Which Worketh By Love

¹“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” (Galatians 5:6). I don’t know that we always think about love being the power by which faith works. Usually when we think about faith, it’s much more in the context of what we believe rather than what we love. But it makes sense. After all, when it comes to romantic love in particular, one of the most important elements of that is faithfulness. So, why wouldn’t the reverse be true? To say that we keep the commandments because we are faithful, or we keep the commandments because we love Christ, it is the same. If faith is a seed that must be planted to grow, it is love that brings us back to that seed every day to water it and weed it and shelter it from the birds and the insects and storms and the heat of the day. If a mother sees her child trapped under a mountain of rubble, is it her faith or her love that gives her the strength to move that mountain and rescue her child? If we find ourselves struggling with our faith, then we have to take a look at where our heart is. If we find that we are only going through the motions and pretending to be faithful but we have no love in us, then our faith is basically useless. Faith without works is dead, and faith works by love, so faith without love is dead. But as long as we have love, then we have faith. Perfect love casts out fear and doubt, which are the two biggest detriments to our faith. If we are filled with love, then fear and doubt cannot touch our faith. I know that trying to be faithful when our heart isn’t in it is almost impossible. It is drudgery and exhausting. But when we are filled with love, our faith becomes unshakeable and there is nothing that we can’t do. I hope that we will all allow the pure love of Christ to fill our hearts and be the power by which our faith works.