As a new parent, I find myself worrying a lot. What if my baby stops breathing in the middle of the night? What if something falls on her and hurts her? How am I supposed to live with knowing that something bad could happen to her?
I had terrible nightmares when I first came home from the hospital, so bad I woke my husband up a couple times as I frantically looked around to find my baby and make sure she was alright. Someone suggested I could follow James’s instruction to call an elder of the church for prayer and anointing as if I was sick (Jam. 5:14-15). I did, and the nightmares stopped that very night, praise God. I didn’t have another one for over two months, and even then it was more of a normal bad dream than the terror-inducing ones from before.
I wasn’t specifically directing these worry-filled questions at God in my mind, but perhaps I should have. He has answers for our fears, worries, anxieties, and what ifs. It’s been over three years since I put together a 30-day scripture writing plan titled “Big Questions,” but I recently dug it back out of my archives to share with my scripture writing group at church for this month and I’ve started considering the topic of questions again.
Thankfully, God lets us ask Him questions. We’re not supposed to rebel against Him and do things our own way (1 Sam. 15:22-23), tempt or put Him to the test (Deut. 6:16; Matt. 4:5-7), or complain, murmur, and argue (1 Cor. 10:10; Phil. 2:14), but He lets us question. He isn’t threatened or put off when we ask something. He might decide not to answer the exact questions we asked (like He did with Job), or He might correct a wrong assumption at the root of our questions (like He did for some of Habakkuk’s questions), or He might indicate that we need to stop asking after we ask for the same thing several times (like He did for Paul), but He doesn’t tell us not to question Him at all.
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Where is my help?
One of God’s answers to our fearful questions is found in a psalm that kept coming to mind as I worried about my newborn baby. As is often the case for me, I specifically thought of a song, this one with words from Psalm 121: “He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (the version playing in my head is one I heard in-person at a Messianic church, but here’s a link to a version of the same song). Repeating this psalm/singing this song was often the only way I could fall asleep, trusting that God would stay awake to watch my baby while I couldn’t.
I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
Psalm 121, WEB
This psalm starts with a question: “Where does my help come from?” Immediately, the writer answers, “My help comes from Yahweh.” It’s a rhetorical question in this psalm, but for many people it’s a very real question that we wonder about. For those of us asking this question or one of it’s many variations, the psalmist goes on to share reasons that we can count on Yahweh to come through as our helper and keeper.
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The Keeper
Did you notice how many times the word “keep” or “keeper” is used in Psalm 121? This word is translated from the Hebrew word shamar (H8104), which appears 468 times in the Old Testament. The primary meaning is “to keep, guard, observe, give heed” (Brown, Driver, Briggs [BDB]). Digging deeper, the Complete Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states, “The basic idea of the root is ‘to exercise great care over'” (TWOT entry 2414). The TWOT breaks it into a few broad categories of meaning within that basic idea:
The number of times that we’re told to keep covenant with God or to keep ourselves in the right way would make a fascinating study on their own. For this post, though, I want to spend some more time looking at the ways that God keeps us. First, He keeps His covenant obligations. We’re supposed to “exercise great care” to keep ourselves faithful to Him and do things His way, and He is also careful to keep all of His covenant obligations as well. Unlike us, God keeps covenant perfectly. He’s the perfect “keeper,” which leads us to another facet of this word as it applies to God.
May Yahweh Keep You
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God keeps covenant with us and He also “keeps” us, exercising great care over His people. For example, when God spoke to Jacob, He introduced Himself by saying, ““I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac” and making a promise: “Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go” (Gen. 28:15, WEB). Later, God instructed the Levitical priesthood to use shamar in the blessing for all the children of Jacob (later renamed Israel).
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel.’ You shall tell them,
‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’
“So they shall put my name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”
Numbers 6:22-27, WEB
A number of Psalms claim this blessing, with writers calling Yahweh their keeper or asking Him to keep/guard/preserve them (Ps. 16:1; 17:8; 41:2; 86:2; 91:11; 97:10; 116:6; 140:4; 141:9). And these promises aren’t just for people in the Old Testament. As God’s New Covenant people, we can claim these promises of God to His Old Covenant people, as the writer of Hebrews demonstrates here:
Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” (Deut. 31:6)So that with good courage we say,
“The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Ps. 118:6-7).
Hebrews 13:5-6, WEB
Remember the question from Psalm 112, “Where does my help come from?” That word translated “help” is ezer, which is the same Hebrew word family as azar, the word used for “helper” in Psalm 118. When we’re looking for help, we can confidently trust that God is our Helper and that we can count on Him as our Keeper who neither slumbers nor sleeps. We can even count on Him to change our minds so we’re less worried.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].
