CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, May 1, 2023 – Christians love to talk about their faith – oh, how they love to talk! But it’s quite another thing when it comes to walking out their faith. They cherry-pick scriptures that assure them all they have to do is “believe” and “have faith” and their eternal reward is guaranteed. Meanwhile, they conveniently overlook the verses about how they’ll be judged by every word they utter, every thought they think, and every deed they do.

They confuse the works of the law (don’t eat this, don’t touch that) with walking out their faith. Those kinds of works have nothing to do with walking out your faith. But works are required, have no doubt about that. God himself requires them of you. In fact, everything that God asks you do to is required of you. Willful submission to God is non-negotiable for continued membership in God’s Kingdom on Earth. Not what you say but what you do shows God your faith. Words without actions to back them up have zero value in God’s economy.

When you walk out your faith, you’re like the son who initially said he wasn’t going to work in the field, but later changed his mind and went. Or you’re like the person who heard the Word and did it, meaning that you built your house on a rock, whereas the person who heard the Word and didn’t do it built his house on sand.

We need to be very careful to distinguish between doing the dead works of the law (don’t eat this, don’t touch that) and walking out our faith. If we don’t walk out our faith, all our declarations of love for God and Jesus are just so much hot air. We’re like the hypocrites who say but do not do.

Don’t be like the hypocrites.

Just before I was born again, I made a choice to forgive someone. God knew that in my heart I’d made that choice. He also knew that even as I made that choice, I didn’t feel forgiveness in my heart for the person I was choosing to forgive; for me, it was a decision of the will, not an emotional response.

But in choosing to forgive that person and subsequently being born-again, I also had to walk out my forgiveness. I had to do certain things the next day to show that my decision was sincere, if not (yet) heartfelt. It wasn’t enough for me simply to agree to forgive that person; I had to walk out the forgiveness in real time. Walking out the forgiveness required me not just to say I was going to do it or to intend to do it, but actually to do it.

And the funny thing was, after I’d done the few things that God asked me to do the next day – when I’d walked out my faith in real time – I finally FELT forgiveness for the person. I felt compassion and love. That was 24 years ago, and the feeling of forgiveness for that poor soul has never left me.

There’s an intellectual and spiritual laziness that’s taken hold of many Christians. So, for instance, instead of reading the Bible for themselves, they rely on being spoon-fed God’s Word by someone else. The problem with being spoon-fed God’s Word is that you have to take everything that person says as Gospel truth. You have to swallow it whole. But not everyone is honest in relaying God’s Word.

Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness are a good example of this. The devil quoted scripture during his temptation (oh, how the devil loves to quote scripture!), but he purposely misapplied it and took it out of context. Jesus was able to refute the devil because he not only knew scripture, he knew it in context and how it should be applied. So when the devil told Jesus he should throw himself off a building because God’s angels are always there protecting him, Jesus responded with the scriptural warning not to tempt God. Yes, the devil was correct in saying that God protects his people through his holy angels, but he was incorrect in saying that God will protect his people if they purposely do something to hurt themselves while relying on God to save them.

Our faith needs to be more than just empty words and recitations of our alleged beliefs. If we don’t back up what we claim to believe with actions – that is, if we don’t walk out our faith – then our claim has no validity. God’s a heart-reader, not a lip-reader. He knows who intends to follow through by walking out their faith and who’s just mouthing words for public approval.

We need to walk out our faith in God’s timing and under God’s direction. That’s how we make our faith real.