christ alone. We
depend upon him to supply all our needs. We depend upon him to give us
direction and to protect, uphold, and strengthen us. Not only do we trust
Christ to save us, we trust Christ to sustain us. We go on believing on the
name of God’s Son Jesus Christ.
2. ALL TRUE FAITH WORKS BY
LOVE. Faith is an active, working grace. Every true believer loves Jesus
Christ. His life is governed by this love. "We love him because he first
loved us." We love his person, his righteousness, his Word, his will, his
ways, and his kingdom. The child of God is not a rebel. He lives in loving
submission to King Jesus. And where there is true faith there is also a love
for the brethren. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if
ye have love one to another." Love is the bond of
perfection. Love is that bond which knits us together giving us strength and
peace. Brethren, as we love Christ, let us love one another.
If God will grant us this faith which works by love, everything else
will fall into place.
Don Fortner