2 Timothy 1:7, AMP
I like the Amplified Bible’s version of this verse because “sound mind” (e.g. KJV) or “self control” (e.g. NET) by themselves don’t quite get at what’s going on with the Greek word sophronismos, which includes the sense of discipline leading to self control and/or sound mindedness. God’s spirit inside us can settle the worries and fears swirling in our minds, helping us accept that God really can answer when we need Him to show up as our Helper, the Keeper who exercises great care over us.
Love is a central theme in the Bible. It’s inarguably one of the most important things in scripture, because “God is love” and He presents love not only as central to His character but to our Christian walk as well.
You might have heard that there are multiple Greek words for love. Eros is love that desires. Philia is friendship love. Storge is family love. Agape is selfless love. Only philia and agape appear in the Bible (except for storge in a few derivative or compound words), but this still makes English translation challenging since we only have one word for love. Some Bible versions try to deal with this by translating agape as charity (KJV) or philia as “brotherly kindness” (certain WEB verses, for example). In many cases, though, both are simply translated “love.”
While the brief definitions I gave in the previous paragraph are correct, they’re incomplete. Pages of dictionaries, a plethora of scholarly papers, and numerous books have been written trying to define Christian love and tease out the differences between philia and agape. In many cases, these definitions focus on agape, often because the authors see philia as a lesser sort of love. It is true that agape is used far more often than philia in scripture. However, this does not mean that agape is a higher form of love, that it’s never used negatively, or that it doesn’t overlap in meaning with philia. Both words are important and both are used of God’s love for us, our love for God, and love between people.
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What is the Historical Context for Agape?
The Bible writers didn’t invent a new word for love when they used agape, but finding out what the word meant in pre-Christian writings has been a challenge (if anyone knows of good sources on this, please send them to me!). In Classical Greek, the focus was more on eros (particularly for Plato) and philia (particularly for Aristotle) (Holst, 2021). The only sources I’ve found on how the word was used before Christianity are Biblical Greek dictionaries.
Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, originally published in 1889, stated that the word form agape is “a purely Biblical and ecclesiastical word” (Greek 26. Agapé, n.d.). He states that “secular authors” including Aristotle and Plutarch used the form agapasis, and he does “not remember to have met with it” in the Jewish writers Philo and Josephus. Agape does appear in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament that dates from the 3rd to 1st centuries B.C.), which provides some background for how Jesus and other NT writers (particularly Paul, John, Peter, and Jude) use the word.
According to a search of the Greek Septuagint with Strong’s numbers in the Bible software program eSword, agape appears 15 times in 14 verses in the Old Testament (2 Sam. 13:15; Ecc. 9:1, 6; Song 2:4-5, 7; 3:5, 10; 5:8; 7:7; 8:4, 6-7; Jer. 2:2). In these verses, agape is used for human love, including romantic love. The root word of agape, agapao, appears 209 times in 196 verses as the main word for “love” in the Greek Old Testament. This includes the love of God for us (for example, Deut. 4:37; 7:13; Prov. 3:12; Is. 43:4; Mal. 1:2) and the love we’re supposed to have for God (for example, Deut. 6:5; 10:12; Prov. 15:9 Is. 56:6). Its usage is not, however, confined to Godly love. It’s used much the same way that the English word “love” is today, with a range of meaning depending on context.
The modern Christian understanding of agape is heavily influenced by Swedish theologian Anders Nygren, who began publishing his multi-part work Eros and Agape in 1930. For Nygreen, eros was central to Greek society and stood in sharp contrast to the Christian agape, which was an utterly unique type of love (Grant, 1996; Holst, 2021). Nearly every paper I’ve found on the topic of agape cites Nygren’s work, either in passing or in a direct response to his claims. Nygren ignored philia entirely, and claimed that agape is a type of love that originates with God alone and involves His “pure, unmotivated love for human beings” (Holst, 2021, p. 55). Following in Nygren’s footsteps, I often hear agape defined as the highest love. Other loves are often minimized as emotional and unstable. As we’ll see, this is a skewed reading of the Biblical texts.
What is the Historical Context for Philia?
There’s more historical information about philia. For Aristotle, philia “is the human good which nobody would choose to live without” (Holst, 2021, p. 56). He devoted two books to the subject of philia, typically translated “friendship,” and it is central to his code of ethics. For Aristotle, friendship is a virtue linked with justice and trust. It also has to do with understanding the virtuous self in relation to community with others.
