What is Faith?

Faith is something all people have. We all believe in something.

But what is faith?

The dictionary definition of faith is an unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence; anything believed.

The world sees faith as a blind believing or trust in anything. That is not what faith is see as in Scripture.

Faith is defined in Hebrews 11:1. It says, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.”

Faith from a biblical perspective is a complete confidence in a truth. That truth is not something that we can perceive with our physical senses. There are many truths that we trust in that we can’t perceive with our physical senses. And the truth we have confidence in is God and there is an overabundance of proof and evidence for Him.

So biblical faith is not just a blind trust in something. It is a confidence based on evidence for the reality of God and His love for us as His human creation.

So what is faith going to look like in everyday living?

A picture of faith and what it looks like in everyday living is found in

1 Peter 2:11-25

Faith is:

Not seeing ourselves as completely at home in this world
1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, you are foreigners and strangers on this earth. So I beg you not to surrender to those desires that fight against you.

Building 429 has a song called Where I Belong. The chorus says:
All I know is that I’m not home yet
This is not where I belong
Take this world and give me Jesus
This is not where I belong.

C.S. Lewis says, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Faith is to not be attached to this world, but to see ourselves as foreigners and strangers.

Acting with Jesus like character
1 Peter 2:12
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Faith cannot be separated from behavior. If I believe something, I will live it out. If I am not living it out then I don’t really believe it.

James 2:17 says, “Faith without works is dead.”

Our faith is not just a mental agreement, but also lived out behavior.

Humbling ourselves under earthly authorities
1 Peter 2:13-15
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Peter does not write this at a time when the emperor or governors were followers of Jesus. They were very hostile to followers of Jesus. It was a Roman governor who order Jesus’ crucifixion.

Paul shares a similar truth about submitting to earthly authorities in Romans 13.

Submitting to earthly authorities is a command so that we might learn the discipline of submitting so we can more easily submit to the ultimate authority - Jesus.

Living in Jesus like freedom for the benefit of others
1 Peter 2:16
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

In Galatians 5:1 Paul says, “For freedom Christ has set us free: stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke slavery.”

Doing evil causes us to live in slavery to sin. Living for ourselves puts us into bondage.

God freed us so we can know Him, be forgiven by Him, and serve others in His name.

Showing love and honor to others
1 Peter 2:17
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

Honor means to highly value something or someone.

We are to love and highly value God’s most precious creation - People.

Romans 12:10 says, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Enduring suffering and unjust treatment
1 Peter 2:18-23
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.

In Acts 4 the church is warned to stop teaching in the name of Jesus. In verse 29 the church prays in the context of this life threatening warning: “And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your word with all boldness.”

Notice they didn’t say:
Lord, destroy all the bad people.
Lord, this isn’t fair.
Lord, take all the persecution away.

They prayed to keep doing what they had been doing, because it was the right thing to do, and to help them do it even more boldly.

Suffering for doing right is glorifying to God.
Being unjustly treated because of your life surrendered to Jesus’ will is glorifying to God.

Dying to anything that is not what God wants
1 Peter 2:24
He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

Obeying sin leads to death.
Obeying Jesus leads to life.

Jesus died because of our sin so we could live because of His righteousness. He exchanged His righteousness for our sin.

We need to get rid of anything in our lives that is not of God. We need to let God replace anything not of Him with Jesus.

Surrendering to Jesus as our Shepherd and Oversee
1 Peter 2:25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Faith leads us to trust Jesus and so we let Him be the one who directs and controls our lives. Faith allows us to know that Jesus will treat us with love, grace, and mercy. Faith allows us to submit everything we are and everything we have to Jesus’ authority.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about faith.

Biblical faith is not some spiritually nebulous thing.

Biblical faith is:
Real
Relevant
Righteous
Risky
Rejoicing

In Faith Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe