Our word of the week is Faith, it comes from the Greek word pistis (pis-tis), in the Strong's concordance it is G4102, and is used 244x in the KJV.
“Pistis” means persuasion; moral conviction of truth, or the truthfulness of God, especially reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such a profession of the Gospel itself. It is translated as assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. The word pistis comes from the root word “peitho (pi-tho)” which means to be persuaded. Just like Abraham is Romans 4:21 “and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able to perform. And God counted him righteous because of his faith. Pistis in most translations is rendered as faith but instead should probably be rendered as vow to faithful relationship as a better understanding of the word in the early church. It could just be rendered as a vow (or pledge) and it comes from the idea of covenant loyalty. It is best linked to a covenant (think like a wedding vow or a pledging of allegiance) but faithful relationship (or covenant loyalty) could be added for emphasis and further clarification considering the English world’s vast misunderstanding of the word.
We typically think of faith as simply believing in English and thinking that this is what is being conveyed by the author, but the problem is that this is not done consistently. For example there are several places in scripture where it refers to God’s Pistis but the English translators never translate it as faith, because God does not need faith (if it simply means belief). Instead in these instances they typically translate it as faithfulness. There are also times (Romans 3:22) where it refers to Jesus’s Pistis, again translators typically would refer to this as faithfulness. With this in mind one can see the inconsistency in translation here. When faith does not fit their narrative translators are prone to translating “pistis” as faithfulness but then when it does fit the narrative they want to convey they instead translate it as simple faith. This is inconsistent!
Faithfulness is the better understanding and meaning for the word,but it still lacks. Unlike today faith/believe was not an issue of concern at the time the scriptures were being written. While there are plenty of people who are atheists or agnostic, who don’t really believe anything supernaturally nowadays, this was not the case back then. Everyone for the most part in that time period believed in supernatural beings and worshiped their “gods.” Therefore when one understands the word pistis as meaning a vow to faithfulness or a vow to covenant loyalty one can see in that culture how important that was. To claim Jesus as your Lord and Savior to the exclusion of all others, was then a change of allegiance from their “god’s” to the One True Living God, the God of Israel and to pledge allegiance to His anointed King Jesus and to His Kingdom! This is why pistis (making the pledge of covenant loyalty and faithfulness) was such a big deal. Yes, it was the means by which God considered a person to be His and declares that person to be in a true relationship with Him!
Here are a few scriptures this word pistis is used in:
Romans 3:28 (NKJV)
“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”
Romans 10:17 (NKJV)
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV)
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV)
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,”
Another important truth to know is pistis is one of the root words for “pisteuó (pist-yoo-o), which in most translations is rendered as believing (or just belief). However, in the early church it meant more than mere acknowledgement of something as true or mental agreement with a concept or idea which is what the word belief typically means in English. It actually means trusting within a personal relationship, a covenant relationship, to the point of confidence and action based off of that relationship. This is because pisteuó is basically the verbal form of pistis. In light of that it is best translated as trust (or trusting in active tense) and rely (or relying in active tense) throughout scripture and could often be defined as to what relationship or thing they are trusting in within the text.
Scriptures that contain the word pisteuo:
John 3:16 (NKJV)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:36 (NKJV)
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Mark 16:16-17 (NKJV)
“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;”
Acts 8:12 (NKJV)
“But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.”
Romans 10:9-10 (NKJV)
“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
James 2:19 (NKJV)
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”