In the Septuagint, philia appears 9 times, all in Proverbs. The related word philos appears 27 times. These words are used to describe romantic, friendly, and familial love, love for things, and the actions of kissing or embracing (e.g. Gen. 27:14; 37:4; 50:1; Prov. 7:18; 8:17; 10:12; 29:3; Hos. 3:1). In the Septuagint, at least, philia is a slightly more specific word for love than agape. It’s still used in a variety of ways, but it is used for affectionate and friendly love rather than used more generally for all types of love as agapao is.
Though philia is mostly connected to friendships, it’s not only for people who are already close friends but also for guests because hospitality “lays the basis for all friends to begin to trust each other” (Holst, 2021, p. 65). It is in this dynamic of “guest friendship” that Holst (2021) argues philia enhances our understanding of agape because both involve relating to other people. Economist Luigino Bruni (2010) borrows the phrase “l’inconditionnalité conditionnelle” (conditional unconditionality) from sociologist Alain Caillé to describe philia as something that takes a first step toward friendship unconditionally, but is then “conditional” upon the other person responding (p. 400-01). We shall return to this idea later.
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What About Love for God?
Nygren’s definition of agape fits with the way that I hear people talk about agape in church today, save for one thing. For him, “agape toward God is impossible. Agape is of God. The human response to God is faith” (Grant, 1996, 6). Nygren apparently based this assumption on Paul’s writings and ignored the gospels and John’s letters completely. This aspect of Nygren’s stance on agape is similar to Aristotle’s view on philia. For Aristotle, philia can only exist between two equals, making friendship between humans and a god impossible (Bruni, 2010).
In examining the Bible as a whole, it becomes clear that not only are people capable of loving God, but that we are required to do so. But what sort of love can we have for God? In the Septuagint, agapao is the word for “love” that’s used to describe God’s love for us and our love for God. In the New Testament, agape, agapao, and philia are all used for godly love. For example, God the Father loves the Son with both agape (John 3:35) and phileo (John 5:20). Our love for God is typically identified as agape, but also (far more rarely) as philia (John 16:27; 1 Cor. 16:22).
There’s an exchange between Peter and Jesus that’s often cited to clarify the difference between agape and philia. It takes place after Jesus’s arrest, Peter’s denial of Jesus, and Jesus’s death and resurrection. Here is that passage in the Amplified Bible, which takes care to clarify which type of love Jesus and Peter are referring to.
So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [others do—with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My lambs.” Again He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with total commitment and devotion]?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with a deep, personal affection for Me, as for a close friend]?” Peter was grieved that He asked him the third time, “Do you [really] love Me [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend]?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You [with a deep, personal affection, as for a close friend].” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”
John 21:15-17, AMP
When I hear a minister in the churches I attend talk about this passage, they usually make it sound like Peter just couldn’t measure up to the type of love that Jesus demanded. Agape is a higher form of love than philia, they say, and Peter missed the mark. But Spiros Zodhiates (1992) has a different reading. He says that claiming friendship, philia, with Jesus “was an upgrading by Peter of his devotion to Christ” (p. 65). Peter had denied knowing Jesus, much less being friends with Him, and “the Lord did not accept Peter’s self-upgraded love from agape (26) to philia (5373), friendship” (Zodhiates, 1992, p. 65). It is presumptuous to declare ourselves God’s friends, though He can make that claim on us (Luke 12:4; John 15:13-15; James 2:23).
These two different readings illustrate the different ways that we can look at the relationship between agape and philia. We can read one as a greater love and one as a lesser love, or we can read them as different types of love. Zodhiates (1992) notes that scholars often produce “strained and awkward interpretations” when they try to draw rigid distinctions between the two words (p. 1445). There are differences, but there is also a lot of overlap between these two Biblical words for love. They are even used interchangeably in certain contexts. For example, in the phrase, “disciple whom Jesus loved,” John uses the word phileo in John 20:2 and agapao in John 21:7. Similarly, when two different authors talk about God correcting those he loves, one uses agapao (Heb. 12:6) and one uses phileo (Rev. 3:19). It really doesn’t seem useful to say one is better or worse than the other or even to draw too many distinctions between the two. They are both powerful ways to love.
