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From: rcfec@westminster.ac.uk (James Holland)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Help
Message-ID: <Apr.24.01.09.03.1993.4248@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 93 05:09:04 GMT
Sender: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu
Organization: University of Westminster
Lines: 41
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <Apr.21.03.26.51.1993.1379@geneva.rutgers.edu> lmvec@westminster.ac.uk (William Hargreaves) writes:
>Hi everyone, 
>	   I'm a commited Christian that is battling with a problem.  I know
>that romans talks about how we are saved by our faith not our deeds, yet
>hebrews and james say that faith without deeds is useless, saying' You fools,
>do you still think that just believing is enough?'

some deleted

>Now I am of the opinion that you a saved through faith alone (not what you do)
>as taught in Romans, but how can I square up in my mind the teachings of James
>in conjunction with the lukewarm Christian being 'spat-out'
>
>Can anyone help me, this really bothers me.

Dear Will,

I've never replied on this thing before so I hope it gets thru ok.
I had a few thoughts!:

"Faith on its own, if not accompanied by action is dead" - James 2:17

Faith is both belief and action.
If I say that I am a great swimmer but I never go swimming, am I really a
swimmer? and will people believe that I am?
Likewise if I say I'm a Christian but I never talk to God, am I really a
Christian? My faith is demonstrated by my action. The fact that we talk to
God proves we have faith. Satan believes in God but does not follow Him!

In a similar vein, I have recently been challenged by 1John2:3-6
v3 says "We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands"
I find this verse quite encouraging as it could imply that 'if we have
come to know Him, then we'll obey His commands' cos He lives within us and
we cannot help but obey what He says.
I tend to feel that as we daily submit ourself to God He will keep changing
us into the likeness of Jesus and His fruit and works will be automatically
produced in our lives.

Hope this helps.

James Holland (rcfec@westminster.ac.uk)
