Belief and Action
I have been thinking for some time about this idea of what we believe as Christians and what we do as Christians. This really struck me when studying the Sermon on the Mount – from memory, I recalled that most, if not all, of what Jesus taught was based on doing; He spoke little, if at all, regarding believing.
Please note: I did not write belief verses action. In no way do I suggest one against the other. To be clear, proper belief must precede action. My point with this post is only to explore emphasis regarding the Christian life.
I started considering a new project: go through the entire Bible and identify how often we are commanded to believe something and how often we are commanded to do something. Not wanting to make a Gary North type of lifetime commitment, I quickly set aside this notion.
To make a long winnowing process short, I thought to focus on a few passages: God’s first commands to man after creation, God’s first commands to Noah after the flood, God’s first commands after freedom from slavery in Egypt (the Ten Commandments), Jesus’s first commands (the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount), and Jesus speaking to John on Patmos about the seven churches. Each of these strikes me as a key moment in God’s relationship with man and His Church.
God’s first commands to man after creation
These are all commands of what to do or not do – all action commands:
Genesis 1: 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 2: 15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Of course, these commands carried weight with Adam (despite the later fall) because he believed that the One commanding was his Creator.
God’s first commands to Noah after the flood
Again, all commands regarding action:
Genesis 9: 1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.
7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”
These commands meant something to Noah because of his belief that God was the God.
God’s first commands after freedom from slavery in Egypt (the Ten Commandments):
Taken from Exodus 20 (and modified for brevity):
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
This first statement is a belief statement. We are to believe that the one true God is the Lord God who brought the slaves out of bondage. We are not commanded to do anything due to this statement; we are commanded to believe this is true.
Here is where I see the value in a statement like the Nicene Creed. We are told by Jesus to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ In order to love Him this way, we must know something of Him, and I find the Nicene Creed sufficient as a means to clarify the various statements found in Scripture regarding God as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit, into a simple statement of just what God is.
This is the God whom we are commanded to believe.
The rest of God’s commandments are action statements; what we are to do or to not do:
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image…; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain…
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother…
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet…
Jesus’s first commands (the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount)
We are to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers. Jesus concludes by telling us that if we do all of this, we will be persecuted for righteousness’ sake. In other words, we are counted as righteous after the doing.
Now, before anyone throws anything at the screen for that last statement, hold tight: none of this doing is possible without first believing the opening identified in the Ten Commandments:
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
None of this doing is possible without recognizing that it is only through God’s mercy of bringing us out of bondage; only after this – a great humility – are we able to “do” what is commanded in the Beatitudes. Jesus made clear that a change of heart was necessary, and that this is only possible through belief in Christ and repentance.
Jesus speaking to John on Patmos about the seven churches
Taken from Revelation 2 & 3: the very first statement from Christ to each one of the seven churches: “I know your works.” From this point, Christ passes judgement – both positive and negative. To the churches that have fallen short, He commands repentance.
There is little said regarding the topic of belief – no doctrinal statement, no statement of faith. With this said, they wouldn’t have been considered Churches if they were not grounded in a proper belief of who God is.
So, what about belief?
In addition to God’s opening in the Ten Commandments, there is much to be said about belief:
John 14: 1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Romans 10: 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
John 1: 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name
Acts 16: 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
We are to believe in Christ. So, just what does it mean to believe in Christ?
John 14: 12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
If we believe in Him, we will do the works that Jesus did. But the works must be preceded by a proper belief in Him.
Then there is the first apostolic sermon, the apostle Peter’s sermon recorded in Acts 2. Almost the entire sermon is one grounded in what is to be believed, built on a foundation of Old Testament witness:
Acts 2: 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— 23 Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Only after this grounding in belief, the people asked: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
So, the doing only matters after a grounding in proper belief. Peter offered in this sermon a statement of faith – just what it is that must be believed. It was a simple statement: he identified Jesus as both Lord and Christ; he spoke of the crucifixion and resurrection; he spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit.
