Pastor Melissa

____A Christian cannot separate faith from works of  charitable love, from deeds of charitable love. Just as you cannot separate my head from my body, without both dying, you cannot separate faith from works of charitable love. You cannot do that. To separate the body from the head kills both the body and the head. The same is true with faith and works of charitable love. If you separate them, they both die.

Now, down deep, James and the Apostle Paul are saying the same thing. The Apostle Paul said that you cannot separate faith from charitable love. The Apostle Paul says that true and genuine faith is active in charitable love, or love for the poor. The Apostle Paul uses the word, agage, for charitable love. In Paul, we hear about agape love; that is, love for the poor and suffering. It would have been so much easier if Paul had said that genuine faith is active in family love.  That sounds better, more palatable. Family love. I have a great family. We have a super family. If Paul would have said, genuine faith is to be active in family love, he would have easily gotten my vote. …. Or, if the Apostle Paul had said, let genuine faith be active in friendship love, and brotherly love, I would have liked that. I have so many good friends. I love my friends. I wish that the Apostle Paul would have said that genuine faith is active in friendship love because I would have easily done that.  The Apostle Paul said, “let faith be active in charitable love.” The word, charitable, is the Greek word for agape love. It is love for the poor, the widows, the orphans, for the oppressed and starving people of life. The Apostle Paul says that you cannot separate genuine faith from acts of charitable love. You cannot separate genuine faith from the love of people who are suffering, poor, and starving. If faith does not result in charitable love, you don’t have faith.