Dear church,

More Luke 5 leftovers … Please read Luke 5:17-26.

“And when he saw their faith …” – Luke 5:20

Faith is not merely an inward condition of the heart. You may tell others you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you may tell yourself the same, but true faith results in action. This is why people who say we should separate our faith and our work, or our faith and our friendships, or our faith and our politics, don’t really understand the nature of faith.

The goal of discipleship is to increase your faith, so that more and more you are integrating your faith into your actions. This does not just mean a few of your actions. It means all of them. No longer will anyone wonder about your beliefs because they will be lived out in real time. Everyone will be able to see your faith.

To live this way means, among other things, that you will speak words of hope rather than gloom, and you will make room in your life for the downtrodden, and you will have a kind of carefree joy that catches people by surprise. 

We do this because we can’t help it. We simply believe Jesus has the power to do all he has promised to do. To believe this means we have the newfound freedom, like a paralytic on his feet, to live in ways the world would never dare to live.

Chris