Faith in Action – Love Your Neighbour

 

How do we reconcile saving faith and good works in our Christian belief and practice?

Hear from Rev Gabriel Liew, a pastor with Living Hope Methodist Church as he spoke on “Evidence of Faith” in the first day of the Lunar New Year. He shared from the Scriptures backed by a lived personal experience of reaching out and ministering to those in need as an expression of loving his neighbours. He is also very involved with inter-faith work and seeks to show Christ’s love as “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9, NIV).

There are two apparent contradictory biblical views as exemplified by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 (salvation through faith alone) and by James in his epistle chapter 2, verses 14-26 (good works as proof of our salvation). Pastor Gabriel reiterated the theologically complementary nature of such verses and therefore non-contradictory. He said, “We are saved by faith. But authentic faith must produce good fruits…. True faith does not simply stir our emotions, it pushes us to motion. True faith is as much as about doing the gospel as believing it.”

The recent EAST school-wide retreat with the Methodist Church Bishop Rev Dr Gordon Wong as the speaker also reminded us that the chief characteristic of Christ’s disciples should be the love for one another. He too spoke on the need to live out the love for our neighbours as an expression of Christ’s Great Command (Matthew 22:36-40).

Click on the picture above or below to watch the full message.