Faith Archives - Pastor Rich Eddy

Unanswered Prayer?

Last night I had a dream. It was a recurring one of sorts, in which I am leading worship but am unprepared for it. I don’t have my robes, haven’t picked what hymns to sing, haven’t written a sermon – you get the idea. A pastor’s nightmare! Especially when the congregation slips away while I’m trying to get myself together.

Except, in this dream, I actually knew what I was going to preach. The sermon formed fully in my mind, so when I suddenly awoke from my dream I had a smile on my face. I knew what my next blog would be!

In my sermon, I would begin by telling you that like you, I have times that I am disappointed with God. Not that I would want any other God, but that there are times when my prayers – even fervent ones, go unanswered. I pray that someone I know will be healed of some dread disease, but they get worse, until they die. Or some handicap gets worse, crippling the person. Or even that some newborn suffers birth defects and faces multiple surgeries to lead a somewhat normal life. Or an eagerly anticipated child is stillborn.

There were times I was sure our prayers would be answered – when multiple people prayed, when we anointed the sick person with oil (as per James 5:14-15- “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.”) Once, the person went into remission, only to die soon after.

So, we complain to God “Why don’t you do what we ask! We don’t ask for much! Just this one healing!” We join with the complaints of the psalmist and cry:

Psalm 56:1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me.

Psalm 3:1-2 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.”

Psalm 6:6-7 I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eye wastes away because of grief; it grows weak because of all my foes.

Psalm 13:1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalm 69:1-3 Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.

Yes, these (and many other psalms) come to mind when God doesn’t answer our prayers as we want. But even when psalms cry out to complaints to God, they usually end with declarations like: “salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people!” (Psalm 3); “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” (Psalm 13); and “Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” (Psalm 69). So, how do all these complaints to God end us praising him anyway?

What do the psalmists know about God that we need to keep in mind?

God is God. He is the one in charge, and he does everything according to his will. You can not make God do anything. He can not be tempted, bullied, controlled, or bargained with. James 1:13 says, “God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” and Ephesians 1:11 says, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
Even the lifespan of everyone is set by God: Psalm 90 says we are to “number our days,” and Psalm 39:4 “Show me, LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” Job 14:6 declares, “Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.” And Jesus reminded us in Matthew 6:27, “And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?“
God sees the end of things from the beginning. He knows how everything will end, and how changes would effect everything. Isaiah 46:10, says God “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” We see what we want, but God sees the result of our getting what we want. What looks good to us, may in God’s eyes be the worst that could happen to us.
God has an eternal perspective. God may, unknown to you, use your suffering to reach other people with his gospel. The Christian martyr, Telemachus, died while trying to stop a gladiator fight, and led to the emperor outlawing future gladiatorial contests. Father Damien, a missionary to the lepers on Molokai, failed in his mission until he caught leprosy, then saw his mission succeed.
God may already be putting things in motion to answer our prayer without our knowing it. He doesn’t need to reveal all he is doing; we don’t need to see or approve all his efforts. Until we see the final results, we are to be patient and have faith.
God disciplines those he loves. Sometimes, the harsh outcomes we are experiencing comes directly from God as a blessing in disguise. This apparent contradiction is revealed in Deuteronomy 8:5: “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” Also, Hebrews 12:6 says, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Hebrews 12:11 sums up the benefit of the Lord’s discipline: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.“
Only God has the power to do what we ask for. He is omnipotent. We look to him as the grantor and author of all our needs. Like the hymn, “I sing the mighty power of God who fill the earth with food”* he provides all our needs. He can creates something from nothing, as Romans 4:17 says, he “calls into existence the things that do not exist.” He knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8), and gives us good things instead of bad: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?” (Luke 11:11).

So we keep praying, making our needs known to God, submitting ourselves prayerfully to him, whether or not we see immediate answers to our prayers. Because he is our God, the source of our life and our salvation. To him only go our prayers. From him only come the answers! And that, is no dream!

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: James 4:1-11.

* Isaac Watts, I Sing the Mighty Power of God, pub. 1715

What Would Saint Patrick Do?

