Now faith is one of those theological concepts in the Church that’s sometimes difficult to understand or apply. Consider then this definition of faith from St. Paul in Hebrews: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).
St. Paul says in today’s Epistle that it’s faith that enables us to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. In other words, just like our definition out of Hebrews, St. Paul is here linking faith and hope, hope and faith.
God is continuously pouring out His grace on us, drawing us to Himself—as much as we are willing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. But that’s just it: faith demands action. The old debate between Lutheranism and Catholicism regarding justification by faith or works is a false dichotomy: it’s not one OR the other. Instead, both are needed, both are mutually dependent.
Faith can never be a mere verbal pronouncement of belief. At the same time, the primary work of the Church is not philanthropy but the witness of faith, of living out the faith in the midst of those who do not yet believe so that they too may come to know Christ and His salvation. This is the example we have from the Apostles and the Saints: some were martyrs, some were evangelists, some were preachers, some were teachers, etc., but all were witnesses of the one, true faith; they’re known today because they led others to the knowledge and love of God and His salvation through their witness.
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for…” In other words, if our hope is that God will heal us, save us through our participation in His life, which He manifests to us here and now through the Sacraments, through our prayers, then if this is our hope, if this is what we desire above all else, then, we pray and struggle to follow through, to cooperate with what God prescribes for us.
But we must ask ourselves, is this really our aim? Do we want God and participation in His life more than anything else? If we are to find faith, it must be so. Christ reminds us today, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
In other words, if life and communion with God, healing from our sin-sickness and salvation, is our desire, then we make growth in faith our chief aim. We cannot be absorbed in, we cannot be a slave to, our desire for the things of this world—all of which are passing away.
Similarly, St. Paul admonishes us elsewhere in Romans, not to be “conformed to this world, but (to) be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Mind here means the nous, the ‘eye of the soul,’ the very core of our being, the part of us capable of communing with God even now.
Just as Christ does, St. Paul warns us that two choices lie before us: either conformity to the culture, the world, and its priorities and ideas, or transformation through the life in Christ, which, by necessity means that we must continue to change, to grow in faith, becoming more and more Christ-like in the very core of our being.
The world, the culture, will pull us in its direction, may try to convince us that we don’t need God or that what God has revealed is antiquated and archaic, no longer relevant, that mankind, having ‘progressed’ so much, no longer needs God, as our modern secularists espouse.
Faith demands that we strive to follow the narrow way of Christ, the proven path that has led all the generations before us who have sought first the Kingdom of God to find and live the truth of Christ, even in the midst of who reject Him in the culture and the world around them. This is God’s greatest desire for us because faith is necessary to enter the Kingdom of God.
Faith is never just a professing of words of belief; faith leads to action on part, foremost repentance and a desire to continue to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” (Phil. 2:12) in the words of St. Paul. Through faith, we grow further up and further in our communion with God in His Kingdom, and so, for us who wish to be saved, our spiritual progress, our deification, can never leave us where we are today, but instead must bring further growth.
This growth in communion with God, in the knowledge and love of Him, is God’s unchanging will for the human race. Our prayers for transformation, for growth to become godly men and women, never go unanswered, if we are willing to allow Him to transform our minds (the very core of our being), if we are willing to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness above all competing temporal pursuits.
The problem of our lack of faith, we may come to realize, is ourselves: we put our faith in earthly things, in mammon, money, in other earthly pursuits. We prefer to rely on ourselves and our own ideas or that of our culture that would conform us to its own religion, its own idols.
For this reason, Christ God warns us: you cannot serve two masters! But we always have a choice: we can respond to our anxieties, problems, our stress by trying to ‘fix’ them on our own and on our own terms, which may make us THINK that we’re powerful, we’re in control, or we can realize that that projection is just a façade and that we each need God, need to struggle and strive to put our trust, our faith and hope, in Him, in God, who alone is eternal, who alone is worthy of our trust, our faith, our hope. The choice is ours, but we cannot serve both.
Jesus assures us today, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). No one is beyond the transformation and growth in holiness that God desires to give us so that we may abide with Him in His eternal Kingdom. We grow in faith by living out our faith. Faith begins with a desire conceived from a willingness to seek first God’s Kingdom, our communion before all else.
When we choose to interject faith into our struggles, even our tribulations, they become means for our further growth, for, as St. Paul says, “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint…” Why, because God is faithful even when we or our fellow human beings disappoint.
So put it into practice: pray, repent, make confession, receive the Eucharist, tithe, serve. Step forward in faith, put your hope in God for the things you need. Let God free you from any dependence on this world or conformity to the “go it alone approach” of our culture. God will grow us in faith. St. Paul assures us, “hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Put your hope, your trust, your faith in God, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, following the prescriptions Christ has entrusted to the Church for our healing and growth in Him. He is always faithful, for as He has said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you!”
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
July 14, 2013
Epistle: Romans 5:1-10
Gospel: Matthew 6:22-33
