To Know, and not yet to Do, is not yet to Know.

When I was a teenager I spent six years taking Karate.  Our lessons not only included learning different fighting combinations and blocking techniques, we were also required to memorize a number of creeds.  These creeds often served not only as lessons on why we learn karate, but also lessons on life itself.  When I was 12, I learned a creed that was very short, but ultimately served to teach a valuable lesson: "To Know, and not yet to do, is not yet to Know."  This is a creed that I never forgot, and interestingly enough, it is also a lesson that was taught by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  

Jesus taught us that Salvation is not something that can be earned through works and deeds, it is a gift that is offered freely by God, we need only to accept it.  Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly tells us that we are only saved through Grace and not by works.  However, some then ask the question "If Grace is Freely Offered, then why is that Christians always seem to preach the necessity of doing good works?"  The answer to this question is that doing good works is the natural outcome of following salvation through Christ.  Those who accept the Grace that Christ offered us preach and do good works not in the hopes of gaining favor with God, but because it's the natural thing to do, and the right thing to do.  We do good, because we are living out God's grace.  

Some Christians do make the mistake of preaching that it is necessary to do good works in order to obtain salvation, but this is not what Jesus taught at all.  The truth is that if you do good works because you hope for a reward in return, whether it is a material reward or a spiritual reward, then you're not doing good works in order to help others.  You're doing good works in order to help yourself.  Salvation is not obtained through work, or by following a check list of "Do This" and "Don't Do This."  Romans 3:20 teaches us that "No one will be declared righteous in God's sight by overserving the law: rather through the law we become conscious of sin."  Romans 3:23 elaborates further on this, stating: "We all fall short of the Glory of God."  The truth of the matter is that good works do not justify us or make us righteous before God, nor or they the means to salvation.  Our good works are the fruit that grows from one who accepts the Grace of God and is transformed by that Grace as Matthew 7:17 states: "A Good Tree Produces Good Fruit."

However, there are those who profess to be believers in Christ, to be Christian, yet they do not do good works.  There are even some who do bad works and say that they do it in the name of Christ.  So how can they be Christian?  The answer is, they are not.  Going to a church every Sunday doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going into a garage every day makes you a car.  There are those who say that they believe in Jesus, but they don't live his teachings.  The reality is that they have not let Jesus into their hearts, and allowed the Grace to transform them.  They simply pay lip service to God.  God observed this throughout the time of the Old Testament when the Prophet Isaiah state in Isaiah 29:13 that "These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."  Jesus further reiterated this in Matthew 25:31-46 in which he states that on the Day of Judgement, the Christians who accepted and allowed the Grace to transform them would be admitted while the false Christians who only payed lip service wouldn't be.  

There are some who try and challenge the notion that Salvation comes only through "Grace" and not "Works" by citing James 2:26 in which the Apostle James states "Faith without Works is Dead."  However, those who say this don't quote the verse in its entirety, which states: "As the Body without the Spirit is Dead, so faith without deeds is dead."  James in truth is reiterating the same message that is taught throughout the New Testament, the a Good Tree Bears Good Fruit, and that our works are the fruit of the acceptance of God's Grace.  

The truth is that this creed that I learned in Karate is exactly what Jesus taught us, and that is if we don't "Do," then we never truly knew in the first place.  "Faith without Works is Dead" directly reflects the Creed of "To Know, and not yet to Do, is not yet to Know."  When we accept the Grace that God has willingly given us, we will do good, not because we feel obligated, or hope for reward, but because the we have allowed God's Grace to transform us.  We do good because it's right, and for no other reason.