Jesus consistently taught people to abandon sin, to live lives of charity and righteousness and to follow his teachings and sayings.
Matthew 7:
“24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. “
According to Jesus it is very important not only to hear his sayings (Jesus had just given the sermon on the mount), but to do them.
I don’t believe for a moment that people who take Jesus at his word and try to follow his teachings are being tricked into following the devil.
Remember what James says, faith without works is dead.
Regards,
Normandy
First, can works generate faith, or do works evidence the presence of faith? ... Before you put both feet in your mouth to spew some fable of Mormonism, the Bible answers that very clearly. I would advise you to dig for it but I am convinced that Mormonism has so blinded your mind that you would not see it if you stumbled across it, so I'll enumerate.
Look carefully at the story of Abraham taking Isaac up on the mountain for the ritual of sacrifice that God had commanded Abraham to carry out. Before Abraham set foot up the mountain, he gave them/us a clue to those who were told to wait while he went up the mountain.
Abraham told the waiters that 'they would return to them after the ritual was completed'. THAT IS THE Working of indwelling faith, for though Abraham had not brought along a sacrifice for the ritual, he believed there would be one, and if it be his son he trusted--faithed, as in the verb faithing--that God would keep His precious promise to make of Abraham descendants more numerous than the grains of sand, through Isaac. Abraham was faithing in the Promises of God without having a time machine to know what or how God would make it so, thus it was counted for him righteousness (Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ). Now this was before the Crucufixion and resurrection.
Read Hebrews and see what the author has to say about the exercising of faith. Faith in Jesus as Savior, Redeemer, THE Deliverer is the substance God values, not your works you trust are done to earn worthiness.
Abraham exhibited faith in God's promises BEFORE he acted out his faith on the mountain, but he did act out his faith, thus his faith was alive not dead without works. The lesson is that faith when it is alive and you are 'faithing' in God's Promises will exhibit acts/works BECAUSE HE indwells your human spirit, not because you're striving to earn His Grace. There are other examples in Hebrews which will help to elucidate this concept. Enjoy