[This is a snippet from Sunday’s sermon and our series on Ephesians. – Joel]
“Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers” (Eph. 1:15-16).
The saints loved because they had faith.
Have you ever considered the relationship between faith and love in the Bible? In the world, there is faith without love and love without faith, but in the Bible, faith and love are so interwoven that they’re practically inseparable.
I’d suggest there are five connections between faith and love in Scripture:
1 – God’s Love Inspires Faith
God’s love demonstrated to you in His Son on the cross is what moved you to have faith to begin with. The love shown to you by God became the impetus and the foundation of all your faith. Love is what moved you and encouraged you to have faith in Christ.
I’m reminded of 1 Tim 1:14, “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” His grace to all, His faith in His Father, and His love for you was proven when He died on the cross as payment for your sins.
2 – Faith Freed you to Love Like God
The moment you got saved, you were spiritually transformed by God through the Spirit (Titus 3:5). You become a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). Your soul was liberated from its bondage to sin in the flesh (Rom. 6:11). The love of God was shed abroad in your heart (Rom. 5:5), literally poured out onto your heart. You are now empowered to love as you never could before – in the same manner and with the same depth as God Himself.
3 – Love Fuels Faith
“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6).
Faith works by love.
Faith is energized by love. Faith draws its strength from love. In that phrase, “faith which worketh by love,” we discover that faith is actively at work producing results but only when that faith is operating in perfect tandem with love.
Love gives motive and direction to how the faith functions.
Faith is expressed with love.
Plus, faith doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It blossoms and excels in an atmosphere of love. Love is the environment where faith lives and breathes and produces fruit.
Eph 3:17 says, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” God’s love is now the framework in which you are encouraged to grow in faith. Love establishes you in the faith. Love builds you up in the faith. Love is what encourages a saint to keep the faith. Love is what deepens your faith and joy.
God’s love moved you to have faith. Faith freed you to exhibit agape love just like God, and love also encourages the faith to thrive and blossom. Faith in God’s love empowered you to love others, and your love for others encourages them to also have faith.
Thus, faith grows in an atmosphere of love, and faith is expressed with love.
4 – Love is Evidence of Faith
Love is a natural outflow and evidence of a heart that’s been transformed by God’s grace received through faith. Apostle John would make the point that love proves you know God. He says in 1 Jn. 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
A lot of unbelievers are loving. But John spoke of agape love. When your life is the perfect embodiment of the attributes of agape love in 1 Cor. 13, that shows that you have experienced God’s love, that you know God, and you are reflecting His nature.
Paul writes in Eph 6:23, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” You can have faith without love, but in the Bible, faith is inseparable from love, because faith is tied to God’s love. In Him, faith and love are eternally connected. We were designed to have faith and love flourishing in our lives.
Therefore, expressing your faith out in the world has to be tied to the ways of love, because God is love. Faith in God is to also embody the ways of love.
5 – Faith and Love is Armor
1 Thess 5:8 says, “But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.”
Why is faith and love a breastplate in the armor? Because it protects the heart. Plus, it is also a strengthening or maturing of the heart.
SUPPLY OF GRACE 