Note: I posted this originally on another blog which you can see linked here.
Imagine walking along the side of the road and you notice a man laying in the ditch. He is alive but calling for help. You do not have your cell phone. Suddenly you feel anxious and afraid as you allow your mind to wander, “What if this is a setup?” and “I could get hurt” or “I am not a professional.” You even reason that you could be sued by trying to assist the person if something goes wrong. You reason against helping in the immediate and rather keep walking to look for another person to help or an authority to assist. And as you walk along you imagine the likelihood of someone else coming along and helping that poor man before you even return. Before you know it, you forget about the incident all together.
This modern rendition of the Good Samaritan is a continuation of the troubles between faith and virtue. I am here to make the case that despite any modern legal reasons as to why you have to help a person in need, man’s law has nothing on the commandments of God over His people. Anyone who fails to help a person, no matter the danger, holds themselves to being the priest or the Levite in the parable found in Luke 10:25-37. In fact, all who call themselves Christian are not only being unvirtuous but committing sin rather than living out the callings of Christ if they fail to help.
Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but none that precludes our Christian responsibility to help in some form. Moreover through this series I will explain that while we are indeed saved through Faith Alone, By Christ Alone, your salvation is the beginning point, not the end. Christians are called to be a people of faith, a people of works, and a people of community.
A Saved Faith Is A Working Faith
The Apostle James states in his Epistle,
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead (James 2:14-17).
Living a double life of any kind, one that appears Christ like outwardly but inwardly is knee deep in sin without repentance, is a life that is only fooling yourself. God knows the truth. Christ warns us of serving two masters (Matthew 6:24). You either serve Christ or the world.
Our good works are the demonstration of our faith and for the glorification of God through loving others and loving God (Matthew 22:36-40). At the moment of our salvation we no longer live for ourselves but for Him. And in that commitment of faith, virtue takes its role in our lives. The Apostle’s Peter, James, and Paul all demonstrate this means of living by virtue, faith, and community. Christ throughout the Gospels states it clearly to those who can truly see and hear Him. All throughout the scriptures, as I will demonstrate, one can find the synergy of faith and works making the wholeness in our commitment to Christ through our community of believers.
Through this series on virtue, using the scriptures, I will layout how the virtues are the pillars of the faith and can be used in our prayer life, actions, and testimony.
Thanks be to God.