Sunday January 31, 2010
"Our Faith"
1 Cor. 13:1-13 (ESV)
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a
noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and
understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as
to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away
all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I
gain nothing. [4] Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant [5] or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is
not
irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices
with the truth. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things,
endures all things. [8] Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass
away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
[9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part, [10] but when the perfect
comes, the partial will pass away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke like a
child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave
up childish ways. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
[13] So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these
is love.
James 2:14-26 (ESV)
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have
works? Can that faith save him? [15] If a brother or sister is poorly clothed
and lacking in daily food, [16] and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be
warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what
good is that? [17] So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
[18] But someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your
faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
[19] You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and
shudder! [20] Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart
from works is useless? [21] Was not Abraham our father justified by works
when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? [22] You see that faith was
active
along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; [23] and the
Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted
to him as righteousness"— and he was called a friend of God. [24] You see
that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. [25] And in the same
way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received
the messengers and sent them out by another way? [26] For as the body
apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
Click here to hear Pastor Mohr's sermon on this Scripture.