I equate it with being a member of a team (seeing how this is football season). If the coach tells you to learn the plays or get in condition or be at practice and you never do these things, then are you really on the team.
If Christ tells us to do certain things and we don’t do them, were we ever really on the team.
I agree you just can say I’m saved and then go on your merry little way. There should be some outward evidence of an inward conversion.
However, none of those things I do saves me. Salvation is from Christ and Christ alone. Nothing we can do to add to that.
I do find it interesting though that when I ask my Catholic friends how do they identify their religious affiliation they usually respond as Catholic....not Christian. It’s almost as if Catholicism trumps Christianity. It might be a semantic thing.
If Christ tells us to do certain things and we don’t do them, were we ever really on the team.
I agree you just can say I’m saved and then go on your merry little way. There should be some outward evidence of an inward conversion.
However, none of those things I do saves me. Salvation is from Christ and Christ alone. Nothing we can do to add to that.
Thank you for this clear explanation of how works should accompany our faith, though they are not the basis of our faith.
I have little patience with those who seemingly glory in their arrogant, prideful attack on those outside of their own narrow, parochial understanding of Christianity.
If the Pentecostals were condemned - or the Baptists, or the Orthodox or any other legitimate church were roundly attacked, I would hope that I would defend them as well.
We live in a day when Christianity is coming under increasing attack, and it is thus all the more important that believers cease from turning our guns on each another in a destructive "circular firing squad" and support one another against the real Enemy.