A number of years ago (just like this year), St. Patrick’s Day fell on a Sunday. As I was scheduled to preach that Sunday, I told my Senior Pastor, Pastor Deuel, that I planned to preach about Saint Patrick. He asked why, saying “We’re not Roman Catholic.” To which I replied, “Neither was Patrick!” So, even though he shook his head, I did in fact preach a first-person sermon, a monologue, that Sunday about the patron saint of Ireland.

Of course, the sermon was actually about the Gospel; Saint Patrick was only the vehicle for presenting the Gospel, which his own words and writings show he would have completely endorsed. To know why Patrick’s life was all about the Gospel, it would be helpful to remember some of the details about his life and why he came to be called a saint.

First, we recognize that Patrick was neither Roman Catholic nor even Irish. Patrick was born a Romanized Briton named Patricius in the 5th Century AD. At age 16 he was captured by Irish raiders who took him to Ireland to work as a slave in a pig farm. While slaving for six years, he became more devout in his Christian faith. Then one night he dreamed that a ship was ready to take him home, so he escaped and found the boat and sailed back to England. He then studied and was ordained as a missionary. Again he had a dream, in which a man handed him a letter called, “The Voice of the Irish.” Patrick later wrote that he seemed to hear a certain company of Irish beseeching him to walk once more among them. “Deeply moved,” he says, “I could read no more.” Therefore, he returned to the land and people of his slavery and brought them the freedom of Jesus Christ. He became their bishop and spent the rest of his life preaching, teaching, and baptizing them, though often opposed and threatened by kings and their pagan priests.

As I said, we celebrate not the person named Patrick, but rather the Gospel which he took to the Irish people. So how does knowing Patrick’s life help us to know and spread the gospel, too? We could ask, “What would Patrick do?” Consider the following:

Though enslaved and treated harshly, he did not surrender to despair, but used his experiences among the Irish to serve the Lord. Indeed, it was his enslavement which created in him the heart to evangelize his former oppressors.There are two passages in the Bible which encourage us not to be defeated by adversities, but to see in those conditions the benevolent hand of God.
- Near the end of Genesis, we read of Joseph’s rise from slave to second in command of Egypt after prophesying to Pharaoh of a coming famine. In his elevated position, Joseph was able to stockpile enough food for many people to survive the famine. Later, Joseph confronted his brothers who had sold him into slavery. Though they feared retribution for their actions, he told them, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20).
- In Romans 8:28, Paul teaches the same principle, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Rather than cursing the misfortunes that befall us, we should pray to discern how God may use the situation to bless us or others.
He held no hatred toward his captors, but rather forgave and sought to bless them with the Gospel. Jesus told us not to hate our enemies, but to forgive and love them. In Matthew 5:43-44, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. . .” Patrick had every right to hate the Irish and avoid going back to save them, but he gave up that right out of love and obedience to Christ. Likewise, we will meet people we just cannot stand, who have wronged us by word or action. Yet Christ calls on us to forgive them and seek to do them good, rather than evil. Do as Jesus commanded: “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.” (Luke 6:27-29).
Patrick persevered, though he doubted his ability. In his writings, Patrick confessed that even as he returned to Ireland after escaping, he had serious doubts about his abilities to preach and evangelize the Irish people. He felt inadequate to the task at hand, but he went ahead, and as a result he planted churches and converted many to the glory of God. This is a great example to all of us, most of whom also feel inadequate to the task of proclaiming the Gospel to those around us. Those who haven’t gone to seminary may be afraid they don’t know enough; those of us who went may feel overwhelmed by the immensity of the task. Soon after I began my internship, I was called to the home of a man who had died. When I arrived, his widow called the grandkids into the room and told them that Pastor Eddy would tell them about what happened to their grandpa. At first I panicked inside, feeling inadequate to the task, until I heard a voice inside saying, “What do you think I have called you to do?” With that rebuke in mind, I sat down with the children and we talked about life and death and heaven (and whether there are Taco Bells there!).
Snakes. Okay, so it is only a legend that Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland. Scientific articles are happy to point to Ireland’s climate and isolation from the European mainland as the REAL reasons the island is free of snakes (except as pets and zoo exhibits). But there is another meaning to that legend, and that is the connection of snakes to Satan, the original snake in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3 and Revelation 12:9 – “that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan.”). The island was under the control of Satan and those who worshiped him through pagan gods. By bringing the Gospel, Patrick overcame the angry opposition of the pagans, who threatened to kill him, with the freeing truth of the Gospel. In that sense, he “drove the snakes” from Ireland by replacing them with Christ. We must expect opposition from spiritual powers when we do God’s work, but we must not fear that opposition, knowing that “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Shamrocks. Okay, probably another legend, but it is said that Patrick taught about the Trinity using the three leaves of a shamrock combining on one stem. Whether true or not, we know two things: First, Patrick did believe in the Trinity, beginning a poem with the words. “I bind unto myself today, the strong name of the Trinity: three in one and one in three.”* And second, Patrick did not invent the Shamrock Shake, available at McDonald’s since 1970. (Besides, McDonald is more likely Scottish than Irish.)

