No matter the semantics that Catholics play with "works" being obeying the Mosaic Law or Spiritual and Corporeal Works of Mercy, the Scripture is clear - we are saved NOT by righteous deeds, NOR works of the law, NOR any of our own righteousnesses BUT by the grace of God through faith. Anytime anyone starts adding what "we" must do to merit being saved - OR staying saved - it stops being the Gospel and becomes an accursed message.
It is when we have been saved that the outward evidence of saving faith is shown. But, here's a BIG clue: we can't love God above all else nor can we love our neighbor as Christ loves them - it is HUMANLY impossible. If anything we do has to be added to the sacrifice Christ made on our behalf in order to save us - IT STOPS BEING BY GRACE!
Does God want us to live holy lives? YES. Does God want us to love each other as Christ loves them? YES. But thinking either we must do these things in order to earn salvation OR that accomplishing such things in the carnal, old nature is at all possible is foolishness and will lead to condemnation NOT redemption. We come to God as sinners incapable of saving ourselves and we, by faith, receive His gift of grace. Anything else added to that equation STOPS being grace. There is a mental block that prevents some people from recognizing just how destitute we are - that there is not one thing we do that can possibly make us worthy of eternal life - and that the ONLY way we can be saved is by receiving the gift of eternal life through faith in Christ. That block is the product of man-made religion that wants to pile on the praise of others, that NEEDS to believe we are really good and pious people. It is a sham and a lie that comes from the enemy of all men's souls - the devil.
Only the Holy Spirit of God can remove those fabricated blocks, take away the scales over our eyes unstop our ears and give us a heart of flesh in place of the one of stone. He has and HE will continue to do it, to the glory of God!
Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His nercy He saved us. (Titus 3:5)
I have never said that we are saved by deeds or works. What I have said is that good works are evidence of our love and that where they are absent so too is Salvation.
I disagree that we cannot love God above all else. I have known those that I believe have and when the lives of the saints and martyrs are examined there is ample evidence that one can. I can't say that it is easy or common, but it is not impossible and is certainly something we should strive to do.
Faith does not save. Faith can lead you to love, but only love can save.
Peace be with you.
“Regarding the debate about faith and works: It’s like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important.”
~C.S. Lewis
Indeed, here Paul does not specify what kind of works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
The Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, not as a means of salvation. It never was as a means of salvation so if the works of the Law were incapable of saving, no other added works could save or God would have given them in the first place so that we could have been saved without Jesus needing to die.
Galatians 2:20-21 20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Galatians 3:24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.