Orthodoxy Minus Orthopraxy = Dead Religion

This issue has been on my mind quite a bit recently for several reasons - from discussions that I have had with my colleagues, from taking life views around me in several different environments that I am part of (work, local church, family - just to name a few). I have just finished teaching through the New Testament letters of Paul in a course that I teach - New Testament Literature and Interpretation. This issue of the relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxy and its link to faith is a continual topic throughout these letters. Paul seems to be saying emphatically that your belief system - whatever system that may be - must be matched by your everyday life. And Paul was emphatically making this point to those who were claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ. The point he was making over and over - one which I wholeheartedly agree with - is that your belief system is worthless if it does not have a life changing and altering impact. Paul was pretty strong with his point - one that needs to be clarioned loudly today - that an orthodoxy that is not complemented with an orthopraxy equals a dead religion. Jesus Christ has not called his followers to a uninteresting, and honestly sickening, system of dead religion. Instead, he has called us to a life of radical "likeness" to His image - in all that we do and say. We have been called into this relationship with Jesus Christ in order to love God supremely and to love others in the same essence as we love ourselves. A question I continually ask myself is "Do I really love God - as evidenced by my lifestyle - supremely? Or are there other things/persons that get my supreme love and God gets the leftover love?" Which leads me to the next question I am continuing to struggle with, "Do I really love others in the same essence as I love myself? Do I really desire to see God bless others with the same passion that I seek His blessing in my life?" God, help me have a generous orthodoxy that leads to a generous orthopraxy in my life. I DO NOT want to simply live out a dead religion, but instead I want to joyfully live out an eternal and abundant faith! Give me a solid orthodoxy that leads to a passionate orthopraxy that results in a radical and non-predictable life of faith!