What Is Faith?

Date: September 28, 1997-P.M.
Speaker: John Phillis
Main Scripture Reference: Hebrews 11:1

Have you ever noticed that in our language, we take words of meaning and significance, and sometimes, through overuse and misuse, we often will deplete the meaning and the significance of that word?

The word “love” comes to mind. This is a word that we just really overuse, I think, these days. We just seem to LOVE everything, don’t we? We LOVE our dog, and we LOVE our new dress, and we LOVE our car, and we LOVE the new furniture that we got for the house, and we LOVE the barbecue down at that new barbecue restaurant that we just found, and we LOVE our new hairdo, and maybe we even love our hairdresser—I’m not sure! But we just LOVE everything!!

Well now, think about it. We use the same word to express our feeling, our sentiment about our dog and about a meal that we just had, and maybe about some new clothes that we just bought—and that same word is used to express the way we feel toward our spouse, the way we feel toward our children, the way we feel toward each other as brethren—as children of God. And, yes, we use the same word to express our feeling toward God Himself and how God looks to us—that word “love”. We use it so much that I’m afraid that the true significance, the true meaning of it gets “watered down”.

You say, “Well, John, you know, we know what we mean.” But do we really? Or is that just a word that we kind of throw around sometimes without really thinking about it? Maybe it’s unfortunate that our English language is not as colorful, and doesn’t have the depth of words and meaning that some other languages do.

In thinking about this word “love”, for example, the Greek language that our New Testament was written in has several words that express the feeling of sentiment. And you use a different word, you know. If you’re talking about the love that you have for your new car, you’d use one word. If you’re talking about how much you enjoy and appreciate and like your new hairdo, you’d use another word. But when you’re talking about the love that you have for your spouse and for your children, you would also use another word. Different words in the Greek language convey different meanings.

When we would be talking about our love for God, and His love for us, we use an entirely different word in the Greek language. And there would be no mistaking—no misunderstanding—about what we were meaning. And there would certainly be no “watering down” of that word.

Another word that comes to mind is the very Name of God. God’s Name has, sadly, crept into just regular, ordinary, everyday expressions during this day and time. And, thus, to many people, God’s Name has lost some of its significance. I think you’d agree with me when I say that God desires His Name to be used only in a reverent and loving way.

The ancient Jews felt so strongly about the use of God’s Name that they wouldn’t even utter the Name of God in their conversation or even in the reading of their Scriptures. They just felt that God’s Name was too holy, too sacred to even spill from their lips! And, therefore, they came up with a word to use in substitution—a word which we would translate loosely into English as “My Lord”. What a contrast with what is done today when God’s Name is relegated to an everyday expression of anger, surprise—even delight, I suppose. God’s Name indeed has lost its holy and its reverent significance—not only to the speaker, but also to the hearer.

Another word that comes to mind is the word “faith”. This is a word that all of us regularly use in our conversation. And in our everyday manner of speaking, it has come to be understood as practically synonymous with such words as “luck”, or “good fortune” or even “chance”. We have “faith” in our favorite team. You Dallas Cowboy football team fans had “faith” today that the Cowboys were going to prevail over the Chicago Bears—I know you did! We have “faith” that some great feat will be accomplished by a particular person. We have “faith” that the Publisher’s Clearinghouse prize patrol is going to ring our doorbell someday and say that we’ve won millions of dollars! (And so we meticulously keep our house clean because of that.) That’s “faith”!

We were up in northern New Mexico the latter part of the week—we came back yesterday. And I hadn’t made that trip in a long time. I’m not sure how many “gaming palaces” and casinos and other places like these there are in this State. I think we saw about 50 of these gambling places between here and the town of Chama yesterday. And the parking lots were full! And I suppose, in a manner of speaking, in the way we use this word “faith”, we might say that a lot of those folks who were in those gaming casinos yesterday and today, and so on, had “faith” that they were going to…win something, I suppose.

I’m certainly not condemning the everyday use of the word “faith”. It’s in our vocabulary, and it’s a word that does have meaning and expression. But I submit to you that we must be careful that we do not allow this word to lose its significance so as to impair our understanding as it relates to our spiritual lives.

And this is the subject that I want to explore with you tonight—FAITH. And I want to answer the question, “What IS faith?” Now, I admit that this is an often talked about, and often studied, and probably an often preached about subject. Yet, I think it’s good for us to go back to the fundamental themes of the Scriptures from time to time to help us to reinforce and reaffirm their proper meaning and perspective. And as we’ve indicated in these introductory remarks, it may be that our regular and ordinary everyday use of this word “faith”, and the misuse of the principle—the concept—behind it has caused us to lose the true understanding. Certainly, the spiritual significance and need for faith is indisputable in our lives and beliefs as Christians, and in our relationship with God.