Leaving the Idolatry of Money (Day 22: Fourth Sunday in Advent)

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

1 Peter 3:13-17

The fight of faith is not fought by preaching, as vital as preaching is. Or by evangelism. Words are, of course, important but Peter’s famous encouragement in the passage at the start of today’s Reflection, that we should always be ready to give a good defence, or explanation, of our faith in Jesus, is for when our doing is questioned.

The Christian warfare is to live the sort of life Jesus described in cultures with very different values and norms. Jude writes to all Christians, ‘appealing to you to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints’, but not with words – at least, not words only. Rather, they were to build themselves up in the most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping themselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of the Lord Jesus that leads to eternal life. They were, in other words, to live the sort of life that Jesus described.

This is why John wrote that we cannot profess faith in Christ and yet keep on wilfully sinning and why James warned that ‘faith without works is dead’: see 1 John 3:7-11 & James 2:14-26. James was certainly not saying that good works will in some way earn salvation but that if our faith in Christ does not impact the way we live it is not genuine, living faith. It is, simply, dead.

I would go so far as to say that this means that preaching and evangelism without the sort of lifestyle that Jesus described are likely to be barren. This works at practical and spiritual levels, both a hearer’s sensitivity to the authenticity of what he or she hears and the desire of God to bless words divorced from works.

The converse is also true: that works, even good works, without faith are dead. This is not to say that a person who is not a Christian cannot help others and improve society. Clearly, they can and do – and often put Christians to shame doing more at a material level without faith than many Christians do with faith! But their works are ‘dead’ in that they are, at best, improving society's 'worldly' systems, rather than contributing to the work of God in the world. Albert Swift (1867-1913) described it graphically in his excellent little book, The First Principles of Christian Citizenship: ‘Whilst humanitarian and beneficent in its intention, it often lacks the light and heat which give beauty and impart power. When God is left out the colours are very drab, and the enterprise deals only with the dust.’ 

It is as Jesus told Nicodemus, ‘unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God’ (see John 3:1-21); neither can they contribute to what they cannot see – the work of God in the world, advancing his Kingdom here.

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