Faith only?

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souldiver

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Some people seem to imply that you need only faith to be saved and seems that you can sin all you want as long as you have faith. But do they know about this? It seems to counter them doesn’t it.
James 2:14-26
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless[d]? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”[e] and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.*

And also Jesus tells us to repent in the book of Matthew. Not just have faith.
 
Yes - there are many things that counter those who believe that they can sin with impunity…but to be honest, I’ve never met a Christian who actually thought that…

Peace
James
 
Faith without works is dead. The Catholic Church has remained faithful to this scriptural teaching and She reiterated it in the Council of Trent.
 
Well, in some protestant religions AFAIK, it is thought to them that you only need faith. It can be backed up with the writings in Ephesians.

*Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
*

But what happen to repentance?

Another I remember from my past reading(I didn’t memorized) but I think I know the context. It supports deeds.

Luke 6:46-49
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 47 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 48 They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 49 But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”
 
Many protestants I have spoken with just lump all of the other scriptural requirements into “Faith”…For instance, Marocchino points out that St James says “faith without works is dead” (Jms 2:17). The protestant says the "works are an outpouring of faith - not something separate…OK - I’ll accept that…since without the works showing one cannot claim to have a living faith…

St John in 1 John 2 says:
“3 And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: 6 he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

And so here too the protestant will say that obedience to the commandments is an out flowing of true faith…Again - I can easily agree with this.

But all must remember that Faith is not a simple thing…an intellectual ascent. It is that which makes up our very being so that every thought, every action is based upon our faith…and when we DO fail in some manner, we turn swiftly back to our Savior in abject sorrow for having offended Him…

Peace
James
 
Other verses that I found, I’m probably being annoying now.

*1 John 3:9-10

9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.*
James 1:22

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.*
 
I wrote this somewhere else and I could be wrong.

But it can be answer like this:

If you have faith, you belive in GOD.

Because of that you must follow the 10 commandments.

IF you follow the 10 commandments you will have good works you cannot go wrong here.

Now you can have good works but if you don’t belive in GOD then read the first commendment. Therefore, works alone will not work so you will boast in hell. Furthermore, the 10 commandments give you the answers whether you are saved or not. Read them and see how many you broke today. It’s not easy.

You can also read what is not in scripture and that is father Bosco’s vision of hell and how little it took for the souls of his boys to roll into hell. And then we have the 7 deadly sins so i don’t think you can just sin all you want and be saved because you have faith. If you belive you will not sin. But we sin so we have confession and time to repent.
 
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