1. The Doubting Disciples - “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40
2. The Pushy Patient - “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:34
3. The Grieving Father - “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” Mark 5:36
4. The Offended Neighbors - “And He wondered at their unbelief.” Mark 6:6
Yesterday in our Sunday morning Bible study we read all of the various stories of Jesus’ ministry in which He makes these statements about faith. We identified the statements, and listed them like you see them above, and then I asked: “What is faith? Give me a definition.”
An enthusiastic answer from the couch to my left: “It’s believing in something that can’t necessarily be proved.”
Boom. Right there. An excellent answer, and quite articulate for a Sunday morning crowd. And it’s a correct answer – as far as the modern world is concerned. This is the definition of faith that everyone seems to take for granted, and accept as true. People of faith accept this definition and defend it based on the authority of tradition and personal religious experience. People who are skeptical or openly critical of faith take this as Exhibit A that faith has no place in a world based on the concrete foundation of empirical proof, the bedrock of hypotheses, test, repeat.
The only problem with that definition is that, biblically speaking, that’s not what faith is.
We think “faith,” and instantly think of mental assent to propositions. We say “believe” and think “accept as truth.” Faith, we think, is a word about thinking. It’s a word about ideas. It is in the same way that most things involving humans are about ideas, but it’s also about more than that.
The Greek word for faith is pistuo. We translate it in English as “faith,” “belief,” …and “faithful.” Ultimately, it’s more a word about trust than about mental assent to propositions. It’s more about loyalty than lists of systematic theology. It is the commitment to something or someone - the aligning of your life around a person, or cause, or goal. Biblically, speaking, that’s faith. It’s a word about trust that leads to action, specifically the actions that define the direction of your life.
Belief, our modern world tells us, should be based on evidence – testing and building an airtight case. But what is trust based on? Or what is loyalty based on? Past experience, we might say - both our own experience and those with whom we identify as our community. Trust might also be based on hope for the future – that the best intention of a person is worthy of our commitment. But is there ever an airtight case for trust? Doesn’t it always involve risk? Belief, in the modern conception, requires evidential proof. But trust, in any age, requires a leap.
Look at the verses above (and, as always for greater understanding, look at the context in which they were said).
Faith is:
In contrast to fear
A motivator for action – specifically, the action of healing or deliverance
Conversely, its lack prevents such action
Everyone has faith, biblically speaking. Whether it’s in yourself or another person, or money, or power, or something more ineffable and intangible. You align your life around some sort of center. The question is, do you have faith/trust/loyalty in something or someone that deserves it?
This new/old definition of faith does not necessarily solve any problems between God and man – it may just pose different questions.
Faith/trust/loyalty can be naïve, can be misplaced, and can be betrayed. You might be surprised at how much of the Bible deals with the question of whether God is worthy of such faith/trust/loyalty. These questions about God often have to do with issues of justice. We should not be surprised that the ministry of Jesus was much concerned with others’ faith/trust/loyalty in Him as God’s representative, including the faith/trust/loyalty (or lack thereof) of his own disciples. It may just be that Jesus’ life was meant to be an answer to the question of the justice of God.
This definition of faith also affects what we think about “doubt.” If faith is about trust, then doubt is not just being unsure of propositions or positive statements of mental assent, it is the state of not being sure who or what to trust, or what to be loyal to. It also means that one can be a doubter and still be a person attempting to have faith, trying to trust, trying to be loyal, trying to be faithful. It could mean there is a place for doubters on the Way of Faith, walking as faithfully as possible, but not entirely sure they are on the right road. There is room on the Way for those walking in obedience, but scratching their heads at the same time.
What do you have faith in? What’s at the center of your life? What are you depending on to catch you when you jump into the unknown? Is it worthy of your trust?
5. The Frantic Father - I think the most honest prayer in the Bible is the prayer of the father in Mark 9:24. “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
I trust You. Help my mistrust. I am loyal to You. Help me not to be disloyal. I have faith. Help my un-faith.
