Works are not the means for salvation. When one gives their heart and life to Christ, the heart is changed.
When a person is redeemed by submitting to Jesus and the acceptance of salvation from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, then it follows, sometimes slowly, the person desires to follow God's instructions, the commands of Jesus and do the good works that come as a result of being led to 'love our neighbor as our self/. The Good Samaritan parable is the example Jesus gave. The good deeds are to follow our Lord's instructions, and to be pleasing to Him. Not the means of salvation.
It is Satan that keeps people confused and misunderstanding the Scriptures. He is a master of deception. Agreed?
Father God, help us in our day, in Jesus name, amen.
Then she dies in an accidental fire, and the "faith only" God sentences the little girl to suffer burning for eternity because she didn't believe in Jesus. That is evil. That is an evil God in my opinion. That is NOT love. That is NOT Christianity. That is a God that made a little girl he knew very well was going to follow the faith of her parents and then burns her forever for not believing in him.
There's no way anybody is ever going to convince me that that is not an evil God. That is why I want nothing to do with a "faith only" deity. I'd rather burn with that little girl that worship a God that evil.
I have a bunch of agnostic and atheist friends that don't worship Christ or God but they're very good people, and some of the most "Christian" people I have ever met. They are filled with compassion and love, and they do unto others as they would want done unto them. They just don't have the faith I was born with.
The "faith only" God condemns these friends of mine. Why make these wonderful and loving yet skeptical people only to later torture their souls for eternity because they happen to hold the same skepticism he gave them? Is that not evil? Again it's the little boy burning ants with a magnifying glass in the hot afternoon sun. I'm not worshiping that "kid" and he has nothing to do with a Christ that asks that his murderers be forgiven.A God that demands "faith" for salvation yet hides himself from so many that would gladly worship him if he weren't so remote to them is evil.
One of my favorite things about Orthodox Christianity is it's refusal to believe it knows where or how the Holy Spirit works outside Orthodox Christianity. That's an honesty few religions possess. That's a God with endless possibilities of love. That's a God I can, and do worship.