17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
A belief that does not result in actions is not the kind of belief that will get us to heaven, let alone get us through this life. If our faith does not change our actions, it is not faith. This is true of any kind of faith, not just saving faith. If you believe, truly believe, that your house is going to fall down in the next five minutes, what would you do? I can bet you would warn and evacuate all the people, grab the most important items, and stand outside and watch. If you really believed it, you would act. If you believed someone was going to kidnap your child today at school, you would not send your child to school. You would warn the authorities. You would pack the car and get out of town. You would do any and everything to protect your family. If you believe the police are out to get you, you will always be looking over your shoulder to find the police before they find you. Your beliefs change the way you act. If you say you believe there is a heaven and a hell, then you will change the way you live your life to ensure you don’t end up in hell. But the problem is that we do live what be truly believe! Our faith can be discovered by reverse engineering. We can look at our lives and see what we believe. If we are sloppy around the edges of our faith, letting down our guard and allowing sin to take hold, then we believe this is acceptable to a Holy God. If we are doing things in secret we would never do in the open, we believe there is such a thing as secret, that we can hide some sin from God’s presence. If we are not connected to a local church we believe the Scriptures are wrong when they say we should be connected. If we are not treating our spouse as Jesus treated the world, then our faith is somewhere else other than centered on Christ. If you were to go to court charged with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Our faith, what we truly believe, can be seen. What are people seeing in your life? Jesus?
The Arnold Journey 