What is TRUE Faith? Living what we believe

How many times did Jesus say, “Your faith has made you well”? THREE

Matthew 9:22 – woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:34, Luke 8:48)
Mark 10:52 – blind man [Bartimaeus] near Jericho (Luke 18:42)
Luke 17:19 – the tenth leper [Were the other nine NOT healed?]

What’s the common ground?
In each case, the person healed had DONE SOMETHING – the belief that Jesus could heal, had caused them to ACT.

This is NOT said in the case of EVERY healing:
In John 5, the man by the pool, Jesus warns the man not to slip back into old habits (John 5:14), having been in a state of apparent helplessness prior to his healing (John 5:7)

Think about the way we use the word, “Believe”

“I believe in …”
* Animal welfare
* Caring for our environment
* Free education for all
* Quaker: “Living simply so others may simply live”

“Thought does not save anyone, but the life which [a person] acquires to himself in the world through the [knowledges] of faith. …
… from this it becomes clear what faith is, namely that it is charity, for all things that are said to be part of the doctrine of faith lead to charity. … After the life of the body, the soul is such as its love is.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2228, section 2 & 3)

Notice the ACTIVE INTENT here:
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Notice the WARNING here:
“For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26-29)

From the Faith of the New Church, “Saving faith is to believe in Him”

“… people who have faith have conscience as well. Conscience is inseparable from faith, so inseparable in fact that it makes no difference whether you speak of faith or of conscience. By faith is meant faith through which charity comes, and which derives from charity. This being so, it is charity itself, for faith without charity is not faith at all. And just as faith is not possible without charity, neither is conscience possible without it.” (Heavenly Secrets, 2325)

“… love and wisdom apart from use are only abstractions of the mind, which fade away unless they are applied to use.” (True Christian Religion, 67)

For reflection: What does your faith DEMAND of you?

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

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