AstroAg17 said:
Can you elaborate on why true faith demands a response? I think there are many examples of people failing to respond appropriately to things they know to be true. I'd expect this to extend into religion. In other words, I'd expect there to be many people who have accepted Christ who still fail regularly, and that's what we observe. Actions are an imperfect metric for assessing things like faith and belief.
I believe in things around me because I can see and feel them. I believe in people I've met and in people I haven't met. They make no demands of me. I never met Jesus, outside of the Eucharist, yet I believe in Him. He said he was the Son of Man and He was crucified, among other reasons, for making heretical statements. He was either a whack job, an outright liar, or the Lord, the Messiah, the Word made flesh. I believe the latter because God called me to this belief, because I was Baptized with this belief, because my family and friends and Church formed me in this belief. And I believe this because there were witnesses to His resurrection, many of whom died horrific deaths for no reason other than refusing to deny what they saw and who they believed in. Why would they make up such an outrageous lie? All it got them was persecution and often death.
Then when you go back and read and listen to what Jesus told his followers, he absolutely demanded a response in order to follow him. He asks that I seek forgiveness, that I repent and turn away from sin, that I love even my enemies, that I forgive 70 times 7 (fullness), that I seek after Him, etc. He doesn't ask that I say that I believe in Him and go on living my merry way, ignoring the poor, the hungry, the sick, the naked, the imprisoned. He demands a response. A change. I fail him time after time, but He calls me back.
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