Faith that works by love

9. It is impossible indeed to have too high an esteem for the faith of God’s elect. And we must all declare, By grace ye are saved through faith:――not of works, lest any man should boast. We must cry aloud to every penitent sinner, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But at the same time we must take care to let all men know, we esteem no faith but that which worketh by love: and that we are not saved by faith, unless so far as we are delivered from the power as well as the guilt of sin. And when we say, Believe and thou shalt be saved; we do not mean, “Believe and thou shalt step from sin to heaven; without any holiness coming between; faith supplying the place of holiness:” but, believe and thou shalt be holy: believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt have peace and power together. Thou shalt have power from him in whom thou believest, to trample sin under thy feet; power to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and to serve him with all thy strength. Thou shalt have power, by patient continuance in well-doing, to seek for glory and honour and immortality. Thou shalt both do and teach all the commandments of God, from the least even to the greatest. Thou shalt teach them by thy life as well as thy words, and so be called great in the kingdom of heaven.