Day 158: Active Faith

"He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not like his father and mother, for he removed the sacred pillars of Baal his father built.  But still he persisted in the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin; he did not depart from it."  4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 3:2-3

I don't know why I don't see passages like this used to explain how faith and actions work.

This passage shows that faith isn't just about a one time confession, and it also shows that one action doesn't make a person faithful.  Perhaps another example I can think of is how the gym works.  I can go to the gym every single day but not do exercise.  Of course, there's the simplest explanation: I just walk in and talk on the phone or to others the whole time rather than exercise.  There is, though, another, and that is I can go into a gym and do exercises, but I might not be doing them correctly or in a constructive/productive manner.  One can spend hours in the gym and come out no different or worse, even.

In the same way, we can walk into church and come out unchanged.  We can go through the motions and not engage with God.  I see this with many musicians who work in churches.  I know many people who do church music just to perform and/or just to get a check.  Those people can spend hours upon hours either in the church for rehearsals or even just with the music and still come out not having taken a single word to heart.  King Jehoram is an example of this apathy to faith.  He removed the idols in Israel, but was still evil.  If this took place today, I'm sure many of us would accuse him of having done so just as a publicity stunt.

As Christians, we are called to action at every moment, and our goal is the same one as always: show love to all of those who need it.  Jesus came into the world to show us love, and he has called all of us to show that same unconditional love to each person.  We can't just live our life on the sidelines.  We need to be active in our faith to love.