Walking Barefoot Ministries

10/13/2026

FAITH ENERGIZED THROUGH LOVE
“The only thing that matters,” says St. Paul, “is faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). This is faith expressing itself through love, energized by love — and that can only be the energy of God at work, for God is Love. Love is not an optional add-on to faith but is essential to it. Faith without love lacks value and gains nothing. Without love, faith is useless.

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Faith without works is an abstraction, a concept with no incarnate reality. Faith reaches out in love. Love is the very form of faith. Whatever works we do, though they may otherwise be very good, yet if they are not energized by love, accomplish nothing, for there is nothing of God in them.

See how St. James and St. John, in their letters, agree with St. Paul concerning the dynamic of faith energized through love.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)

“Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone ... As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:21-24, 26)

“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” (1 John 2:7-11)

“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” (1 John 3:14-18)

See also how the early Church stands in agreement:

St. Ignatius of Antioch: “None of these things is hid from you, if you perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love. Now these two, being inseparably connected together, are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them.” (Epistle to the Ephesians 14:1)

St. Basil of Caesarea: “Faith and works must be joined: so shall the man of God be perfect, and his life not halt through any imperfection. For the faith which saves us, as says the Apostle, is that which works by love.” (Letter 295, to Monks)

St. Augustine: “The faith that saves is the faith that the apostle Paul adequately describes when he says, ‘For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but the faith which works through love.’” (Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love)

St. Leo the Great: “While faith provides the basis for works, the strength of faith comes out only in works.” (Sermons 10.3)

St. Hilary of Arles: “Works give life to faith, faith gives life to the soul, and the soul gives life to the body.” (Introductory Tractate on the Letter of James)

Faith without works is nothing but
abstraction and is quite worthless.
Faith without love gains nothing.
Nothing of God is in it,
for God is Love.

10/07/2026

Here is a Chat I did on the early Church Fathers and Capital Punishment. Much to consider here.

ChatGPT helps you get answers, find inspiration, and be more productive.

08/24/2026

WHAT GOD PERMITS & WHAT GOD WILLS
Nothing God permits can frustrate what God wills. Even what opposes God remains within the bounds of divine providence and in the end must serve God’s purpose. God may permit evil, suffering, sin, death, betrayal, and opposition, but he never permits them as rival powers. They are never ultimate but always remain bounded, contingent, and temporary. God’s will is always creative, providential, redemptive — and final.

The Cross is the supreme example. God permitted betrayal, injustice, mockery, violence, and death — yet none of these thwarted his will. By divine wisdom, they became the very means through which His saving will was accomplished. By means of the Cross, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no counting our sins against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). For God does not will that any should perish, but that all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

“God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:20-21)

What God permits can never undo,
overcome, or thwart what God wills.

06/06/2026

WHAT HAS BEEN HANDED DOWN
The Christian faith is participation in the life of Christ, not an adaptation to the spirit of the age. It is received reality, not constructed system. It is inherited, not innovated. St. Vincent of Lérins, in his Commonitorium (AD 434), famously described the faith of the Church as, “What has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.” So, as Orthodox theologian Georges Florovsky taught, Christian renewal is not reinvention but return to the Fathers. Not archaeological imitation but re-entering the mind of the Church.

The word that describes this is tradition, the relationship between what has been received (paralambano) and what has been handed on (paradidomi). Our English word, “tradition,” comes from the Latin, tradere, “to deliver, or hand over” (from trans- “over” + dare “to give”). The Greek word for it is paradosis (para, “over” + didomai, “to give”). We find it and comparable forms in several places in the New Testament.

“For I received [paralambano] from the Lord what I also passed on [paradidomi] to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread ...” (1 Corinthians 11:23)

“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received [paralambano] and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For I passed on [paradidomi] to you as of first importance what I also received [paralambano] – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures ...” (1 Corinthians 15:1-3)

“Whatever you have learned or received [paralambano] or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9)

“I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions [paradosis] just as I passed them on [paradidomi] to you.” (1 Corinthians 11:2)

“So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions [paradosis] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust [paratithiemi] to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2)

“Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted [paradidomi] to God’s holy people.” (Jude 3)

Scripture itself is part of the tradition, passed on to us by the Church, but we can see in the above passages that the handing down of the Christian faith was not through Scripture alone but also through liturgical act, through preaching, through what was heard and seen and was practicable. It was oral and visible as well as written. This was not the tradition of men but divine revelation, the faith handed down from the apostles to the saints.

