Mensa Otabil - Faith Works Through Love
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Well, I trust you’re doing well. I trust that you’re overcoming through the name of Jesus Christ. The name of Jesus is above every name, and at the mention of His name, every knee bows. I trust that the problems of life are bowing to the name of Jesus. We’ve been looking at the subject of faith, and we will explore it a little bit more. Many times, when we talk about faith or we talk about a person who has faith, we imagine somebody who is courageous, who is daring. Sometimes, we imagine somebody who brushes people aside, someone a bit rough, and who is not really gentle or kind and loving to people. Does faith require that we become rough? Does faith require that we become disrespectful and brush people aside? We’re going to look at that in our lesson for today.
Galatians chapter 5, verse 6 says, «For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.» I want you to note that phrase: «faith working through love.» The passage is simply saying that God does not relate to us based on our physical features or our cultural features. He does not even relate to us based on religion, so to speak; neither circumcision nor uncircumcision. God relates to us on one basis, and one basis alone: on faith. Then it says, «faith working through love.» So, faith works. But how does it work?
Faith works through love. Now, what does that mean? I will use a natural analogy. Let’s say there is a big electrical plant, a dam or thermal plant. It has a lot of energy, but for the power to move from where it is to the place where it is needed, it needs cables or wires. The power works through the wire. Without the wire, there’s a lot of power, but nothing is moving through. The Bible says that faith works through love. So we can say that faith is like the electrical plant, and love is like a wire. For our faith to have expression, we must learn to walk in love. That means you cannot say that you’re a person of faith and just bulldoze your way through with people, disrespect people’s will, and think that being rough and getting what you want is an expression of faith. No, faith works through love.
Love is normally manifested in two main ways: giving and forgiving. When a person is showing love, they are giving or they are forgiving. So if faith works through love, then for faith to be effective, there has to be giving, and there has to be forgiveness. It is when giving and forgiveness are attached to our faith that our faith has an expression; it has a way of working.
So, faith is powerful; it moves mountains and can turn situations around. It’s important to have a lot of it, but you also need what it must work through—love. For faith to find expression for itself, faith works through love. Love is a transmitter that carries our faith, expresses our faith, and allows our faith to touch people, circumstances, and change situations. So I trust that you will begin to make the connection between faith and love, and when that connection is made, then your faith will really have full expression. I trust that you will put this into practice. Pastor Mensa Otabil, Shalom, peace, and life to you.