Saving faith and living faith come not from us. If you have faith and if you live by faith it comes from hearing Gods word.
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Your faith will fail but the faith of God endures. Jesus was faithful and His faithfulness is imputed to us. Only perfect faith is acceptable to God.
For the cause of Christ
Roger
No man can have two masters. Either you serve sin or you serve God but you are subject to one or the other.
Redemption involves you being purchased by Christ. You are a servant of Christ if you have been saved. You serve Christ either to good or to shame but in any case you serve Christ and He is glorified.
Scripture declares that we know we are saved by the witness of the Holy Spirit not the quality of our lives. Consider those who live in third world countries and measure the quality of their life with even the poorest here in this country.
Ro 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
For the cause of Christ
Roger
Wrong on your understanding on both points, as faith does come from hearing the Word of God.
And after hearing we put or faith and trust in Jesus and follow what He said for us to do, people after hearing and reading the Word of God still choose rather to obey and follow Jesus or not.
Which is why you have a number of pretend Christians sitting in the pews, thinking just by reading their bibles and going to church on Saturday or Sunday they are saved.
This is a false understanding as faith in Jesus is not an inactive one that does not have fruit of the Spirit evident in us believers life.
Paul, Peter, James, and definitely John shows that quality of life is proof of one who is saved.
Apostle John who is the clearest of all breaks down the walk of a believer, and states quite clearly if you do not act a certain way or treat others properly then the Truth and eternal life does not abide in you.
The Holy Spirit does not leave true believers continuing down the same sinful paths, we are chastised and corrected by the Lord through His Holy Spirit.
Quality of life does not mean wealth and prosperity, it means how you personally act and treat others !!!
By bringing up third world countries it seems that is all you focus on when quality of life is mentioned, but that is not all what was being stated.
A person in a third world country can still be loving and caring and obedient to the ways of God, Jesus even shows how blessed these people are because they go through even harsher conditions yet still keep their faith strong. Something we in U.S. take for granted, which is why some here lose faith over things they in those countries would look at as stupid as they face those conditions everyday.
The Holy Spirit is not the only witness for us, as there are three;
1 John 5:7-8 Holy Spirit, Baptism, and Jesus blood