Thursday, August 03, 2006

Faith and Deeds

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds."

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
James 1:19

7 comments:

msingh said...

ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਕਰਣੀ ਕਾਰ ਕਮਾਵੈ ॥
ਤਾ ਇਸੁ ਮਨ ਕੀ ਸੋਝੀ ਪਾਵੈ ॥
ਮਨੁ ਮੈ ਮਤੁ ਮੈਗਲ ਮਿਕਦਾਰਾ ॥
ਗੁਰੁ ਅੰਕਸੁ ਮਾਰਿ ਜੀਵਾਲਣਹਾਰਾ ॥2॥

Pannaa 159

The Gurmukh practices doing good deeds;
thus he comes to understand this mind.
The mind is like an elephant, drunk with wine.
The Guru is the rod which controls it, and shows it the way. ||2||

Anonymous said...

This means that my offerring to drive mumma and dad up to Leeds and back on the same day wasn't such a bad idea.

So I will be practicing karam and dharam... [I'll be praying for directions when I get lost in the town centre and dad looses it!] (",)

Sorry but you know this is what I do best... bring it all down to a stoooopid level :oP

seriously though good subject - nice post.

msingh said...

Lol! satvinder ji, I feel almost tempted to chip in to help you buy that sat nav (this will kill two birds with one stone, not only will you not get lost, so your dad won't lose it). On behalf of the older 'syane' bande I can only offer you sahbash and ashirwad for your sterling sewa.

I suppose it boils down to the maxim "action speaks louder than words."

I wonder what people will think if I told them that I have a copy of the New Testament at home?

Anonymous said...

but if I get the sat-nav then I won't be able to practice dharam... I won't be "praying" for directions (",) BTW thanks for the blessings but dad made other arrangements... haha wonder why?!

I think it's really nice that you chose to share overlaps rather than differences in religious beliefs. So looks like we're both in the firing line now (",)

Take care veer ji have a great w/e.

Anonymous said...

MSingh veer ji...

Gurufateh

You smiling? Otherwise I'll tell fly baby (",)

msingh said...

hope you are doing good satvinder ji, fly's too good, she's just updated her blog.

Have to say the gatka player has taken some marvelous pictures of her.

Waheguru

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