Have you ever wondered, Does Jesus care more about what I believe or about what I do? That’s one of those questions that can’t be answered in a word.
We learn in the Bible of the danger of a “belief” that is only external. We find warnings like Matthew 15:8: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” On the flip side, we also learn in the New Testament that “Faith without works is useless” (James 2:20).
This is not evidence of the Bible contradicting itself but of the Bible teaching that these two are not mutually exclusive. So, what is it that the Bible tells us God is looking for? Scripture seems to suggest both belief and action: faith and works.
In Matthew 6, Jesus used the Sermon on the Mount to emphasize this further by spelling out some of the specific actions that true belief will produce. Jesus speaks of giving, prayer, fasting, and holding a right perspective on our possessions.
The irony of Jesus’ explaining the appropriate actions that flow out of genuine faith is that elsewhere in the New Testament we learn that Jesus is the central ingredient in the faithful production of these behaviors in our lives.
Second Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that the Word of God is able to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us so that we are fully equipped for the work that God created us for. Considering the whole counsel of God, Jesus is identified in John 1 as the living Word of God. Therefore, Jesus does not simply teach us about the behaviors He calls us to, He is the very One equipping us to live out of these behaviors.
In 2 Peter 1, we find this idea spelled out even more directly: “His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).
Jesus is deeply concerned with what we believe and what we do. His expectations are high, but He promises to give us everything we need for both faith and works. This is a promise we can count on.
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