These bible quotes are telling Christians that they must show their devotion to their faith through deeds and actions in their daily lives.
Christians strive to emulate Jesus, and throughout the bible can be seen examples of Jesus’ compassion towards others; through his simple acts of kindness as well as his performing of miracles. He healed the blind and the sick, raised the dead and freed those oppressed by “evil spirits”.
He used his power to help others, and is this way he was teaching his followers through example – we should do everything within our own power to perform good deeds.
Another relevant quote here is; “ whatsoever you did to the least of my brethren, ye did it unto me".
Here, Jesus is directly teaching us of the importance of kind and charitable acts, and that these are a form of worship in themselves.
All of this is not to say that prayer does not play an important part in the Christian religion.
Matthew 6:6 states: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you”.
Throughout the bible, we find many reasons to pray, and many benefits of doing so.
First and foremost, prayer is a commandment.
Romans 12:12 tells us to “be faithful in prayer” and 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “Pray continually”. In all, the bible contains 667 verses dealing with prayer.
Prayer and worship can help us gain confidence in God and strengethen our faith. Prayer can help us show our trust in God, and is a means by which we can follow the example of Jesus.
Prayer can help us avoid temptation – “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41), and gives us a place of spiritual refuge – “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man” (Psalm 118:8).
However, to me, it would appear that both prayer and helping those in our communities are vital if we are to call ourselves Christian.
Jesus placed equal importance on both, and as Christians, we aim to be as like Jesus as possible and view Jesus’ teachings as being of superlative wisdom. We are expected to keep our faith balanced, through an equal combination of worship and good deed.
Faith on it’s own is not enough – a point made in James 2:14-17 - "My brothers, what use is it for a man to say he has faith when he does nothing to show it? Can that faith save him? Suppose a brother or a sister is in rags with not enough food for the day, and one of you says, 'Good luck to you, keep yourselves warm, and have plenty to eat', but does nothing to supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So with faith; if it does not lead to action, it is in itself a lifeless thing”.
At present, I believe, too many people are “Sunday Christians” – believing that an hour a week at Church is enough to keep their faith alive.
I believe that this is not right – Christianity is a lifestyle choice, and through subscribing to it’s values, we are should be ensuring that the word of Christ is emulated in our daily lives, through prayer and actions.
