II Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Consider the word faith, which defined means to believe in the words of others. I often wonder if people really understand the definition in its strictest sense and what it means to obtain it. I wonder because my experience is that often people speak of their faith, claiming to have faith, to possess it, but are rarely able or willing to articulate what it is.
“Yeah, sure, I have faith. I believe in God”
“Well, what exactly do you believe about God? And more importantly, do you know what He wants you to know and believe?”
Again, can you explain it beyond the simplistic understanding that God created the heaven and earth, established the nation of Israel as a nation of His chosen people, the virgin birth of Jesus, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and faith in him for the salvation of your soul? While you might understand those high points, and I certainly believe it’s “enough” to be saved, is there more to know?
Of course, I think so. But, how does one go about growing in the faith? More importantly, what effect does living life with only a basic understanding of the word of God have on your relationship with God, with Jesus Christ, and with the church, the body of Christ at large? As always, I like to look at the spectrum of faith; from those who have none (atheists) to those who abound in faith and everyone in between. And all in context of essentially asking the same question I ask in most of my writings: Why do people choose not to go directly to the source of all knowledge and understanding of God to know its content to first of all learn what faith is and secondly to understand what, specifically, are we to believe for salvation at this moment in time?
I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with Christians who make it sound like they understand sooo much about God and His bible who in actuality are only spewing a bunch of Christiany sounding platitudes that sound good, but have no basis beyond their own thoughts…
“God is awesome…”
“God is love…”
“If people would just come to Jesus, and leave all of their cares and concerns with him, they would find such peace…”
When I hear these kind of things from professed Christians, I’m often struck by how contrived it sometime sounds. I also find myself wondering: “Do they truly have faith?” And to be clear, I’m not judging, I’m discerning. For that matter, can it even be discerned? That is, can we know the extent of each other’s faith? And more importantly, should we know the extent of each other’s faith?
In other words, is it enough to only go so far with each other to know that we are Christians of some sort, of some denomination or other, and that “God is awesome”? Or, do we have a responsibility to talk with each other about our faith and understanding in order to 1. Establish that we are, in fact, believing the same thing about the word of God, and if not, allowing any necessary correction/admonishment to take place and 2. Do so for the sake of building up the church, the body of Christ?
I think for most, people approach “religion”, faith, what have you, as something we should not discuss along with sex and politics because it invariably leads to disagreement, contention, and strife rather than anything constructive. And I tend to agree because it certainly has been my experience. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told that “you’re not doing it right”, “your approach is off putting”, “you’re intruding into my inner thinking and you were never invited”, things like that. As I’ve said before, I’ve learned that no amount of soft peddling the bible, easing my way into a discussion about God, or conversely just coming at it plainly and directly seems to persuade people into wanting to talk openly, honestly, forthrightly, about their faith.
“It’s deeply personal…”
“Those thoughts are between me and Jesus and no one else…”
You know what I think? I think it’s because the natural tendency is for people to not want to be found out for not knowing… For a lack of faith, for feeling guilty about not pursuing the knowledge and understanding God would have us go after, for having an Absence of Faith.
I think fear plays into it too. Not the fear of God kinda of fear, but the having to face myself kinda of fear. I mean, look at this passage from Hebrews and consider the depths of what going after the knowledge and understanding of the word of God will cost you:
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
You can’t hide from it. Some say, as you read it (the word of God), it reads you (he reads you). The word quick in the passage means alive, which ties right back to this passage in John:
John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
So you see, our faith is to be based on the content of the bible and not on supposition and imaginings stemming from our own personal contemplations of God, and for that matter, the contemplations of others… Our faith is to be derived from the words on the pages of the bible, the very words spoken by God, by Jesus, and all the men inspired by them, which are spirit and life. Which is to say, faith is not a feeling, is not an experience, and is not to be based on hearsay.
Faith is the product of the deliberate pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the written word of God. Any other approach, whether it be from the ordained clergy of a particular denomination or the extemporaneous teachings from the typical televangelist, results in an absence of faith simply because we’re believing in their words and their understanding of the bible, not the bible itself.
As I’ve stated time and again, God through Paul would have us be like the Bereans, instructing us to study to show ourselves approved, that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God:
Act 17:10-11
And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming [thither] went into the synagogue of the Jews.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.
II Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Romans 10:17
So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
So I ask, are you full of faith, or do you live in absence of faith?
