How are Faith and Love Connected?
by Gloria Copeland
Have you ever wondered what faith and love have to do with one another? How are they connected? Let’s examine this connection.
Galatians 5:6 says, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
Faith works by love. It is energised by love. Faith is put into motion by love. Why is that?
Well, most of us are probably familiar with the Apostle Paul’s teaching on love in 1 Corinthians 13. But as we read verses 1-3 in The Amplified Bible, I want us to focus on the faith-love connection.
If I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love…I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers…and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned…but have not love…I gain nothing.
In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam just one “do not.” It was, Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God only gave one command, but it certainly covered a lot of territory.
Today, if you think about it, you and I still only have one “do not”—Don’t get out of love. That’s our one commandment. We are to walk in love, which covers a lot of ground. In fact, we see in this passage that our love walk is connected to everything we do in life as believers, including our faith. Paul makes it quite clear that faith—without love—is going nowhere.
Again, we have to ask ourselves, How is it that our faith is so tied into love? Let’s read a little further into 1 Corinthians 13 and we’ll find out.
“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes…its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]…” (verses 7-8, AMP).
God wants us to walk in love because love never fails. He wants the best for us, and since the best is found in love, you and I must walk in love in order to receive God’s best. This includes honouring Him, forgiving and walking in the fruit of the Spirit.
You and I cannot pick and choose what we want to believe from God’s Word and disregard the rest. It’s all connected, and it all centres around love. Faith and love are intricately connected. Don’t think that you can walk in true, God-designed love without walking in faith, neither can you walk in faith without walking in love. Begin studying God’s Word for yourself to find out about this connection and how to live it. When you bring love and faith together, your entire outlook will begin to shift, and you’ll begin to view the world through God’s eyes!