So there you have it. Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day, but as you eat your corned beef and cabbage, washed down with a Shamrock Shake, remember the reason for the season. Consider what Saint Patrick would do, and use his example in your life as a Christian.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.**

Read: Genesis 50:15-21.

*From the hymn known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” which is #188 in our Lutheran hymnal (LBW).

** In Irish: An Tiarna beannaigh tú agus tú a choinneáil, An Tiarna a dhéanamh ar a aghaidh a Shine ar tú, agus a bheith gracious a thabhairt duit. Tógfaidh an Tiarna suas a ghnúis ort, agus síocháin a thabhairt duit. Amen. (I can’t begin to pronounce this, so I will stick with English.)

Of Groundhogs and Other Superstitions, Part 2 – Reprise

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, which got me thinking about the part that superstitions play in our “modern” and “enlightened” times. Even though we use the term “superstitious” in a derogatory sense, we still have many superstitions today.

In Part One of my musings on that topic, I wrote that there are, generally speaking, two kinds of superstitions. The first, which I called “omens,” are those things we believe will give us special knowledge that is otherwise unknowable; such methods seem to inform us through some occult or supernatural activity. I suggested that believing a groundhog (especially one in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania) can forecast the next six weeks of weather for us is a mild example of an “omen.” I also wrote that seeking hidden knowledge through Ouija boards and seances is a much more dangerous – and biblically forbidden – activity. (The Ouija board was popular during World War I, as families sought to learn how their soldier sons and husbands were doing in far-away France. The name was invented by combining the French and German words for “yes” – oui and ja. It was believed that spirits would relay the information – definitely forbidden by God!)

But besides the superstitions that people have which purport to give them information which they can then use in some normal manner, there are also those superstitions which claim to control or exert some influence upon reality. It is this second category of superstition to which we will now turn our attention.

2. The second type of superstition is what I would call, the “magic” type. Of course, by “magic” I don’t mean the amazing illusions or tricks you see “magicians” perform. I mean more like the, “If you step on a crack, you’ll break your mother’s back” kind of superstition my grade-school friends and I repeated aloud while we stepped from one sidewalk section to the next. Somehow, we were afraid that our action would actually cause our moms some harm; or at least, we weren’t taking any chances!

Magic superstitions can be intended to protect someone, such as by avoiding stepping on cracks, or intended to cause harm, such as by sticking pins in voodoo dolls. But mostly, people follow them in order to gain some benefit or advantage for themselves. Gamblers blow on their dice and recite a certain “good luck” phrase before casting them, believing it will cause the right number to come up; a high school friend of mine swore you could get rid of warts by cutting a potato in half and burying it during a full moon; and even I sometimes think I can keep it from raining by carrying my umbrella with me (though there may be some truth to this last example . . .)

