In prayer once, God showed me that we do good works, and God loves us. We stumble and sin against our neighbor, and God loves us. His love is unconditional, and you can never be separated from that love.
And suddenly, I felt freed. I was free from the fear of walking around on eggshells when it came to obedience and the law, the lie that if you make a mistake, you not only run the risk of losing your salvation, but also the love of God himself. In showing me that while he may not be happy with when we sin, it doesn’t change his love for me. No, I didn’t think, “Woohoo! Vegas here I come!” I thought, “if God’s love is unconditional, I don’t have to fear that I may, in a moment of weakness, lose it.” I was free from that fear.
While we are to strive to be the best version of ourselves, God is aware of our imperfections and accepts us as we are, and loves us.
Where the controversy starts is that we are saved through faith and grace alone, but faith and grace without works is dead. That’s very logical to me. If you say that you want to follow Jesus, invite Christ and the HS to dwell within you, it is the HS that begins to change you through Christ’s unconditional love to love your neighbor as yourself.
He also showed me that all he had been asking from me was to accept his love. Hearing a constant message that we are sinners, fallen, God can’t look at us except through the rose coloured glasses of the blood of Jesus, as well as the Church’s obsession on one topic, many times even being told I was hated by God, I loved God, but in thinking me unworthy of love, was shown him holding his arms out with love, but in almost 40 years, I didn’t accept it. And when I did, I was aware that that was all he was asking of me. What I do after that was my decision.
And what I found was, having that love of God, that finally allowed me to love myself, I was then to even clearer and easier love my neighbor. Acting in love - asking someone who looked upset if they were ok, helping someone without asking for something in return, being kind, realizing that my ideas and understanding and reality may be very different from another, and that’s ok. I may learn from it, and it may make my reality a little more accurate. And when in doubt, I pray to the Spirit and seek guidance. But works have become so second nature, I am more like the Sheep that say, “When? When did I see you hungry and feed you? Are you sure that was me? And how could I not offer food to my neighbor if they have none of their own? I would want someone to help me. It’s not even worth mentioning.”
It doesn’t grant you salvation, but if you are serious about following Jesus, that entails loving God by loving you neighbor as yourself. If you are a seasoned Christian, and lack that love, disregard those two commandments, which are the two greatest, then you have missed the point.
Say I have a wife. I may buy her flowers because I know how much she enjoys them. I may write her poetry to share that part of me with her, and express my love in a more lyrical way. I may surprise her by cleaning the house before she gets home or making dinner, as a gift to her.
Does that mean I have earned her love, and she owes it to me? Not at all. I give her all of these expressions of my love, asking for nothing in return, because I have love in my heart for her, and it makes me happy to see her happy.
That’s how I would describe the issue of works. I love my neighbor, even my enemy who curses me, because God loved me first, and it is my way of thanking him. It can be hard sometimes, and if it is, I pray for that kind of love, and receive it to give away. I easily forgive others and a thank you for God forgiving me so freely.
Scripturally, people will argue that with the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, that the goats did not feed someone who was hungry, clothe the naked, because in denying the least, they have denied Christ himself.
Does this mean that you should feed someone who is hungry because “I’m your Father and I said so?” Out of the obligation to maintain your salvation?
No. You do it because you have compassion in your heart, as Christ had compassion for us. You feed the hungry person, because as yourself, if you were desperate for food, you would want someone to help feed you, so you love your neighbor as yourself by doing unto them, for its own sake. The more one takes the opportunity to actively love their neighbor, the more natural it becomes, not even thinking that what you are doing is somehow getting you a gold star, but as the Good Samaritan, you can’t just walk by a man who was beaten, and do nothing. Identifying with the person attacked, you help them without thinking, not needing a thank you, but only making sure they are cared for.
Christ said that a bad tree bears bad fruit, a good tree bears good fruit.
As one matures, and begins to fruit, fruit of the Spirit: love, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
If the person is a seasoned Christian, yet shows anger towards “the world,” condemnation for anyone outside of their congregation, and sometimes within, but forgiving of himself, callousness, self-righteousness, deceit....
Well, that is a sign of a bad tree. They are the most vocal, and seem to think they are the ultimate authority on spiritual matters, and then claim that their opinions are exactly in line with God’s. Any differing opinions are dismissed and the person condemned to hell. They usually lack love, and will make the focal point of Christianity to not sin, versus loving their neighbor actively, so while they may not feed a person is hungry, they are quite proud of themselves for not killing or robbing the hungry homeless person, bragging about how they obey the law.