Why is living out my faith important in daily life?

All that a Christian does ought to be sacred, because it is done as service to God. If this were borne in mind, it would enable us to connect the very simplest duties of daily life with the Lord Himself, and to bring Him into them in such a way as to impart a holy dignity and interest to all that we have to do, from morning till night. In this way, instead of finding the duties of our calling a hindrance to our communion with God, we should actually make them an occasion of waiting on Him for wisdom and grace to discharge them aright, so that His holy name might be glorified in the most minute details of practical life.

Verse 17 is a very simple direction, but how it sweeps things away: "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." If you are going to buy a house - are you doing that in the name of the Lord Jesus? It is the motive that governs us. My life is not made up of heroisms, but of a hundred different little things; do them all in the name of Christ: it is everyday life. Supposing I am living three-quarters of my day without Christ, I then have to make an effort to get back. At the bottom of my heart, Christ, and at the top, blameless conduct, perhaps no one can reproach me, but a man in between the two. When I look back over today, has it been for Christ? Never do anything except for Christ; you will find it will keep the heart fresh.

319 You see here His heart going out to do it. Then you must have your lights burning. "Let your light (not your works) so shine before men," that they may know where your works come from, and "glorify your Father which is in heaven," that they may attribute them to God. I do whatever God tells me to do, and it is a testimony to Christ; people say, that is what comes from a man being a Christian! It is that there may be no uncertainty as to what we are, a well-trimmed lamp, the testimony of the life of Christ, that it may be manifested what I am, and what I am about - a pilgrim and a stranger, in a thousand different circumstances, the ordinary duties of life to perform, but one service, to be the epistle of Christ. I may be a carpenter, or a shoemaker, I must be a Christian. In various relationships, servants, masters, in eating or drinking, in our houses, wherever it is, I must be a Christian.

This is in reference to the first beatitudes. Salt preserves from corruption. Thus is the heir of the kingdom to be in the midst of all that which is corruption. But what when the salt becomes insipid? It becomes absolutely worthless and is trodden under foot. It was so with Jerusalem , it has become worthless; it has been trodden down by the Gentiles and Christendom will be that, nay is, in the age of Laodicea . Ye are the Light of the world. This is in reference to the last three beatitudes. This is followed by the exhortation: "Let your light thus shine before men so that they may see your upright works, and glorify your Father who is in the heavens." But what light is it which is to shine? Surely this can mean only the reflection of Him who is the Light. "He does not say let your good works shine, but let your light shine; that is, let Christ shine in your life; not that ye may see your good works, but that men see them; not to your glory, but to the glory of your Father."

But when addressing disciples, taking them on the ground of their profession, He tells them of His Father as their Father. None but He of course could understand the full blessedness implied in such a relationship. Still, where it existed it was a very real thing. His Father was the Father of all those who were His disciples in truth. Such, as born of God, were partakers of the divine nature; hence the character and ways of their Father should be displayed by them. No one on earth has seen God the Father; yet something of Him should be learned by men from the walk, the daily life, of the Lord's disciples; and their Father would be glorified, as men saw that which was right, and owned that it was right, practised by His disciples. Of this the Lord speaks in the sermon on the mount: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in the heavens" (v. 16). Something of what He is would thus be set forth.

If on this side we may appear before God in the name of Christ, on the other, it is enjoined upon us to do everything, whether amongst our fellow-believers or in the world, in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. (Col. 3:17.) These two aspects are constantly, and in every variety of manner, presented in the Scriptures. In John 17, for example, after the Lord has put the disciples in His own place before the Father, He gives them His own place before the world. Peter, in like manner, teaches that, if believers are a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, they are also a royal priesthood to show out, in the world, the praises (excellencies) of Him who has called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. This is only to state the blessed truth that the believer is inseparable from Christ, whether before God. or before men, that through grace he is so bound up with all that He is, and has accomplished, that he enters the holiest in all the value of His person and His work, and passes through the world as His representative. Indeed, this last word most nearly expresses what it is to act in the name of Christ, or, as in this scripture, in the name of the Lord Jesus. It is to act on His behalf, and under His authority. What an ambassador, or a plenipotentiary is in relation to his sovereign, the Christian is in relation to Christ. He is to be governed entirely by the will of His Lord, he must, with all fidelity, express His mind, study His instructions, and seek in every way to advance His interests. Self and selfish objects can have no place in such a mission: his motto must be that of the apostle Paul, "To me to live is Christ"; Christ alone the motive and object of all his activities.