But the “Super Bowl” of people following magic superstitions can be found surrounding, well, the Super Bowl. By next Sunday, I predict great numbers of Americans will have pulled out all the stops when it comes to acting superstitiously. They will: wear special victory clothing such as team shirts and caps; they will sit in their favorite chair for reasons other than comfort or handy cup-holders; they will invite over certain good luck friends and avoid the others; they will eat certain foods and drinks in a certain order; they will try to avoid jinxing their team by saying things like, “We’ve got this won!”; and they will either clutch their Brock Purdy bobble-head to their bosom, or rip its head off. All done to somehow actually influence the course of the game. As I asked yesterday, do opposing superstitions cancel each other out? If the fans of both teams do or avoid the same things, then who wins?

Logical paradoxes are not the worst thing about magic superstitions. The worst thing is that they are attempts to play God, or to force God to do what we want him to do. This was the religion of the Baal worshipers in ancient Israel (and actually of all pagans). They sought to influence the “gods” of nature by their actions, doing things like what they wanted to make happen, as if by doing them their gods would have to use their powers to effect a good outcome. Fertility cults existed to increase crops, livestock, and children; war gods like Mars were worshiped by purifying soldiers’ weapons and trumpets; and children were offered in sacrifices as “seeds” for Molech to give more children in return. In magic, people sought – and still seek – to be God, giving in again to the first temptation made by the devil to our first ancestors in the Garden.

The biblical faith, the faith which the true God desires from us, is a submission to him and to his will. It is about trusting God alone for all our provision and for all good things. While he does invite us to pray to him and bring our needs to him, we recognize that he is not some genie in a lamp that we can command to obey us, but rather the all- powerful and sovereign God of the universe who has all authority. He is not bound by our superstitious actions, nor by the eloquence of our prayers. He does not have to grant our wishes because we make the sign of the cross when we ask him. He gives us good things because he loves us and desires good for us. Jesus himself taught us about our heavenly Father, saying,

“Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:9-11)

Martin Luther addressed this in his Large Catechism when he explained the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Luther wrote that we must recognize that all good things come from God, and that to attribute them to anyone or anything else is to break that commandment. This accords with James 1:7, which says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Ultimately, the greatest gift which God has given us is his own Son, Jesus Christ, through whom we receive forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

What does this all mean for a Christian? It means we look to God alone for what we need to know. He has given us the mental abilities to understand and appreciate much of the world he created, and in his Word he has revealed to us many precious things about himself and his plan for our salvation. But some things are hidden, mostly for our own good. In those areas, such as the future, we must just trust God and not seek to supplement what he has revealed by seeking other forbidden sources for answers. It also means that we recognize that he is God and we are not. We are not to play God by trying to manipulate reality by magical means. Instead, we pray to God repeatedly in every circumstance, but then we have to trust him and say, as our Lord said in Gethsemane,

“Not my will, but yours be done.” (Matthew 26:39)

So when it comes to the Super Bowl, will I go through some magical ritual to help one team win? No. Will I pray about the game? Yes – but only that no one is injured. (After all, my team didn’t make it!)

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Matthew 7:1-11

Of Groundhogs and Other Superstitions – Reprise

In anticipation of today being Groundhog Day, I began writing a blog about the superstitions people hold. I formed an outline, ordered the supporting points, and began researching the appropriate Scriptures. But then, a discordant thought intruded into my mind. Didn’t I already write about this? So I went back seven years and found a two-part blog I wrote in February of 2017 on this very topic. When I read it, I realized it was exactly what I wanted to say. So, hoping that most of my readers have come aboard more recently than that, and that the other readers won’t remember a 7 year-old post, I present once again (with a few appropriate updates): “Of Groundhogs and Other Superstitions.”

Happy Groundhog Day . . . or not . . . depending on how much credence you give to Punxatawney Phil, the famous groundhog who did not see his shadow this morning (2024). As happens every year, crowds gather on Gobbler’s Knob in the town of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, to watch the rodent come out of his burrow. And, as the tradition goes, if he sees his shadow on February 2nd, it means we’re in for another six weeks of winter. Or at least, Punxatawney, Pennsylvania is. How accurate is he? According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, (seriously?) he’s been right only 21% of the time. Not that good for an enduring superstition, considering the odds are 50/50.

