When John the Baptist told the people of his day that they weren’t living right and needed to behave differently, some of them protested ‘We have Abraham as our Father’ (Lk3:8) – as if that was enough. It’s a kind of faith to believe that having a certain person as your ancient ancestor is enough, but John gave them short shrift. And when others asked ‘What should we do?’ he told them.
That’s the thing about faith – it’s not just something that happened then, it’s something that comes with us and reaches into every corner of our lives. It makes a difference.
In the Bible, Abraham is held up as an example of faith – and when you look at his life, you see how his faith is revealed through the things he did. Jesus said “If you were Abraham’s children then you would do what Abraham did.”
There are people today who think that ‘being baptised’ is enough, but the consistent message in the Bible is quite different. Baptism is a first act of faith, which is followed by a life of faith.
What do you do because you have faith in God?
What difference does your faith make to your life?
Raymond