Conditionality in Relation to Agape and Philia
While there is a lot of commonality between agape and phlia, including contexts where they are interchangeable, there are also some differences we can look at. I want to return to this idea of “unconditional conditionality” related to philia. Though Bruni (2010) is writing about eros, philia, and agape as categories of economic reciprocity, his analysis of the terms in relation to social-historical context and scripture provides insight into the nuances of meaning. For philia, the one who moves to initiate the friendship initially does so unconditionally, without underlying motives (Bruni, 2010, p. 399-400). If, however, the other person does not respond, the friendship is interrupted. In the same way, Jesus places a condition upon His philia: “You are my friends (philos) if you do what I command you” (John 15:14, NET). Similarly, God the Father’s philia for human beings happens because of how they feel about the Son: “the Father himself loves (phileo) you, because you have loved (phileo) me and have believed that I came from God” (John 16:27, NET). We can have friendship-love with God only when we respond to His unconditional offer and reciprocate with trust, love, and loyalty.
In contrast, agape for Bruni (2010) is unconditional, relational, potentially universal, and expects nothing in return (p. 403). He bases his definition on the way that agape works in Christian communities, citing another Greek word koinonia to describe the fellowship present in a body of believers led by Jesus, who epitomized agape (p. 404). The parable of the unforgiving slave (Matthew 18:23-35) provides for Bruni an example that hints at the reciprocal expectations of a philia relationship (philia serving as an ethical framework for relationships in Greek society [Holst, 2021]) but then supersedes them with the agapic expectation to freely receive gifts from God and then freely give to others (Bruni, 2010, p. 405).
For this is the way God loved (agapao) the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16, NET
God’s agape isn’t dependent on human response. We’re supposed to respond to His love, but He is agape, expresses agape, and is motivated by agape regardless of how people react to Him. When Jesus told His followers to “love (agapao) your enemy,” He followed it by saying this is part of being like our “Father in Heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:44-45, NET). God also demonstrated His agape for His enemies when Jesus died for us while we were still sinners alienated from and opposed to God (Rom. 5:6-11).
God the Father and Jesus Christ are going to have love that is unconditional, benevolent, and wants what’s best for you regardless of your response to Him. They’ve already demonstrated their agape for everyone by Jesus dying to make reconciliation possible. This universal love does not, however, mean that we don’t have a role to play. We still need to repent, believe, and commit to God if we want to receive the salvation that He offers and to fully participate in His love. There’s a relational aspect to both philia and agape that helps explain the overlaps in meaning between the two words.
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The Dimension of Emotion
One of the criticisms I hear leveled at philia is that it’s an emotional love, unlike the purportedly more rational and stable agape. This is not a weakness of philia, but it is a characteristic. According to Thayer’s lexicon, Christ tells us to agape, not philia, our enemies “because love as an emotion cannot be commanded, but only love as a choice” (Greek 5368. Phileó, n.d.). This is not, however, the whole story. There are certain people that we are required or encouraged to have philia for as well as agape.
Paul wrote, “If any man doesn’t love (phileo) the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed,” or “anathema” (1 Cor. 16:22, WEB). We must have emotional, friendly, affectionate love for Jesus as well as unconditional, committed love. Far more often, though, the command to love God is expressed with agape. The most important commandment is “Love (agapao) the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30-31, NET).
We also must have both philia and agape love for other people in the church. The compound word philadelphia (love+brother) is often translated “brotherly kindness” or “brotherly love.” It’s something that we’re commanded to have for our brethren, the other people in God’s church with whom we share fellowship (koinonia) (Rom. 12:10; 1 Thes. 4:9; Heb. 13:1; 1 Pet. 1:22; 3:8). Unlike our enemies, with whom we are not required to share mutual interests or affection, our brothers and sisters in Christ are people that we are supposed to care about.
The Vast Importance of Love
Thus far, I’ve focused a lot on philia because I think it’s often overlooked or minimized in discussions of Biblical love. Both philia and agape are part of faith; character traits that we must add on to the foundation of our commitment to God (2 Pet. 1:5-7). But I want to be careful that examining the importance of philia doesn’t minimize the importance of agape.
Forms of the word agape are used 535 times in the New Testament (eSword search for G25, G26, G27 [agapao, agape, agapetos) in contrast to forms of the word philia appearing 55 times (eSword search for G5384, G5360, G5373 [philos, phileo, philia]). Those numbers don’t include the times philia is part of a compound word (like philadelphia/philadelphus [G5360/G5361, used 7 times), but uses of agape still outnumber philia by quite a wide margin. It’s also the word used in some of the most pivotal discussions of love in the Bible, such as 1 John 2-5.
