UNFEIGNED FAITH

On Wednesday nights I have been teaching a series called The Faith Factor, a study of all facets of biblical faith.  In 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Paul talked about “what is lacking in your faith.”  Perhaps we need to examine our own faith to see if we are lacking any of the characteristics of faith as described in the Bible. 

According to Hebrews 4:3, true faith in Christ is restful: “We who have believed so enter that rest.” Peace and serenity accompany real faith, whereas a faith that struggles is undeveloped.

1 Peter 1:8 proclaims that true faith in Christ is joyful: “Believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible.”  Faith in a loving, gracious, redeeming, risen, returning Savior can be nothing other than joyful.

Hebrews 11:1 declares that real faith is hopeful: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”  Galatians 5:5 tells us that through the Holy Spirit we “hope . . . by faith.”  Faith and hope are not identical, but they are inseparable.  Faith is the steadfast expectation and hope is the fixed certainty of its fulfillment.  Pessimism cannot survive in the environment of such faith.

Galatians 5:6 tells us that genuine faith is loving: “Faith works through love.”  In Ephesians 6:23, Paul commands us to “love with faith,” and in 1 Thessalonians 3:6 he says that he had received good news about the “faith and love” of the believers in Thessalonica..  Trust in a God of love makes faith an agent of that love to others.

James 2:20 makes it very clear that genuine faith is practical: “Faith without works is dead.”  James asks, “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?” (2:15-16).  It’s inconceivable that such impractical faith can save (2:14).

Real faith is patient.  In 2 Timothy 3:10 Paul connects faith with “longsuffering” and “perseverance.”  Hebrews 6:12 exhorts us to “imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”  Revelation 13:10 describes “the patience and the faith of the saints.”  Genuine faith in God forestalls panic and impatience.

Faith is victorious.  1 John 5:4 shouts the triumphant declaration, “This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”  In Hebrews 11 we read the testimonies of those “who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions” (v. 33).

Nobody with genuine faith can keep quiet about it, because faith is vocal: “We believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13).  Doubt is silent (Luke 1:20), but faith opens the mouth in confession of the belief in the heart (Rom. 10:10).

True faith is always growing (2 Cor. 10:15; 2 Thess. 1:3), and because of its constant increase, we experience the “full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22).

I ask you to apply these tests to your faith.  Is it restful, joyful, hopeful, loving, practical, patient, victorious, vocal, and growing?  If it isn’t, why not join us on Wednesday evenings and learn how to increase in faith?