I guess you could label it a work…I label it faith and obedience…Like Abraham and David they understood there was something beyond the law…To obey was better than sacrifice…We just keep going round and round…Arguing over points trying to one up each other…The words "work,(s) seems to be a disconnect…
My brother in Christ, it is not arguing over points, it is devotion to the full teachings of Christ in an effort to provide direction to the information correcting misconceived or misguided interpretations pertaining to those points. I offer the following post I wrote in another thread for your thought. There is a major difference between the “works of the law” which are the works you defend against and works of love scripture tells us we are responsible for. Works of love are those that are expected of us through the teachings of Christ emulating Christ’s life as is humanly possible and are not something a Catholic or any Christian does to “earn” salvation, but rather our response if you will, showing our acceptance of Jesus, not just by an acknowledgment of what He says, but in our actions in all His Word. Jesus proclaimed these words and they are very self explanatory;
Matthew CH25; 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32 and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous
16 will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ 40 And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ 41 Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 44 Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ 45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
They’re easier referred to as living your life in humility with loving charity toward your fellow man in the Love of Christ. They are works of love, not works of the law. That is your misconception of what Catholics refer to. They are our part of the covenant Jesus made with us with His Blood. One may say we do these works wantingly or automatically. To “want” in itself is a desire based on choice to do (hopefully) what is righteous as apposed to doing what is sinful or not acting at all. Automatically acting is to say we have no choice and we know God always gives us the freedom to choose. In reality, the passage above shows there is a choice.
Going further, all scripture works in unison and for an example one must consider the specific direction as in below;
Ephesians CH4; 1 “I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, 2 With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity. 3 Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 One body (the Church) and one Spirit (Holy Spirit); as you are called in one hope of your calling. 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”
Only One Church, one faith my brother, and any church or teachings in opposition to that one church is not part of that church. Non-Catholic Christians have been separated from the one Church Jesus founded for so long they do not know what they miss in His teachings and have in most cases been significantly misguided in what they have been taught the Catholic Faith is. Yet, a great deal of their beliefs (not all) are the same as the Catholic Faith they were derived from. The more one learns of the Catholic Faith, the more likely they come home to the Church. This is evident in the increasing numbers of conversions by many scholars, preachers, pastors, ministers, elders or what ever title non-Catholic church leaders may be recognized as. This is not to say non-Catholic Christians will not reach salvation, they know nothing other than what they were taught and the salvation of each individual is judged by Our Lord, but there can be no mistake, each will be judged.
continued next post…
