Faith Is Expressed In Love

One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” - Luke 7:36-39

Love and faith are intricately connected. It’s my belief that you can’t have one without the other. You need both. In this story we see something beautiful. A sinful woman of the city, which is a nice way to say prostitute, comes to the house of a Pharisee who had invited Jesus over for dinner. As they are eating, the sinful woman weeps at Jesus feet and anoints him with a broken jar full of perfume.

I’m convinced that it’s only in our brokenness that we can truly worship. Anytime we come to the Lord with pride in our hearts, we can sing and dance, but we can’t call it true worship. True worship comes from a place of true brokenness. This woman was broken and she knew that forgiveness was sitting at table eating dinner.

It was the love of the sinful woman, overflowing in her actions of anointing Jesus and weeping at his feet that showed her faith. She believed that he could forgive her sins and her actions sprang forth from that deep well of hope.

I believe this is one of, if not the primary way, that our faith demonstrates itself — through love. What is faith, if you don’t have love? The Apostle Paul says it’s a worthless faith (1 Cor. 13:2).
The primary duty of a Christian then is not to increase their faith, but to increase our love. Love requires action. So in order to increase our love, we should increase the acts of love that we do for God and others.

The feelings of love (true love, not lust or really liking something) only come when and after we do the acts of love. If you are having trouble loving someone, start doing the acts of love toward that person and you will soon see that the feelings of love with follow.

Prayer - Lord, I thank you for the testimony of this sinful woman. I see myself in her, desperately seeking to show my love for you. Jesus, help me to love you and others well today. Amen. 

^{Cornerstone Church is a non-denominational church located in Clayton, NC. We are located at Fayetteville Street Station at 11155 US Hwy 70, Suite C, Clayton, NC 27520. We have a Sunday morning service at 10 am and homegroups throughout the week. For more information, please contact pastorbrian@heisthecornerstone.org}