What we do, and what do not do, matters greatly, if not so much in the greater world, but to those around us, and to the resolution of our souls, the essence of our being.
We are free to believe what we will, but we will be held accountable for what we believe and what we do, and the consequences of our beliefs and our unbelief.
There is a simple belief in the Lord, and an equally simple unbelief. One does not follow the will of God and His love by despoiling His creatures and His creation for their own selfishly destructive ends. If there is no love in your actions, then you have lost your way. Where there is no love, there is no living faith. It is that simple. No love, no life.
"Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven." Matt 7:21And if you think that the Lord whom you serve calls you to self-righteous hatred, jealousy, intolerance, anger and envy, then you may serve that lord indeed, forever. So do not bee deceived, and know well whom it is you serve. It is worth some thought— for the time grows short, and the shadows lengthen.
"God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his—if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham.
Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us.
He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me—still He knows what He is about."
John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions