When Jesus taught, the Gospel says that "he spoke with authority."

• "...they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes."

Jesus spoke the word of God as no one had ever done before. When the Scribes (as many of the teachers of Holy Scripture were called in New Testament times) taught they had to support their statements with quotes from sources greater and more respected than themselves.  Even the prophets of the Old Testament spoke with what we might call delegated authority – “Thus says the Lord.”  With Jesus it was entirely different:  he needed no authorities to back him up. He was authority incarnate –  the Word of God made flesh.  When he spoke, God spoke. When he commanded even the demons obeyed.

S Augustine of Hippo once wrote:

• “...faith is mighty, but without love it profits nothing. The devils confessed Christ, but lacking charity it availed nothing. They said, 'What have we to do with you (Mark 1:24)?'  They confessed a sort of faith, but without love. Hence they were devils.” 

S Augustine is echoing the words of S Paul, when he wrote that faith, without love, profits nothing (1 Corinthians 13). Scripture tells us that true faith works through love (Galatians 5:6) and abounds in hope (Romans 15:13). Our faith is made perfect in love because love orients us to the supreme good which is God himself as well as the good of our neighbor who is created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26,27). Hope anchors our faith in the promises of God and purifies our desires for the things which will last for eternity. That is why the word of Christ has power to set us free from all that would keep us bound in sin, deception, and despair.  That is what our lessons this coming Sunday at S Giles are all about.