We believe that love is necessary, not works of the law. You are confusing the two. Actions of love are necessary for salvation. A work is something we do for pay, love is something we do for the other, not for ourselves. Without love, our faith is not "saving" faith. The exact same action can be considered either a "work" or a "good deed of love". It depends on the inner disposition of the person. Doesn't Jesus make that clear enough? It is our inner self that matters.
Last I looked love is a FRUIT of the Holy Spirit, so it is something the unsaved can not have . They may have a carnal human substitute, but it is not divine love indwelling them. So their work come from self love, carnal self seeking love not ordained by God for HIS glory .
Everything we do while abiding in Christ is a fruit of the Spirit. Whether it is faith, repentance, or love. I agree with you.
Here are men that believe their good works , done in the name of the Lord, works will save them
Perhaps the definitions are resulting in us talking past each other. Good deeds with loving intentions are NECESSARY for salvation. Faith alone doesn't save. Works cannot save because they do not have proper inner disposition. As long as we abide in Christ, our actions are meritorious.
Regards
I would say that when you do works believing that they aid in your salvation they are self serving, the primary goal is self love .
The inner disposition of the person? Do you mean the heart? God tells us the heart is deceitful and who can know it? We could call that self deception. The man in Matthew BELIEVED he had done works for the Lord, that is why he called attention to them. But Christ said they were inequity.
So the question is, if the heart is deceptive, even to the man it is in, and the man believes what he is doing he is doing in the Lords name, he could be wrong, correct? God could say to him "I never knew you"
Everything we do while abiding in Christ is a fruit of the Spirit. Whether it is faith, repentance, or love. I agree with you.
Do the unsaved abide in God? I am asking a salvation question. If a man is not saved, then his works are "filthy rags "not coming from the love that comes from the indwelling Holy Spirit. That would mean to God those good works are not coming from divine love and are inequity to Christ. They would not add a wit to his salvation right?
Perhaps the definitions are resulting in us talking past each other. Good deeds with loving intentions are NECESSARY for salvation. Faith alone doesn't save.
But the unsaved can not do any good works as i have pointed out all their works are sin to God and can add only to their damnation not their salvation. So we have a problem. A man can not be saved with works that God sees only as sin, there must be an inward change , a work of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit to have works that God considers meritorious .
Works cannot save because they do not have proper inner disposition. As long as we abide in Christ, our actions are meritorious.
That is what I would say, only the actions of the saved are acceptable to God. That being the fact they can not be "saving" because one needs to be saved to have God pleasing "works" .
So do works save..NO , something needs precede them to make them meritorious, that something is Faith
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Note Paul places salvation as coming from Faith, and the works only later as being ordained for us to walk in .
Sometime this is difficult dialog, because we use the same terms, but we mean different things