THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - SATURDAY LESSON: PSALM 119:57‒64 God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8 When we believe that we have a gracious God and that we need nothing further, it would, presumably, be time for us to die as soon as possible. But if we are to continue our life here on earth, it must not be directed towards gaining God’s favor by our works. Anyone who holds such a view makes a mockery of God and blasphemes God. Yet this is what was taught for such a long time in the Church. We were informed that we must keep on pestering God with our good works, prayers, fasts, and the like, until we obtained His grace. We did obtain grace, not by our works, but from God’s mercy. In your life of faith, you certainly have to get busy and do something, but, as Christ informs us, everything we do must be done for the interests of our neighbor. The servant in the parable, we are told, “went out.” He “went out” in love. Faith leads men from people to God. Love leads them out to people. Our faith must break out and prove itself in action before our fellowmen. God does not need your works; He has enough in your faith. But He wants you to do works as fruits of faith, to demonstrate the reality of your faith before the whole world in works. This servant (Matthew 18:23‒35) is an example or a picture of all who should serve their neighbor in faith. But what does he do? He does what most of us do. We imagine that we have faith, and in part this is true. We rejoice at having heard the Gospel, and we may even be able to talk a great deal about it. But only too few really live in accordance with the Gospel. There are even those in our midst who seem to become worse after hearing the Gospel. SL.XI.1796,21‒24 AE. 79:255-265 PRAYER: Heavenly Father, give us at all times a true and genuine faith, which proves itself in works of love to our neighbor and becomes ever stronger and more willing to walk the paths of your choosing, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.