But Phil is not the only superstition that people are dealing with right now; it is after all, almost Super Bowl week. Talk about superstitions! It seems everyone has a certain ritual to perform, a certain shirt or outfit to wear, certain foods to eat or a special chair to sit upon to ensure their team wins. They’re afraid to say certain things that might “jinx” their team. And that’s just the players we’re talking about! When it comes to fans watching the game (or not, if watching might jinx your team) the rituals and traditions are all over the place. Of course, I always wonder how it works: if all the superstitions are true, who wins, given that fans and players on both sides are doing them?

I’m glad to say I’m above such things (though I may have jinxed the Packers this year by checking their playoff score against the 49ers online).

In some cases, such superstitions are harmless fun. In Punxatawney, for example, it’s a tourist draw and a matter of civic pride for which the leaders play dress-up with top hats and long coats. I think hardly anyone actually believes the groundhog is a real prognosticator. But, unfortunately, many people are caught up in other superstitions which affect their lives, their decision-making, their finances, their families, and even their relationship with God.

This is especially surprising to see in today’s Western world, which supposedly left its superstitious beliefs back in the Dark Ages. People refuse to believe in God because “it isn’t scientific” to put faith in what we cannot see, yet they buy lottery tickets or read horoscopes or give offerings to “earth spirits.”

Superstitions come in two broad categories.

First, there is what I call, the “omen” type. This includes attempts to discern knowledge in ways beyond our senses and reason, such as with horoscopes, Ouija boards, I Ching sticks, Tarot cards, fortune tellers, seances, and yes, even groundhogs. It’s not that wanting to know things is bad; after all, we study the Bible to learn about God and science to learn about what he has created. The former is commanded by Scripture itself: (Psalm 111:12, Acts 17:11) and the latter reveals God’s power and divine nature through what he has made (Romans 1:20). The problem comes when we seek knowledge in ways which God has forbidden us to use. And God has clearly commanded us to avoid such occult sources: “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

While the things which God forbids sound extreme compared with something seemingly harmless like reading a daily horoscope, the two are actually of a similar nature. In either case, a person is seeking answers and directions for life decisions by putting some other authority above God. He wants us instead to look to him in prayer. Notice that it doesn’t matter if the forbidden source happens to yield information that is true; we are still to avoid seeking knowledge in that way. In fact, it can be especially dangerous when a forbidden source comes through with accurate answers, because then we trust it even more and can put ourselves into its bondage.

There is a classic episode of the Twilight Zone called “Nick of Time” in which a young couple’s car breaks down in a small town. While they wait for it to be repaired, they hang out in the local diner where the booth has a penny-operated “fortune-telling” machine that spits out cards with answers to the couple’s questions. The fact that there was a devil’s head on the machine should have been their first clue not to get involved! But they do, at first for entertainment, but then in growing fear and dependency on the machine as the answers it gives prove to be true, one right after another. Finally they realize the machine was coming to control them and they break away from its bondage and escape the town. On their way out, they pass an elderly couple who are coming into the diner with a handful of pennies, obviously still in such bondage.

Isaiah 8:19 says, “And when they say to you, ‘Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,’ should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?”

It’s not that God cannot use various means to make his will known for us. The Bible does tell us that he has done so, such as when the apostles selected a replacement for the deceased Judas Iscariot: they cast lots and prayed for God to reveal his choice between two qualified candidates. We believe God did answer their prayer. But that was before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and before the writing of the New Testament Scriptures; now we seek answers in God’s Word through the guidance of his Spirit.

The second type of superstition is what I would call the “magic” type. It includes all attempts to influence or control the outcome of events and things by rituals that we do. This is the kind of superstition which will be rampant around the Super Bowl, and it is the kind of superstition which I will address tomorrow in my next post, “Of Groundhogs and Other Superstitions: Part Two”.