04/21/2026

THE NATURE OF FAITH
Faith in Christ is different from faith in propositions about Christ. The latter makes faith nothing more than an abstraction, disembodied and detached from the person of Christ, and from relationship with Christ — because Christ is not the object of such a faith. True faith in Christ is a living, dynamic, and personal relationship with Christ.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will sn**ch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)

“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:1-3)

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (Galatians 5:6)

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04/15/2026

SALVATION IS LIFE LIVED IN CHRIST
Salvation is a Life lived in Self-Giving, Other-Centered, Cross-Shaped Love, the Life of Christ in me. It is not merely a status, but a way of life — participation in the life of Christ.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

04/13/2026

THE LOGOS OF GOD AND OF ALL THINGS
Jesus Christ is the Logos of God — the Reason, Meaning, Purpose, and Truth of God. As the Creator of all, He is also the Reason, Meaning, Purpose, and Truth of creation. He is the Logos of creation, and everything that exists is a logos of Him, revealing Him. For all things in heaven and on earth are created by Him, through Him, and for Him, and in Him all things hold together, finding their being and fulfillment.

03/18/2026

THE INTERPENETRATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
By Creation, the Incarnation and the Cross, our Lord Jesus Christ is the interpenetration of heaven and earth, of eternity and time, of divinity and humanity – of God and humankind. He is the image of the invisible God, in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form, and in whom we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature. All are created through Christ, by Christ, for Christ and in Christ. All are in Christ, and Christ is in all, giving being to all.

“The Son is the Image of the Invisible God, the Firstborn Over All Creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the Head of the Body, the Church; he is the Beginning and the Firstborn from Among the Dead, so that in everything he might have the Supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all, whether on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20)

The eternal purpose of God in Christ is the reconciliation of all in heaven and on earth to himself and to each other, through Christ, through the blood of the Cross — to bring all together in unity, everything in heaven and on earth summed up in Christ. The word St. Paul uses for this in Ephesians 1 is *anakephalaiomai*, using a root, *kephale*, that refers to the head.

“God did this when he revealed to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up [*anakephalaiomai*] all things in Christ – the things in heaven and the things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10 NET)

Christ has not merely come in the fullness of time but he himself is the fullness of time, in which all in heaven and on earth are made one — with Christ as the Head. What does this mean, then, but that all in heaven and on earth finally become the Body of Christ? For there is no Head without a Body. Just a few verses later, Paul deepens the significance of this:

“That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be Head [*kephale*] over everything for the Church, which is his Body, the Fullness of Him Who Fills everything in every way.” (Ephesians 1:19-23)

Christ is the one who fills all things, the whole of creation, in every way — and the Church is that fullness. Christ and His Body, the Church, are the interpenetration of heaven and earth. Heaven and earth mutually indwell one another, yet there is no separation or confusion. They truly meet and participate in one another, but neither loses its identity. Nothing is erased but everything finds its true meaning and purpose as all are gathered together in Christ.

02/14/2026

The Incarnation is what makes us Human.

02/10/2026

CHRIST THE UNITY OF ALL THINGS
All Creation participates in the being of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is created by him, through him, for him, and in him. Everything holds together in him. St. Paul speaks of the mystery of God’s eternal will and pleasure, to bring all in heaven and on earth to unity, all summed up in Jesus Christ.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

“God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)

“Creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bo***ge to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:19-23)

We are each connected with one another and with all that is. Through Christ, God created all things and formed us from the earth. In the Incarnation, Christ united Himself with humankind — and so with all creation. The whole world groans together with us, awaiting the revelation of the children of God.