The Study Corner    

Faith as primarily translated in the New Testament scriptures is the Greek word πίστις (pistis) which the NAS Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible with Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries defines as follows:

assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity;  i.e. Credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself — assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.

While being rooted in the word πείθω (peitho), which means “to persuade; to convince (by argument, true or false)”, it is not peitho, and the difference must be noted to understand its application.

Peitho is plain and simply not faith.  It is never translated as faith anywhere in the NASB or Strongs transliterations anywhere that I can find. It is translated as assure (1), confident (3), convinced (7), followed (2), have confidence (2), having confidence (2), listen (1), obey (3), obeying (1), persuade (4), persuaded (8), etc.  The word pistis however is translated as faith (238), faithfulness (3), pledge (1), proof (1).

I think the single synonym for pistis would be assurance.  Be that as it may, I still believe it is best to ask the bible what is defines faith as.

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Don’t worship other gods or worship idols

Exodus 20:2-5, Deuteronomy 4, Deuteronomy 27, Deuteronomy 29, Joshua 24, Psalm 106:28, Psalm 97:7, Psalm 115:3-8,2 Kings 17:35-39, Isaiah 57:5-14, Hosea 4, Zephaniah 1, Zechariah 10:2, Acts 4:12, Acts 19, Romans 1:16-32, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:7-8

Don’t practice witchcraft, sorcery or divination (includes astrology)

Exodus 22:18, Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:10-11, 1 Samuel 15:23, 2 Kings 17:17, 2 Kings 21:6, 2 Kings 23:24, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Isaiah 8:19, Isaiah 19:3-4, Isaiah 47:9-15, Nahum 3:4, Zechariah 10:2, Acts 19, Galatians 5:19-21, Revelation 21:7-8, Revelation 22:14-15, Daniel 1:18-21, Daniel 5, Daniel 2:27, Micah 5:12

Kings of Israel are criticized for pagan worship

Solomon – 1 Kings 11
Jeroboam-1 Kings 12, 14
Ahab-1 Kings 16-18
Omri-1 Kings 16
Manasseh-2 Kings 21,2 Chronicles 33
Amon-2 Kings 21
Joash-2 Chronicles 24:17
Jehoram-2 Chronicles 21
Ahaz-2 Chronicles 28

Pagan beliefs are compared to sexual adultery

2 Chronicles 21:11-13, Isaiah 57:3, Hosea 4, Romans 1:24-32

Jesus contends with Satan in the wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13

Jesus casts out demons

Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 1:23-27, Mark 5:1-19, Mark 7:25-30, Mark 9:17-29, Mark 16:9, Luke 4:33-36, Luke 8:26-39, Luke 9:37-42, Luke 11:14-16

Needless to say, God despises any of these practices and their ilk.  It may seem like a harmless little “fun” thing.  That doesn’t make it right.   Socially acceptable and God acceptable are not the same.

These things are no joke, any more than Judgement day is a joke.

Please pray and think on your own about this topic. Do not base your views on societal norms. Man will deceive, God does not. You are responsible to God for your actions. “Everyone else was doing it” will not be an acceptable excuse on the day of judgment.

Matthew 7:21-23

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (ESV)

Adam might have realized he wanted a wife before he finished naming all the creatures of the earth.  However, he continued to do what what God had called him to do.  At the right time (His time), God brought Eve to Adam.This principle applies to all singles – both men and women – who desire to be married.

If a single person constantly thinks about getting married, they will be frustrated, unhappy and perhaps even unjustly angry at God if it fails to happens within their time frame.  With this attitude, they place themselves in a position where they are unable to receive all the blessing the Lord has for them and can hinder the work the Lord has called them to do.

If you desire to be married, put that desire in the Lord’s hands and delight and trust in him.  Develop a heart of trust.  Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, form the habit of thanking God for all that you do have.

I was once told a parable, “We are like a child who brings our broken toys to our Father to fix.  We get frustrated when he doesn’t do it fast enough and we yank them back saying ‘I’ll just do it myself, your taking too long!’.  He then looks at us and says, ‘How can I fix them when you never let go of them?’  The moral?  Let go.  Put it in your Father’s hands and let him work on them so he can fix your broken dreams and give you back more than you ever hoped for.

Pleasing God, not looking for a mate, should be the focus of a single person’s life.

Here is my list of 8 Scriptural guidelines to help single people avoid marrying the wrong one.  If you are considering marrying someone and know you are going against even one of these principles, God has not brought the right one to you.
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Jesus is Lord – whether you like it or not.  The Bible tells us that one day everyone will confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:11), even those who have rejected Him are doomed to spend eternity separated from God.  But one of the reasons believers freely submit to Him as their personal Lord is that He has seated us with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6).  He has made us joint heirs with Him (Rom 8:17).  In other words, He views us as equals.

Although the husband is head of the home, he is not superior to the wife. Although the wife submits to his final word, she is not inferior to her husband.  God has ordained that the principle of submission and authority works only when both those in authority and those in submission recognize the principle of equality.  They stand as equals in God’s sight.  Submission without equality is slavery.

“For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.”  (1 Cor 11:8-9)

Because the woman was taken from the man, the husband has authority over the wife.  But the part of the woman that was constructed from man was her body, no her spirit.  Her spirit was breathed by God into the body of Adam as a separate entity from Adam’s spirit, and she was complete when she was in him.
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The full articles with full verse analysis can be found here.

Bathsheba did her best to set her son on the right path in marriage by giving him an acrostic on the subject.

In an acrostic, each verse begins with a Hebrew letter, following in Hebrew alphabetical order. There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and everyone of the twenty-two verses in Proverbs 31:10-31 begins with a Hebrew letter. For example, verse 10 begins with aleph, verse 11 with beth, verse 12 with giymel and so on.

Furthermore, each one of the Hebrew letters is a depiction of its meaning, adding even greater depth to our understanding of the verse. Psalms 25, Psalms 27, and Psalms 119, and the entire book of lamentations are all acrostics.

In writing this as an acrostic, I believe, Bathsheba is making the Word of God simple for her inattentive, scatter-brained teenager. It is simple to remember and simple to understand.

The Proverbs 31:10-31 acrostic begins and ends with the man, while the virtuous woman is spoken of in between. This is symbolic of how the wife’s life begins and ends with her husband, just as the Church’s life begins and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:25-27

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (ESV)

Notice that verse 25 is past tense, verse 26 is present tense and verse 27 is future tense. The Church began after Jesus, the aggressor and initiator, gave Himself for her and was resurrected. Now He is continuously maturing her and cleansing her as she responds to His Word. In the future He will present her to Himself in perfection, the Bride of Christ.

Bathsheba’s acrostic in Proverbs 31 is laid out in the same manner, with the husband in the beginning and final verses and the wife in the middle.

The full articles with full verse analysis can be found here.