Until then, may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Deuteronomy 13:1-3

There’s No Debate

This week witnessed a so-called “debate” in which seven candidates for the Presidency answered questions and traded barbs at each other, all hoping to gain popular support for their candidacies. I say, “so-called” not to insult the participants, but to point out that neither the format nor the results conformed to what I had learned in school about how debates are to work. In a classical debate, there is a proposition, which one side affirms and the other side denies. Then the two sides take turns arguing for their side and against the other. There are rebuttals and counter-arguments, until all the points are made. Finally, the judges, or the audience, declares which side won the debate.

While pondering this week’s debate, another debate came to mind, one which I instituted a number of years ago. For my sermon one Sunday, I pitted my two associate pastors against each other over the question, “Which is more important in Christianity: faith or love?” Defending the former was Reverend Faith, a.k.a. Pastor Salge, and the other, Brother Love, i.e., Pastor Brokenshire. (Of course, neither had a chance, since I provided them with scripts to follow.) In a key exchange, Brother Love claimed to be “another Abraham,” to which the (much) older Reverend Faith retorted, “I knew Abraham, and you’re no Abraham!”*

It was a lighthearted recap of a very real controversy fought between two major branches of Christianity, over what was necessary for salvation. The Roman Catholic position was that God gave faith to people which enabled them to do works of love, which in turn saved them (salvation by works). But following Martin Luther, Protestants claimed that it was faith alone, apart from works, which saves (sola fide). Both sides recognize that without God’s grace and Christ’s death and resurrection, there would be no salvation. They differed on how to receive that salvation.

When it came to my faux debate, neither side argued for salvation by works. Both insisted on salvation by God’s grace alone through faith alone as exemplified in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Their debate was therefore about which was more important in the life of a Christian.

Brother Love had a wealth of passages to draw from. Key passages included the following:

Jesus himself taught us that the greatest commandment is love. ^“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40).
The Apostle Paul elevated love over faith when he said in 1 Corinthians 13, “and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing,” (v.2) and “so now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13).
Even the Old Testament, with its many laws which commanded works, also demanded love: Leviticus 19:18 says, “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
At the Last Supper, Jesus told his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).
The Apostle John repeated this command in his 2nd Epistle: “the [commandment] we have had from the beginning—that we love one another” (v. 5).
John also said in his 1st Epistle, 4:8, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
And finally, we read in James 2:17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Brother Love made a strong case, but as Proverbs 18:17 says, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.” Now we hear from Reverend Faith:

The very beginning of God’s relationship to a people was when he made a promise to Abraham, and Abraham believed him. Genesis 15:6 says, “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.“
Paul quotes that verse in Romans 4:3, and in verse 5 adds: “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
In Galatians 3:7, Paul says, “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.”
Even James speaks of Abraham’s faith: “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness—and he was called a friend of God.”
Numerous times when Jesus healed someone, he credited their faith as having saved them: a paralytic, an ill woman, a leper, blind men, etc.
Hebrews 11 recounts many faithful heroes. It begins with the statement, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” It speaks of faith’s power: “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” Hebrews then praises those who believed God’s promises, yet died before seeing their fulfillment in Christ.
In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said, “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Finally, the importance of faith is given in Mark 16:16, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

So, which is it? Faith or love? Which is more important? Of course, when all is said and done, “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35), so one must take all of what the Bible says about both faith and love. They are both vital in the life of a Christian. It’s like a coin with two faces: which is more important? They are both important; if one face is missing the coin is incomplete. Without either faith or love, the Christian life is incomplete. Our faith receives God’s love and compels our response to love God back, to love those whom he created in his image, and to love the creation which he made. Our faith demands works of love, not just feelings of love which are cheap and transitory. Love is costly; it is risky. But if we trust God through faith, we will act, and our love will draw others to the faith which will save them.

After all is said and done, there is no debate. Faith and love. What a powerful combination of two of God’s greatest gifts. May they both be active blessings in your life!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you,may the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: 1 Corinthians 13; Hebrews 11.

*An allusion to a famous remark during the 1988 Vice-Presidential debate, when Dan Quayle claimed to be another JFK, and his opponent, Lloyd Bentsen, snapped, “I knew Jack Kennedy, and you’re no Jack Kennedy!”