Faith - True or False?

 

ARTICLE BY FATHER FRANCIS MAPLE - LINK HERE 

FAITH:  TRUE OR FALSE?

Mt. 7:21-27

The Sermon on the Mount is greatly revered for it contains many of the most memorable sayings of Jesus.  It begins with the Beatitudes, contains the Lord’s Prayer, and is filled with beautiful expressions of God’s love and care.  But it ends with a stern and troubling warning.  The last section of the famous sermon begins, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.”  What a disturbing thought!

Sometimes goodness is thought of as simply the absence of evil.  Yes, it is good to refrain from doing evil.  A child may be called “good” simply because the child is docile and quiet, making no demands on others.  Defining goodness so passively, however, misses the meaning of goodness.  There is an expression, “Goodness spreads itself.”  In other words it involves moral and ethical thinking and doing.  It involves attitudes and actions that are unselfish and seek the welfare of others.  Goodness in an individual person is sometimes defined as wholeness and integrity.  

The goodness of Jesus was not merely in the absence of evil, nor is it seen primarily in His keeping of the law.  His goodness came from within, from His heart and mind, and it became the spiritual energy and divine purpose with which He lived His daily life.  He not only did good, He was good.  This is where Jesus differed from the religion of the scribes and Pharisees.  Their religion was only external and did not issue from the heart and mind.  This made it superficial.  Jesus’ goodness was in His integrity and consistency.  There was no conflict between what He believed and how He lived.  

Jesus’ first followers called him “Lord,” as His followers have done ever since.   The plain meaning of the word “lord” is to have power and authority over others.  A Lord Chancellor, for example, may have been given the title by a majority of those over whom he rules.  The disciples of Jesus, as individuals, chose to make Him their Lord.  They did so because of their overwhelming experience of Him as deserving of that role.  Consider the enormous difference between someone demanding to be your Lord and Master, and someone proving worthy to be granted such a role in your life. 

In the first century, people came to Jesus for what they could get from Him.  Some followed Him because they hated living under Roman rule and they wanted Jesus to liberate them.  Some followed Him because they were desperately ill.  Others, like the Apostles, followed Him because they believed He was God and accepted Him as their Lord and Master.  People called Jesus “Lord” for all kinds of reasons, only as long as He could solve all their problems.  Sadly, all things considered, Jesus was a huge disappointment in Palestine.  He did not heal everybody.  He did not put food on everybody’s table.  He did not destroy the stifling Roman presence in Palestine.  He did not even live up to the expectations of some of His followers.  This is why so many forsook Him in the end.

Many people call Jesus “Lord.”  But is He really their Lord?  What makes Him their Lord?  Jesus makes it abundantly clear to whom He is a Lord when He said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven.”  

If we follow Jesus simply for the reason of what He can do for us then we should not be surprised when concerns such as the “cost of discipleship” and “taking up our crosses” fade into the background. 

How can we know whether our faith and love in Christ is true or false?  Is it a matter of going public with our faith - talking about it and putting it on bumper stickers?  Many people do these things for whom Christ is not actually Lord.  Jesus says the supreme evidence of genuine faith is doing the will of God.  Doing God’s will is loving Him with your whole being and loving your neighbour as yourself.  This is it in its entirety.  We must do the will of God.  If we aren’t living it, we don’t really believe it.

Lord Jesus, may we be like You, spreading goodness wherever we go and doing the will of our Father in Heaven.  Only then will we have entry into Your kingdom.