‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love’ (Gal. 5:6).
If you had to summarise the Christian life in four words, you probably couldn’t do better than ‘faith working through love’. This is what it means to live as a new creation in Christ (Gal.6:15).
True Christian faith is not merely believing gospel truths: it works through love. For what does the gospel do when it takes root in a Christian life and in a Christian fellowship? Paul knew that the Thessalonians were loved and chosen by God because the gospel had worked powerfully in them and produced fruit, including their ‘labour of love’ (1Thess.1:3-5). The fruit the gospel bore among the Colossians included ‘the love that you have for all the saints’ (Col.1:5). And so, confident that God would complete the work he had begun in the Philippians, Paul prayed that their ‘love would abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment’ (Phil. 1:9).
