My point
may be even a bit tighter than what you're saying. Obedience is part of genuine faith - meaning if we genuinely believe God is God, then we also have a mental/spiritual predisposition to obeying Him. Lord, I believe you are God, so tell me your will, I know who You are / I am ready to obey You.
Faith/Obedience is a mentality that is predisposed to do and does God's will. It is a mindset of submission ready to work.
There is no genuine faith that is not obedient faith - faith/obedience.
From there, we typically write James' version of the faith & works discussion as faith + works, but this doesn't accurately and entirely represent what he says. In James2:15-16 he sets up an example of faith at work, then:
NET James 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself.
- Re: "have" - the way I read this it really is not saying faith + works. It's saying faith has works - faith possesses works - faith contains works - works are a part of faith.
- Re: "by itself" - this phrase is most literally "according to itself" - especially when combined with "have," it's again telling us something about the faith James is talking about - it's faith that possesses works as part of itself - it's faith that in accordance with itself has works.
- IOW, this [genuine] faith is faith that possesses works as part of itself - works are not an add on - works are part of genuine faith - just as obedience is part of genuine faith.
- This is the Faith OF Jesus Christ - the Genuine Faith that we have being in Christ - it is Him living His Faith in and through us and it has intrinsic to it obedience and works.
- This Genuine Faith in us is submission to God - predisposed to obedience - mentally obedient - ready to be exercised in faithful obedience doing works.
- We come to this in its initial state when we believe/obey God's Gospel of His Son as He commands us to do - then in mental, in the heart, faith/obedience, we are ready to do His will - to do the works He created us to do.
- Genuine Faith has to do works because works are inherent in Genuine Faith.
“My point may be even a bit tighter than what you're saying. Obedience is part of genuine faith - meaning if we genuinely believe God is God, then we also have a mental/spiritual predisposition to obeying Him. Lord, I believe you are God, so tell me your will, I know who You are / I am ready to obey You. “
yeah I think my point is we have to do this to ever learn any of the attitude your talking about this is what I’m saying
“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:27-30 KJV
there was a time I was a kid at 30 thought I had figured all of it out…..then at 70 I realized something beautiful about our God . I looked back to when I was thirty and began to count all the times I did wrongs and said wrong and messed up and fell down and fell apart and struggled and toiled and failed ………and I realized he’s never left me never forsaken me he’s always remained with me in my lowest and worst times . Times I can’t even pretend I was obeying him times I was still rebelling and times I didn’t know anything that I now know in my 70s
obedience really is a key point but it’s not the whole story it’s a fruit of the belief that comes when we begin to really hear his word in the gospel forninstance when we begin to learn things like this parable it creates a need obedience in our mind just by coming to Jesus and hearing his word
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
Matthew 7:24-27 KJV
his word teaches us as we grow up to obey him it’s not something we can force others to believe and do Jesus took a rebel and taught him about obedience but he accepted the sinner well before they even knew what righteousness truly was
We agree about obedience to Jesus and the gospel it comes down to how we treat other people that’s what Jesus teaches mostly how to treat other people even when they aren’t treating us good . The gospel is centered upon that matter .