The only thing that counts....

Galatians 5:6 (the latter half) gives some badly needed clarification to the overly vague idea of "having faith in Jesus" which has become the core of the Christian religious tradition.
I've struggled for years with the disconnect between the church orthodoxy on being "saved by grace" through faith and Christ's command that we love our neighbor.
But this verse ties it all together....
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."

Faith is an intangible. You can't see it or feel it. If someone says they have faith, the only way you can know is if they show it. Yet, the church puts ALL the emphasis on the intangible. Whether or not someone is a "Christian" and thus "saved" depends not on their love of others, but on their professions of "faith" as determined by their acceptance or rejection of various creeds and dogmas of the church. They put a period after 'faith', so that it reads "The only thing that counts is faith...." And they leave off the rest of the sentence.