Gal 5:6 ...faith avails, operating through love. Eph 6:23 Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you know that your faith operates through love? A person who hears the gospel, repents, and then comes to appreciate the Lord Jesus and feel that He is altogether lovable, will have a strong faith. This faith operates through his love for the Lord. The more we love the Lord, the stronger will be our faith in Him. This is Paul's thought in Galatians. Ephesians, however, emphasizes love, not faith. In Ephesians Paul's concern is not salvation, but continuation and fellowship. This requires love with faith. If our faith is weakened because we accept doubts and questions, we shall find it difficult to love the Lord. Whenever faith is damaged, love will be damaged also. In order to continue in fellowship with the Lord through loving Him, we need a strong faith. Therefore, we need both the faith that operates through love and the love that is with faith. We have pointed out that love is from God. This means that love is on God's side. Faith, on the contrary, is on our side. Hence, the phrase "love with faith" implies traffic between God and us and between us and God. Love is from God to us, and faith is from us to God. God gives us love, and we respond with faith. This is the traffic between love and faith. Through this traffic peace remains our portion. We are kept in peace by God's love coming to us and by our faith going to Him.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 563-564. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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