Love’s Fruit Is Faith
The fruit of the Spirit is … faithfulness
Galatians 5:22
I believe English speakers have a unique challenge to understand the biblical concept of faith, and this is partly because we have so many words for faith: believe, belief, trust, faithfulness, etc. Here, for example, it is suggested that “faithfulness” is a better translation, but the words in the original Greek did not have so much to agonize over. Pistis or “faith” is the word used.
The idea is that the Spirit creates an attitude that continues to believe God and to do so consistently. To believe and to have faithfulness can seem to be concepts slightly or significantly different to English speakers, but in the biblical languages, and in other languages, the concepts are very similar. If I really believe today, I will believe tomorrow as well. Luther said, “We are saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone.” Faith that is genuine does not stand by itself. It always bears fruit through works, and always continues to believe. And as faith is one of the aspects of the fruit of God, we can also say that true faith will be accompanied by all the others as well — love, joy, peace, etc.
Salvation is instantaneous — the second someone believes they are saved. No one is perfect — we all have our weaknesses. But these two realities do not mean that faith and faithfulness are unrelated; they are, in fact, the same thing. Our continuation in the Christian walk is just like our first step in the faith, taken out of obedience and in faith. We do not begin in faith and grace and continue in something else — the rebuke to the Galatians should make that clear (Galatians 3:1–5).
This means on a practical level that the most important question to ask ourselves daily is not whether we have the determination to continue to follow Christ, but simply whether or not we believe in Him. It is our faith that makes us faithful. It is simple childlike faith, the mustard-seed-faith, that removes mountains, that follows Christ into the darkest places on earth.
Some are prone to interpret the power of the Christian life in terms of some impersonal mechanism that God gives to us, thinking something like, Emotion and feeling are untrustworthy, so we must put them aside to be strong believers. Other go to the opposite extreme and interpret the power to follow only in terms of emotion and feeling, thinking something like, If I feel like God loves me, then I must really be loved. But both of these extremes are to be avoided; neither adequately describes the reality of the Christian experience. The life of God is fundamentally personal, because God is personal, and not mechanical. He touches our hearts, but human feelings and emotion are not the same as the movement of the Spirit.
God’s power is in His nature, in Himself, and He is conveyed to us by His Spirit. Our faith must depend on the promises of His Word, and not on our feelings, but if we do truly believe, then some feeling will follow. Feeling is not evil. Though we should differentiate between the Spirit and our emotions, feeling can be, in fact, “the canary in the coal mine” to measure the genuineness of our faith. When we no longer feel the thrill of our salvation in Christ, we should check first on the condition of out faith. And, yes, of course, there will always be some bad times for believers, some times when we are dealing with grief, or loss, or some tragedy. But even then the peace of God protects our hearts. Real faith maintains always an element of joy, in every situation of life.
God is faithful to His people because He is faithful to His promises. We might say that God believes in Himself. And as His Spirit mingles with our Spirit’s we also will believe in Him. The Spirit takes our hearts
and leads them to know His promises and invest our hopes in them. And out of this faith, then we become faithful, for we continually believe in His promises and ultimately in Him.
Prayer:
Lord, lead us to know You and Your promises, that we might continually follow You. Amen.
