Today I’d like to talk a little bit about “faith” or better yet, an “active faith.” Why
this topic came into my creative thinking was because of some things about
America’s great Civil War that I saw and read about. One of my favorite
genres of historical interest is the Civil War, especially studying the bloody
conflicts of it.
Last year, after departing Washington DC and heading home, my wife
and I paid a visit to a CW battlefield in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
called “The Battle of New Market.” It’s also referred to as “The Field of
Lost Shoes” because the latter portion of the battlefield was across an open
and extremely muddy field and many of the combatants lost their shoes during
the advance. (It had rained for 7 days straight prior to the battle).
One of the things this battle is noted for is that a portion of
the Southern Army was made up of a company of cadets from VMI (Virginia
Military Institute). These were all teenage boys who had marched about 80
miles to be able to assist the Confederacy fight the Union Army. Of the
cadets that fought there that day, ten of them were killed during the
battle. I’ll come back to them before we close today.
By now you’re probably wondering how I’m going to tie the Civil
War into a lesson on “faith.”
Well, I’m going to attempt to do just that and, hopefully, I’ll succeed with that
mission. At least I’ll “give it a go.”
Another item I’ll mention regarding the Civil War was a
tongue-in-cheek article I once read about written by a humorist of that time
period who said “I have already given two cousins to the war, and I stand ready
to sacrifice my wife’s brother.” He serves me as an example of a
lot of people today who claim to be Christian but are the type who are “hearers only” and not “doers.”
Or, perhaps we could define them in the sports vernacular as being
those who “talk a good game” but don’t really produce anything. In my
opinion, James wrote about a Christian’s faith as succinctly as you’ll find in
the Gospel. Especially in the way that he pointed out the difference
between “hearers only”
and “doers.”
You know, it’s easy to say that you have “faith,” isn’t it.
We’ve got a lot of religious entities around us that teach that all one has to
do is “confess”
that they believe in Jesus. That’s it. Nothing further
needed. Just “talk a good game” but you don’t really have to do
anything. Brethren, that belief is so far from the truth that it would be
funny if it wasn’t so sad in relation to the consequences of following it.
A person’s faith has to be an “active
faith.” And, it has to be seen as being “active.” In other
words, you actually have to do something and not just talk about it. Now,
should you think that I’m the one saying that you’d be wrong. I’m simply
telling you what God said to us through the inspired hand of James.
In the first chapter of his book is where we got our opening
scripture about not only being “hearers”
of the word but “doers.”
Now let me direct you to the second chapter where he’s still talking about “faith” and notice these
words in 2:14-17.
“What does
it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and has not works?
Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of
daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and
filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the
body; what does it profit? Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead,
being alone.”
You know something else? In the regard of our personal
faith, nothing has changed from the days of James until today. The test
of our faith is not just in knowing what is right. It’s in the actual “doing” what is right.
And again, I’m not the one saying this because Jesus said it first: “If you know these things,
blessed are you if you do them.” (John 13:17)
If we only “talk” our “faith”
and we make no contributions towards actually doing it, in reality we’re no
different than our afore-mentioned Civil War humorist. What have we
sacrificed? What have we done in showing our “faith.” Remember, he “talked a good
game” but when it’s all boiled down, he hadn’t really done anything himself.
In my preamble passage from James 1:22 you may have noticed that I
left off a few words at the end of the verse. I did that on purpose in
order that I might make another point regarding the seriousness of just
“talking” our “faith”
and not “doing”
it. Read with me now those final words of the 22nd verse where it says
that if we’re “hearers only”
and not “doers of the word”
we’re doing nothing more than “deceiving
our own selves.”
I said that I’d return to our cadets at the Battle of New Market
before we closed and I’d like to do that at this time. I’ll make the
point here that they didn’t have to make the sacrifice that they did as they
were really supposed to be in the reserve. Yet they participated in the
muddy, bloody battle. They “did.” They acted. And because of
their actions that day, they are honored (“blessed”)
each year for having “done”
what they could.
Each year, on the occasion date of the battle, there is a ceremony
that takes place at the memorial of that battle. The names of the cadets
who fought in it are read off and when the name of one of the cadets who were
killed there is announced, a representative of that cadet’s company
states: “Died on the field of honor, Sir.”
We, as Christians, are members in the Lord’s Army and are
continually engaged in battle with Satan and his army. It takes more than
just saying I’m in God’s Army, we actually have to meet the foe and
fight. We cannot simply “talk a good battle” we have to actually
“fight.”
And when we do so we won’t be “deceiving
our own selves.” And, when you think about it, that’s the
only one who would be deceived because Christ certainly isn’t. And I
believe wholeheartedly that we’ll be “blessed”
for having “done”
our “faith” rather
than having just talked about it. And, being a soldier in the Army of
God, actively exercising our faith here on “Battlefield Earth,” when we finish
our battle Christ will note in the Book of Life: “Died on the field of honor.”
Respectfully submitted,
Ron Covey
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