February 21. Faith Abides

February 21. Faith Abides

This is the first of the great triad of principles by which we are in relationship with God.  These concepts were familiar to Paul. He connects them in several other places: 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Romans 5:3-5; Colossians 1:4-5; Ephesians 1:15-18; Hebrews 10:22-24.  (Try hovering over the Bible verse links – the verses should pop up for you!)

Faith – Pistis (Greek).

One of the great descriptions of faith comes from Hebrews 11.

What is faith?  It is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

In other words, faith is believing in something we can’t manage with our five senses.  We can’t smell it, see it, hear it, touch it or taste it.  Philosophers of the Enlightenment tell us that faith and knowledge are two separate things.  We can’t know that there is a God, but we can have faith that there is.

The funny thing about that argument is that while we might get our feathers all ruffled up when we are confronted with it, we forget that faith abides.

When faith is on the opposite side of the argument against knowledge … faith ultimately wins.  When knowledge ceases … faith, hope and love will still remain.

I’ve been in that argument before and when it finally occurred to me that it was alright that I couldn’t ‘prove’ God existed as long as I had faith that He existed, I was the winner.  I still had God.

Faith abides.