The Active Ingredient

BY SIMEON YOUNG, SR.

Toothpaste has 17 ingredients. All those ingredients are fillers and binders which add color and flavor. One ingredient activates the paste to clean teeth. The toothpaste looks good and tastes good because of
16 ingredients, but it works because of one active ingredient: sodium chloride.

The Apostle John said, ” this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4). The kind of faith that wins the victory is working faith.

If I may be permitted to mix my metaphors, I will call Bible faith blue-collar faith. This kind of faith rolls up its sleeves and tackles the task at hand. James said that faith which doesn’t work is dead faith. Let’s call it dead-beat faith…faith waiting for a hand-out…poor-mouthing faith…welfare faith … mooching faith…faith on the dole. That kind of faith fights no battles and wins no victories. You may claim to have all the idle faith you care to, but you will never over-come the world with non-working faith.

Paul identified the active ingredient of faith: “In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6). The operative force of the faith which overcomes the world is love. Love is the active ingredient in victorious faith.

Loveless faith is dead faith and is powerless in the face of the world’s allurements. Faith devoid of love is helpless against the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. A person who claims to have faith that can move mountains, but who has not the love of the Father, will love the world and the things that are in the world.

Faith that works by love is the spiritual defense system of the soul. Faith that works by love keeps the world at bay. Faith that works by love lifts up a standard against the devil and his evil minions. Faith
that works by love is the holy antitoxin that fights the deadly contagion of sin. Faith that works by love must be the motive force for worship. Love must be the energy that propels all Christian service.

Jesus said, “If you love Me keep My commandments” (John 14:15). The implication is, If you don’t love Jesus, forget the whole thing. Any motive for service which falls short of love for God completely misses
the mark. Fear of hell is not a good enough reason for standards of separation! Peer-pressure Christianity does not cut it!

Don’t serve God because you love or fear your pastor. Serve God because you love Him! People who have overcoming faith – faith that works by love – do not miss church without a reason that satisfies the
God they love. We bring a tenth of our increase to the Church, just because we love the Lord!

Faith that overcomes the world does not sit in the bleachers applauding or cower in the corner chewing its fingernails while the spirit of the world takes over. When faith, which works by love, sees the world
breaking in, it gets an adrenaline burst of love that enables it to meet the world head-on. Faith that works by love has never lost a battle against the world.

Jesus said to Ephesus: “I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast
found them liars: and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast labored, and hast not fainted” (Revelation 2:2-3). Ephesus hated what Jesus hated: “This thou hast, that thou barest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate” (verse 6).

Still, Ephesus was teetering on the brink of extinction. Jesus said, “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (verse 5). Why? “I have somewhat (this) against thee, because thou hast left (not lost) thy first love” (verse 4).

Lack of love vacuums the energy from faith. If you have left your first love, there is but one thing to do: repent!

Love is the active ingredient of everything that works in Christianity. Don’t be satisfied with looks and a nice flavor.

THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED IN THE AUGUST 1995 ISSUE OF TRUMPET, AND WAS WRITTEN BY SIMEON YOUNG, SR. THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN COPYRIGHTED, AND MAY BE USED FOR RESEARCH AND STUDY PURPOSES ONLY.