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Friday, April 23, 2010

Different Flavors of Faith

The Bible uses a family of fairly similar words to speak of sin: iniquity, transgression, wickedness, lawlessness, perversion, sin, etc. They are roughly equivalent terms, but with enough nuance and slight variation to warrant the separate expressions.

In the same way, the Bible also uses a number of related terms to give full expression to what it means to believe in God. As with the sin family above, these words are very close to one another, and yet varied enough to warrant different expressions.

I have found this a helpful way to think about how "faith" is related to its cousin-words in the Scripture. The different flavors of faith, if you will.

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When faith is confronted with the Word of God, it believes what it hears.

When faith hears the promises of God, it trusts.

When faith hears of the absolute holiness of God, it becomes the "fear of the Lord."

When faith hears of God's plans for our future, it hopes.

When faith hears of God's hatred of sin, it repents.

When faith toughs it out over the long haul, it's called perseverance.

When faith is finally confronted with the Object of its longing, it loves eternally.

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