When the Message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words. Something happened in you. The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.

The word has gotten around. Your lives are echoing the Master’s Word, not only in the provinces but all over the place. The news of your faith in God is out. We don’t even have to say anything anymore—you’re the message!

Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. Day and night you’re in our prayers as we call to mind your work of faith, your labour of love, and your patience of hope in following our Master, Jesus Christ, before God our Father.

1. Who we are – what we believe about ourselves and our position in Christ.

2. What we do – what we believe about what God says we can do as individuals and as a church ( a group of disciples).

faith = pistis!

Conviction of the truth of anything, belief; in the NT of a conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things generally with the included idea of trust and holy fervour born of faith and joined with it

A. relating to GodB. relating to ChristC. the religious beliefs of ChristiansD. belief with the predominate idea of trust (or confidence) whether in God or in Christ, springing from faith in the same

James 2:14-20 - MSGDear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?

I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove

Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

work = ergon

1 business, employment, that which any one is occupied

A. that which one undertakes to do, enterprise, undertaking

2 any product whatever, any thing accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind

3 an act, deed, thing done: the idea of working is emphasised in opp. to that which is less than work

James 2:17 - AmplifiedSo also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).

Matt 5:16 - NIVIn the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

“Let your dreams be bigger than your fears, your actions louder than your words, and your faith stronger than your feelings. “