Young believers, especially, when their hearts are getting away from God, will ask such questions as: What harm is there in going to such a place? cannot I go to a concert? to a flower show? I answer, Yes; if you can do it in the name of the Lord Jesus. This test applies to every department of life. Christ is now to be everything in my life. I am called to express Christ in my life, and He is to be the motive of all my actions, the spring of all I do. Lip and life are the only two channels by which we can express anything, and Christ is to come out in my words and my ways.

Do all things "in the name of the Lord Jesus." Not only is Christ everything, but in everyone. Thus He becomes the spring and motive of our words and actions. In John 16:23, 28 the Lord seeks to carry the hearts of His disciples to the Father with whom the name of the Son is everything. It is there with the Father that we learn the power and value of that name. We learn to appreciate it as being dear to the Father. We ask of the Father in that name because it is the centre around which all the Father's glory circles. Thus we learn its value and the privilege of doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him. The day is coming when every knee will have to bow to that name, but before the dawning of that day, if we understand the Father's thoughts about it, and how He delights to glorify it, it will be our joy and privilege, in some little measure, to let our actions and words tell that the Father has taught us to appreciate it, and we shall give "thanks to God and the Father by Him."

We cannot be said to believe a thing any further than it affects our action. The man who professes belief in anything, but whose acting is uninfluenced by what he professes to believe, does not really believe at all: hence James's principle, "Faith without works is dead, being alone." "Show me thy faith without thy works [if thou canst] and I will show thee my faith by my works." A man shows me a Bank of England note, and asks me if I believe it genuine. I say, "Yes." He then offers it to me in payment of a debt, and I decline it. Did I believe the note to be genuine? No. I have proved by my action I did not. So long as I felt no personal interest I was carelessly willing to admit its genuineness; but when a practical test was proposed, that required me to stake my interest on my belief, my faith was lacking. The sincerity of our belief of any truth of God is tested in the self-same way. It is an easy matter to give assent to doctrines, but the touchstone of faith is, our readiness to act on the truths professed as though they were realities — as though that which is true to faith were just as real as if it were manifest to the senses.

Very simple this is, some one may say. It is simple. Have I only to believe to be justified? such an one may ask. We have to believe on Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, we reply. Is this faith, then, a mere assent of the mind? By no means. "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). God knows the moment that a person really believes His testimony concerning His Son. He, who reads the heart, waits not therefore for works to be seen, to justify that soul before Him; but faith, where real, is evidenced by works. Hence there is justification by works, as well as justification by faith. It is important for all to remember this. On this James insists most strongly (James 2:14-26), "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have not works? can faith save him?� … Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest there is one God; thou doest well: the demons also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is barren." Where faith, saving faith exists, there is spiritual life. Now that life will be manifested in displaying, in some measure, fruits of the divine nature (vv. 15-16), and in an activity in accordance with that which is believed. Where these are wanting, faith, being without works, is barren, fruitless. A belief in a fact, without the proper effect of that fact on the individual, is of no manner of use! The demons believe there is one God, but do not serve Him. Men, too, may avow their belief in a God, and may descant on the wonders of creation, but of what profit is that, if the divine Being remains to them simply an abstraction, One with whom they have no intercourse, and of whose revelation they remain in ignorance, without the slightest intention or inclination to give heed to it? "Faith without works is dead." Hence justification by works is as much to be insisted upon as justification by faith; not, indeed, that by the former one becomes entitled to a place before God, but it evidences that one has a standing in the divine presence.