Jamie: Faith of a mustard seed. This is righteous resistance training.
Symeon: I’m not sure Paul meant that literally.
Jamie: Oh, so you’re works-based now?
Symeon: ...And so it begins.
Main Segment: Faith and Works – A 500-Year Tension
Symeon: So let’s get into it. Faith and works. Grace and obedience. Some say it’s a contradiction. Others say it’s a dance.
Jamie: I say it’s exhausting. Can’t I just love Jesus and do my taxes?
Protestant View – Justification by Faith Alone
Symeon: During the Reformation, Luther and the Reformers said: We are saved by faith alone. Good works are the fruit, not the root.
Jamie: So it’s like... salvation is a tree. Faith is the seed. Fruit happens.
Symeon: Exactly. But if there’s no fruit, you might start asking what kind of seed it was.
Catholic View – Faith Working Through Love
Symeon: The Catholic Church agrees that salvation starts with grace — but sees it as a journey. Faith must be lived. Grace can be resisted. Works are real cooperation.
Jamie: So grace is free... but you’ve got to carry it carefully or it leaks?
Symeon: More like it grows if you nurture it — through prayer, sacraments, love.
Jamie: That sounds very Italian.
Symeon: …Because it is.
Orthodox View – Healing, Not Ledger-Keeping
Symeon: In Orthodoxy, salvation isn’t about balancing faith and works. It’s about becoming like Christ. Obedience and prayer aren’t currency — they’re therapy.
Jamie: Wait… I thought Orthodoxy was all incense and stairs.
Symeon: It’s all incense and healing. The stairs are just cardio.
The Faith Sandwich Analogy
Symeon: Let me put it this way. If salvation were a sandwich…
Evangelical: Open-faced with faith as the base
Catholic: Layered club with grace and sacraments
Jamie: So mustard = sanctification?
Symeon: Depends on the denomination.
Closing
Symeon: So maybe the debate isn’t about whether faith or works saves. Maybe it’s about how grace moves.
Jamie: …And whether you’re holding the sandwich or being held by it.
AI (voiceover):
“Faith without works is dead. But works without love are just noise.”
“Some traditions weigh. Others walk. But all long to be made whole.”
“If I had faith… I’d use it to listen first.”
Next time on The TheoLounge: “Gospel of Architecture”
