I have already demonstrated in previous posts that there is a necessary coexistence between faith and knowledge, i.e., both are concurrent and commensurate as long as we remain in the same category. Furthermore I have maintained that these features are also essential to the relation between faith and obedience—one being necessary for the existence of the other. As I proceed I will demonstrate that this symmetrical coexistence is also to be extended to obedience in relation to love. In other words, a Christian cannot have love without having obedience as much as he cannot have a high degree of love without having the same degree of obedience. Both are inextricable and their development will always be commensurate.
The univocality of the Logos
The apostle John had been struck by the words of Jesus in this respect and reported them beautifully and convincingly: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15); “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me” (John 14:21); “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word” (John 14:23).
Jesus could not have been any clearer. He obviously believes that love without obedience is implausible in real life. Such love is only possible in fictitious caricatures put forth in religious cartoons or evangelical parodies. In practice it does not, and cannot exist.
John understanding the principle writes: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 John 5:3). To attempt to oppose the symmetrical coexistence of love and obedience would be an insurmountable challenge. The Bible is simply too univocal and categorical in this respect.
A second observation
Another meaningful correspondence is found in the love we have for God and the love we have for the brethren. Again it is the apostle John who publicizes this commensurate coexistence. Give attention to the wording he uses: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God who he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). Without the former, John insists, the latter has no substance left. We may as well look for a flower without molecules, or molecules without atoms.
Remarkably the apostle does not stop there. He immediately presents the other side of the coin. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2). According to John to claim to love the brotherhood as we should when we don’t love God as we should is a claim denying reality. And since our love for God cannot exceed our obedience to Him we can say: “To claim to love the brotherhood while living a life of disobedience amounts to a fictional claim disconnected from actuality.”
A logical equation
So far we have seen that faith and knowledge always coexist in symmetric proportions (post of March 11, 2015); the same is true of faith and obedience (post of March 23, 2015), or of love and obedience (present post). If it is so we should be able to apply the principle to any of the four entities we have dealt with, viz., faith, knowledge, love, and obedience. After all if A=B, B=C and C=D, then by logical necessity any of the four entities must equal each other. Consequently the claim that A=D or B=D must be true. If we transfer the logic of the equation to the four entities under consideration we should have faith=love. It must be so if the theorem faith & love = obedience is true. So let us see if the claim faith=love stands.
The proportional coexistence of Faith and Love
The Scripture teaches that faith without works is dead (James 2:20 & 26), that is, living faith will always coexists with its correspondent works. But the Bible also maintains that faith works through love. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). This being the case we can say that without love faith is paralyzed and no works can possibly come to existence. It follows that as living faith cannot exist without its corresponding works, nor can exceed them, it cannot exist without its corresponding love either, nor exceed it.
Another way to look at it is by considering the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) in which faith and love coexist proportionally. On that account it is only logical to conclude that the degree in which this fruit is manifested in our life equals the degree in which love and faith are manifested through us. Hence we see how faith and love coexist in the same proportion by logical necessity. Much more could be said but I believe these two considerations are sufficient for the moment.
A final windup
What is important here is to keep in mind how consequential spiritual growth is, and to comprehend the uniformity it imposes on every aspect of the Christian life. To seek to grow in faith while paying little attention to our progress in the realm of love only manifests a basic misconception of what Christianity really is. The same is to be applied to knowledge without obedience. The modern emphasis put on knowing, detached from an equivalent emphasis on obeying is highly revealing. Added to it, the objects of knowledge are normally carefully defined compared to the requirements touching obedience—the latter getting all the more foggy as the decades pass by.
It must be understood that there is only one Christian Life, and it is the Life of Christ. Hence a Christian is a person who is experiencing this Life and through whom the Life of Christ is being manifested; and believe me, it will never be manifested in independent bits and chips, fragmented as the beads of a broken necklace.
If you think this post can help somebody else you can share it with the options presented bellow.
