Faithless Faith And Ineffective Prayers

Last updated on: July 28, 2020 at 3:15 am by Henry Karlson

Faithless Faith And Ineffective Prayers 2020-07-28T03:15:07-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ziggyfan23: March for Our Lives Washington DC 2018 / Wikimedia Commons

For the Christian, faith alone, if that is taken to mean belief alone, is imaginative fiction. How can one have faith in Jesus Christ and ignore what he said in the Gospels? Jesus told his followers what to do. Nowhere do we find him telling people to just believe in him and do nothing else. Rather, he tells them to sin no more and to be perfect like the heavenly Father, and if they question what that means, he gives them a lesson showing the kinds of actions they should follow.

Faith, by its nature, will never be alone. Faith, by its nature, will always lead to action. The problem of those who believe that they can have faith apart from action can be seen in those who think they can merely offer “thoughts and prayers” to those who are in distress. They believe that such thoughts and prayers is all they need to do; obviously, thoughts and prayers are good, and if it is all that one can offer, they should do so, but if there is more one can do, limiting oneself to thoughts and prayers is not taking the situation seriously. James, therefore, tells us such prayers, and such inactive faith, are equally without profit:

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (Jas. 2:14-17 RSV).

Faith without works is dead because it is not faith. Those who are only willing to give thoughts and prayers to someone in need when they have the potential to give much more is indicative of someone who likes to appear as if they care while in reality, they do not. This is why so many will publicly offer thoughts and prayers to people in need while ignoring the context of the need and so end up doing nothing to really fix the situation. Such prayer is often offered by those with some sort of privilege who do not want to be inconvenienced by helping those who are not so privileged; if they truly cared, such inconvenience would not stop them from doing what is right. Likewise, then, those who truly have faith in will Jesus listen to and obey what Jesus said in the Gospels, but those who do not, those who think faith is mere belief, will be like demons, not doing the work of faith and showing they have not yet put themselves under the Lordship of Jesus.

“”If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15 RSV). Faith and love are interconnected. Faith in Jesus, a true, spiritual faith, will lead us to love. For by following Jesus, by having faith in him and what he taught, we will know love should be the foundation for all that we do in the world. It is what ties us to Jesus and to one another. And through such love, though the communion established in love, we will find ourselves illuminated by that love, as St. Thalassios indicates: “Let us acquire faith so that we may attain love; for love gives birth to the illumination of spiritual knowledge.” [1] But, Thalassios points out, when one receive that illumination, we find ourselves developing a new kind of faith: “The intellect that begins to pursue divine wisdom starts with faith; it then passes through the intermediate stages until it arrives once more at faith, though this time of the highest type.”[2]

Faith, therefore, begins with belief and fidelity to Christ. When we hear his message and find ourselves drawn to him, we transform ourselves so as to follow what Christ told us to do, and in that transformation, we find ourselves growing in love. This is because, behind all that Christ taught us, is the law of love, and the more we follow Jesus, the more we act in love and develop those habits which are founded upon such love. That love draws us in closer to Christ, to see and experience things in and through our relationship with him, so that we then begin to see and understand the faith in a new way. We will know things which we did not know before. That knowledge does not turn us away from the faith, but rather, transforms it, makes it greater: faith and knowledge are to be joined together as one instead of being seen as counterparts. Faith gives us the foundation for our knowledge, and knowledge then allows us to discern the ever-greater mystery which lies before us once we have apprehended it through faith. But this will not happen if we do not move ourselves and act in good faith; we must have the faith which moves mountains, that is, ourselves, if we want to truly be raised up and experience the transcendent glory of the kingdom of God for ourselves.

Faith without works is dead because it is not faith, but only the simulation of faith. It is belief without fidelity. So long as we are cold and indifferent to love, we have yet to attain true faith. But once we open up to faith, we will follow through with the message of the Gospel, love will arise in us, and we will find ourselves naturally acting in the ways Christ has told us to act. Then, the love in us will show us that we must always do what we can to help those in need. We must let ourselves be drawn in by the love of God and to love all things in and through the love of God. If we do so, then people will know our faith, our true Christian faith, by our love.

[1] St. Thalassios, “On Love, Self-Control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect,” in in The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Volume Two. Trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, Kallistos Ware et. al. (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), 328 [IV.60].

[2] St. Thalassios, “On Love, Self-Control and Life in Accordance with the Intellect,” 330 [IV.78].

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

Previous Post

July 26, 2020

The Common Good And The Feeding of the Five Thousand

Next Post

July 30, 2020 Greed, Charity, And Reformation

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz