Faith and Works

Okay, this post is an "in your face".

There are times when the apostle Paul gets "foolish" and vindicates his own behavior. He has to be forced to it by concern for the welfare of his listeners...

Well, I did some of that over there in a comment war with an anonymous commenter. I got fiery and I got kinda intense.

But the hill I'm ready to die on is about faith and works.

You see, it's simple. Acts 26. Paul preaches that you have to bear the fruit of repentance.
Jesus presents the message town to town, "turn around your living--the kingdom of God is at hand"...
James slaughters our pride and exposes the truth: show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by what I do...

What? What does this undermine?
It undermines our complacency.

As for devotion to serving the poor... I can't believe that someone thinks it's in any way detrimental to the Christian message to advocate us all getting closer to that... I can't believe that it's offensive to express that we need to go further in our efforts to love... that we need to release more of our stuff... that we need to relinquish our hold on the world...

I know that it seems kinda pollyana, but it's not. We have some devastating scriptures weighing on us. there is a judgment coming, and anyone who claims the name of Christ needs to not only cease from sinning, but turn to Love and Justice and walk out a new righteousness. This one comes from faith and is accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit to walk it out.

Think about this. This is so simple. This isn't legalism. We're not advocating earning God's favor. We're just standing in the line, calling, "repent".