“But the fruit of the Spirit is…faith” Galatians 5:22 KJV. Many of the newer versions use faithfulness instead of faith; the original King James translators separated faith and faithfulness which come from two different Greek words, their definitions however being very compatible, perhaps even complementary, with each other. Faith and faithful are distinguished by only one letter in their spellings. In Galatians 5:22 the word is Pistis, which word is translated faith throughout the New Testament (except for five occurrences where Jesus is speaking of little faith) and it means persuasion, credence, and conviction of God’s truth, especially that of salvation through Christ. It is portrayed in Hebrews 11:1 as “the substance realization) of things hoped for, the evidence confidence) of things not seen.” Jesus shows it to be that which will produce like a grain of “mustard seed” when it has been planted in the ground. Luke 17:6. It is a common denominator among believers “as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith” Romans 12:3. It is to believe, and act upon, God’s word, John 4:50. It is nurtured by the word of God, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17. It is the faith of God, Mark 11:22 “Have faith in God”; I am told this is literally “Have the faith of God”. We believe it is a restoration of a faith man lost when he fell into sin in Genesis 3:1-7. It is the same faith by which the heroes of old “worked righteousness, obtained promises…” Hebrews 11:33, and indeed lived and died for!
Faith
By Rose Hill
Now faith is the assurance that we will receive,
The things that we hope for when we believe.
Faith had the holy men of old,
And it’s how they obtained a good report we are told.
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed,
And things not seen, by God’s word just came!
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.