If works are worthless, who cares? It's going to make no difference to my eternal destiny. I'm saved by faith alone. Done and done. Why should I bother? You insinooatin' that works have some value?
I often wonder what the sola fide crowd think when they read the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who was pleasing to God? Not the Levite nor the priest, who presumably believed and had faith but rather, the Samaritan who actually did something and helped the man who had been robbed. Are we therefore to believe that God would not reward him for his charity to his neighbor? I think not for Paul tells us that there are three things, faith, hope and love.........and the greatest of these is love.
Yes Felicity, faith without works, is useless.
**If works are worthless, who cares?**
It is worthless in the realm of justification. That’s where the Papists and various legalistic denominations get it wrong.
The new man will want to do works because of the love showed us. It is evidence to the outside world we are saved, but does nothing to improve our rightstanding before God.