Writings: Active Faith

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

What is Faith? Religious people talk a lot about faith. We talk about having faith, living faith, practicing faith; we talk about being faithful, we talk about the content of our faith, the precepts of our beliefs, and why we believe. Sometimes it’s stated that religious faith doesn’t require any kind of evidence, or that faith is belief in the absence of knowledge; this idea misses the whole point of religious or spiritual faith … perhaps we’ll look at that some other time.

I am often asked why I take the time to reference the meanings of various words in my sermons; and it’s true, I often employ word studies while I’m preaching. I find that my understanding of the scriptures is often informed, amplified, and enhanced by a close study of the Bible in its original languages. I also find that explaining specific words of importance in any given passage can help us to understand and apply the passage in the here and now. I know that this annoys some people, while others find it interesting; the teacher in me tries to balance my approach, and so I won’t always take a journey through the Greek or the Hebrew of a passage while preaching … but, today with the word “faith,” such a word study becomes important. So, please hang on with me for a little bit while we make this journey together.

It’s rather fortunate that the New Testament was originally written in Greek. The Roman Empire was home to multiple regional and national languages; the rich linguistic and cultural heritage of the peoples who lived within the Empire is a subject of intense interest to me. However, it’s safe to say that just two languages truly governed the empire: in the west, that language was Latin; in the east, it was Greek. Latin was the official language of administration, law, and governance in the Empire, while Greek was the language of philosophy and science, engineering and education, history and commerce. This meant that, since the Christian scriptures were originally written in Greek – and since the Hebrew Bible was available in Greek translation for at least a century prior to the birth of Jesus – they were eminently accessible to a broad spectrum of people throughout the Greco-Roman world. Indeed, this linguistic advantage became instrumental in the early spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and hence the growth of Christianity, across Imperial Rome.

Greek was a very useful language. It was spoken by a huge portion of the population in the east, including all those who were educated; it was also a very precise language: with it one could articulate both complex and subtle ideas with a specificity that was nearly unmatched in the ancient world. Hebrew is a beautiful, highly poetic language, where context often makes up a significant portion of meaning and where ambiguity is viewed as a strength. Greek, on the other hand, is very precise and very unambiguous. For example, in the indicative mood alone it has 7 tenses, including 3 past tenses: imperfect, perfect, and aorist. It also has a rather dynamic vocabulary, including different words for multiple nuances of meaning. Today, we’re looking at one of those concepts for which Greek has multiple words: Faith.

The Greek words dogma and dokeo both mean “a belief,” “an idea,” “an opinion,” or “a teaching.” We have the word “dogma” in English, too, and we use it when speaking about the formal precepts and official content of specific religious beliefs. We also derive the English word “doctrine” from the Greek word dokeo through the related Latin word docere, which means “to teach.” The word “doctor” is also rooted in this word. These words all point to the content of belief; they point to opinions about certain beliefs; they point to teachings that deal with ideas and concepts; they don’t imply action but, rather, they reference a stated belief and the content of that belief.

Greek has another word for faith: pistis; it is one of the most frequently used words in the New Testament. In the Gospels it is used to translate the Hebrew and Aramaic word for faith that Jesus most likely used: amen. John, Peter, Paul, and the author of the Book of Hebrews all used it quite extensively to communicate the idea of faith. James uses it to speak of belief in Jesus. In the New Testament Greek, pistis is found in both its noun formation and also, quite frequently, as a verb: pisteuo. Faith is a substance and it is also an action. And, very critically for its nominal usage, the substance of faith is frequently spoken of as being established by faith-action.

Here’s what I mean. Take a chair; any chair; make it a chair that you've not sat in before. Look at it, examine it, touch it, test its strength by leaning on it. Check it out completely; convince yourself that, if you sit in it, the chair will hold your weight. Indeed, you believe that the chair will hold you; you have every confidence that you won’t go crashing to the floor if you sit in it. But … rather than sit in it, you decide to go sit down somewhere else. Do you have faith in that chair? No, you don’t. You may have a belief that the chair will hold you, but until you actually sit in the chair you do not have faith – pistis faith – that the chair will hold you. The act of sitting in the chair – placing your belief into action – is the Greek word piseuo.
Faith must have that active component in order for it to be faith. If action isn’t present, it’s not faith. It may be dogma or dokeo; it may be a set of religious precepts, beliefs, opinions, teachings, or understandings, but without action it simply isn’t faith … it isn’t pistis.

Every time Jesus talks about faith – and the Greek gospels use the word pistis – Jesus is always speaking about belief and its consequent action. Paul also uses it this way, as do most of the other Biblical authors. Even the author of the Book of Hebrews, who writes about faith as a substance, cannot reference it without illustrating it with numerous examples of people whose actions were faith-actions. He writes of faith as being “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.” Hope – elpis in Greek – finds its root word in pistis, and is never passive. And, yes, that’s what James is saying here … perhaps a bit clunkily, but he’s saying it:

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)