“Saving faith is to the soul what health is to the body: it is a mighty principle of operation, full of life, ever working, bringing forth fruit after its own kind.” A.W. Pink from Practical Christianity

It is unusual for me to start off a devotional with a quote which is not a bible passage. I do so today for an illustration of inspiration. Many quotes are inspired and can speak to people of God in many profound ways. This quote alone, without being in place with the main subject matter leaves an impression that will not cover all that it means.

The subject is saving faith and while the quote is inspiring, the words will not convey the truer deeper meaning of saving faith. Understanding saving faith had already been detailed by first identifying faith that does not save. This quote implies an image which we can draw meaning and inspiration while still not understanding the subject matter.

Let us take the principle of operation as a prime example. Saving faith is first gear in the principle operation of your vehicle for life. We of an older generation learned to drive on a standard transmission. First gear was the gear we started out with. If you started out in another gear the engine would stall out. We learned by experience where first gear was located.

Did finding first gear tell me how it came to be where it was located? Did it say anything about that gears relationship to the rest of the gears in the smooth operation of the vehicle? Was the gear more important than the linkage and clutch we used to engage first gear?

We didn’t want to know all this about first gear. We just wanted to drive. In this same manner it is the real danger of trying to live a life in Christ without knowing how to be engaged in Christ. Without saving faith in Christ you cannot be engaged.

So maybe it is more important than a quick quote or a glib remark.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

That is a large list of characteristics and behaviors. As you read the list there may be  a person or even a group of people who come to mind. Look closely and you will find the negative expression of nearly everything we are called to be in Christ. They are selfish, we are to be selfless. They are truce breaks, we are to be covenant keepers. They are false accusers, we are asked to walk in truth.

The one that is the easiest for me to spot these days are those who despise good. Just as soon as the news coverage starts focusing on natural affection, people helping people in need, there is a class of people who stage events to do violent things to draw attention away from anything good. They know that spectacle draws attention to coverage, to attention, and they want attention to spread their evil intentions. Easy to spot.

The one that bothers me the most is the one that is the hardest to identify. That is the last one, the form of godliness without God. Claiming power without obedience of faith, denial of the One who has the power. It bothers me more than the rest because the power of God is unto salvation and those who follow men and women that have the form but not the presence will deny the lost God’s salvation.

Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.