re so far so good in article apr athos rutgers edu armstrng cs dal ca stan armstrong writes in article c z u jxo spss com luomat alleg edu writes this may be a really dumb one but i ll ask it anyways christians know that they can never live up to the requirements of god right i may be wrong but that is my understanding but they still try to do it doesn t it seem like we are spending all of our lives trying to reach a goal we can never achieve i know that we are saved by faith and not by works but does that mean that once we are saved we don t have to do anything i think james tells us that faith without works is dead paraphrase how does this work so long as we think that good things are what we have to do rather than what we come to want to do we miss the point the more we love god the more we come to love what and whom he loves when i find that what i am doing is not good it is not a sign to try even harder romans it is a sign to seek god when i am aware of jesus presence i usually want what he wants it is his strenth his love that empowers my weakness stan armstrong religious studies dept saint mary s university halifax n s armstrong husky stmarys ca att clyde watmath water dalcs armstrng i apologize to the moderator but the first quote was deleted and i would like to respond to both as for the goal we can never achieve the reward comes from the trying paul makes a clear claim that we are to continue straining for the prize over in philippians only by not living out the commands do we stagnate and become lukewarm to be spit out by jesus as it says in john this is love for god to obey his comands that obedience is our straining to achieve for god of course this requires work on our part as for the quote in james satan doesn t care what we believe what matters is the results of our belief works if one truly has faith in what one believes one will either act on that faith or be lying to oneself about believing in the first place stan as for your first line you have a very good point obedience by obligation grudgery is not what god desires instead look at how many times the bible talks about being joyous in all situations and when doing god s work being begrudged by the work has no value also we should do the work necessary whenever we can not just when we feel jesus presence feelings can deceive us however as paul states to timothy in timothy preach the word be prepared in season and out of season correct rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction also remember that paul tells timothy in timothy watch your life and doctrine closely persevere in them because if you do you will save both yourself and your hearers so in order to do the work necessary we need to be sure that we are correct first remember jesus warning in matthew not to be hypocritical about what we do the best way to accomplish this is to be a disciple completely in both thought and deed joe fisher