He did not speak on the many doctrinal issues that have divided Christendom since then. After this simple statement of faith, he said “do.”
Returning to the greatest commandment
Matthew 22: 37(b) “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.
So, how do we show our love of God?
Deuteronomy 11: 1 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.
1 John 5: 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
John 14: 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
John 15: 14 “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
Luke 6: 46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”
2 John 1: 6 This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it.
We show our love of God by doing.
So, what to do with this?
I am sure I am missing much. But when I look at the several instances of God offering commandments in these significant periods (creation, after the flood, after escape from slavery in Egypt, the Incarnation, the early Church), virtually the entire list in each case is of taking action, not believing doctrine.
I am not intending to neglect doctrine. We need some boundaries regarding what we believe, else we believe nothing – or everything.
My struggle: what does it mean to be called a Christian?
Romans 10: 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Matthew 7: 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
The order is important: belief first, else the works are irrelevant.
I wish I had some way to wrap up this post. I don’t. I would welcome feedback: is there an emphasis on doctrinal belief as strong as there seems to be an emphasis on action that demonstrates our love of God – which, after all, is the requirement of the greatest commandment?
Let me know in the comments.
I probably ought not get involved in the conversation, but here goes:
I Timothy 1:5 - Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned...
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Philippians 2:12-13 - Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
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Once God, in His sovereign grace, has regenerated one of His elect children, they then have the capacity to experience, believe on, and learn about, spiritual things. Once He converts them to (a measure of) the truth (doctrine), they come to believe, and can work accordingly. He has worked in what He calls us to now be worked out.
Thanks be to God that our works, which are a response to His, are not in any way required for our ultimate and final Eternal Salvation. Rather they are the means by which we enjoy that salvation temporally (here-and-now).
p.s. Mr. M, I can't help but notice the decreasing usage of KJT quotes. You said, in the past, as I recall, that you prefer it. I guess that has changed?
For the past few months, I’ve been wrestling with the differences between the ancient oriental mindset and the modern occidental mindset as molded by the Enlightenment.
As I understand it, ancient orientals conveyed truth and right action through narratives.
In the extreme, theological liberalism strips all historicity from these narratives, considering such accounts as myths that convey truths as the storytellers understood them. The supernatural doesn’t (or rarely) intrude into our reality — it’s just part of the story.
Rigid fundamentalists — my backstory — impose a Joe Friday mindset on the entire Bible: "Just the facts, ma'am." Of course, they recognize different types of literature, but the default is critical analysis from the vocabulary up.
With this dichotomy as a framework, a Methodist might see little but right actions expressed in the Gospels. Conversely, a fundamentalist-leaning evangelical sees nothing by doctrines primarily explicated by St. Paul.
Me? I keep stepping further and further back to see the big picture. The Divine Counsel, the Fall, the Flood, the Tower, the call of Abram, the Exodus, the Conquest, the Kingdom(s), the Exile(s), The Christ, The Acts of the Apostles, the Apocalypse — just to name the high points. Most are a record of obedience and failure, not doctrine. Doctrine informs conduct, but conduct is the emphasis. What are the writings of the prophets if not condemnation and correction of Israel and Judah?
At the risk of oversimplifying to the point of reductionism, the Gospels present a Jesus who could be summed up with His words, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.” Once an individual responded to His revelation of Himself, He beckoned, “Come and follow me.” We westerners say, “What can we learn from Jesus’s words?” but those who heard His words heard challenge after challenge. “Let the dead bury the dead.” “Come unto Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you …”
Again, the epistles and the Apocalypse were written by the apostles to specific people or churches to address specific needs and/or failures and as exhortations to right conduct. The epistle to the Romans and to the Hebrews are the exceptions.
Even as I type these words, I indict myself. Conduct matters more than the ability to repeat the cardinal doctrines of the faith that were largely nailed down in the Fourth Century. My life will not be evaluated on my understanding of the range of meaning associated with the aorist tense or the stems of Hebrew, nor my ability to defend the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.
“If you love me, keep my commandments.”