Sola Fide

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The following post has been taken out of another blogger's post from the other day. I thought it was good enough, clear enough and true enough to scatter around for more discussion.
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Imagine a church where the pastor tells his church to abstain from all alcohol, avoid movies, enter their children in Christian schools and that women should only wear dresses.Down the street, another pastor exhorts his congregation to get involved in environmental issues, invite your neighbors over to your house, seek to understand your surrounding culture and avoid a judgemental perceptions at all costs.Which sermon is pleasing to the Lord? The conservative message? The trendy message? Both?Possibly, neither. Consider:
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.--Romans 14:23Therefore, the pastor who calls his people to be separate from the world, giving guidelines for achieving moral purity may be calling his people to sin. Likewise, the pastor who challenges his people to be more tolerant, perhaps even more missional, laying out perfect strategies for connecting with lost people may be calling his people to sin.Because avoiding movies is bad? Or conversely, is inviting your neighbors over to your house wrong? It is, if it neglects faith. Consider these words:
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.--Hebrews 11:6If faith is not the center of our motivation, we will not be pleasing God. Neither a full-fledged boycott of the things of the world, nor an unadulterated leap into your neighbors' lives means a thing if segregated from faith. This shouldn't stump us. For if God is most pleased by the perfect obedience of His Son, and if that obedience is credited to our account by faith, then that in my life which pleases the Father must purely be the reflection of my faith in His Perfect Son.
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