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Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God. The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. … We love because he loved us first.
If anyone says “I love God” and yet hates his fellow Christian, he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And the commandment we have from him is this: that the one who loves God should love his fellow Christian too.
1 John 4:11-16, 19-21, NET
Every time “love” appears in 1 John, it’s translated from a form of the word agape. Here we see that God is love, that He loves us, that we can love in the same way because of Him, and that if we really love Him we’ll love all of His people as well. We see that godly agape is enabled by God; i.e. we love because He loved.
We should note here that there are also ungodly expressions of agape (Luke 11:43; John 3:19; 12:43; 1 John 2:15), which is why it’s inaccurate to simply define agape as “godly love.” There are even passages that talk about the agape of God in contexts where a clarification likely wouldn’t be necessary if agape was always “of God” (Rom. 5:5; 8:39; 2 Thes. 3:5; 1 John 2:5; 3:17; Jude 1:21). With this caveat, we can say that the New Testament writers almost exclusively focus on the godly version that’s defined in 1 Corinthians 13.
Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NET
We have no such Biblical definition for philia, perhaps because friendly, affectionate love is much easier to understand (and more often explored in secular writings of the time) than unselfish, unconditional love. Paul also tells us in this passage that agape is absolutely essential to the Christian walk, and that it’s even more important than hope and faith (1 Cor. 13:1-3, 13). There are broad definitions we can give for philia and agape, including certain general distinctions between the two, that have an historical, scholarly, and most important biblical basis. What we must not do, however, is make the claim that agape is the highest or only form of godly love just because it sounds good (see Truth Be Told podcast episode, “It’ll Preach, But Is It True?). Philia and agape together—along with related words used by Biblical writers—help us understand God’s incredible love for us. There are some differences between the two, and agape is highlighted as a chief Christian virtue, but the two words also overlap quite a bit, especially in the context of godly love.
References
Bruni, L. (2010). Éros, Philia et Agapè. Pour une théorie de la réciprocité, plurielle et pluraliste [Eros, Philia and Agape. For a Theory of Reciprocity, Plural and Pluralist]. In La gratuité: Eloge de l’inestimable (pp. 389–413). Revue du M.A.U.S.S.
Grant, C. (1996). For the Love of God: Agape. The Journal of Religious Ethics, 24(1), 3–21.
Holst, J. (2021). Philia and Agape: Ancient Greek Ethics of Friendship and Christian Theology of Love. In S. Hongladarom & J. J. Joaquin (Eds.), Love and Friendship across Cultures: Perspectives from East and West (Singapore, pp. 1–191). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4834-9
Zodhiates, S. (Ed.). (1992). The Complete WordStudy Dictionary: New Testament. AMG Publishers.
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I just got home from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) with my family and many other believers around the world. My family was in Tennessee this year for the Feast, and the fall colors on the trees made for a beautiful backdrop to this joyful festival season. If you’re not familiar with this Feast as one of God’s holy days, check out my post “Understanding the Days that God Calls Holy To Him.” If you are familiar with this day, then you probably know that we believe it pictures the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ after His second coming.
Then what happens? What are we going to be doing during the Millennium in God’s kingdom, and even into the future after that?
Reign With Him
The main thing we know about our role in the Millennium is that we’ll be working alongside Jesus Christ. We’re told in Revelation that the faithful believers who died (i.e. “fell asleep” in Jesus) and rise again in the first resurrection “will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6, NET). We know from other passages this will be a resurrection to spiritual life (1 Cor. 15). If we’re in this group, we’ll be like God and death will no longer have power over us (1 John 3:2; Rev. 20:6).
So I endure all things for the sake of those chosen by God, that they too may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus and its eternal glory. This saying is trustworthy:
If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him.
2 Timothy 2:10-12, NET
Salvation is a process that culminates in our change to spirit beings as part of God’s family. As God-family members, we’ll reign alongside Jesus Christ, seated with Him on His throne (Rev. 3:21-22). Most of the other things that we know we’ll be doing are part of this role.
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Serve as Priests
We already read the verse that says, “they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20:6, NET). This is actually a role that God’s people were supposed to start filling all the way back in the time of Exodus. When ancient Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, Yahweh told Moses to tell the people, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:5-6, WEB). Israel never lived up to that goal, but that’s still something God wants from His people.
you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. … you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaimthe virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
In the introduction to Revelation, John says Jesus Christ “loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own bloodand has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father” (Rev. 1:5-6, NET). Note that there is a slight discrepancy in the Greek here: some manuscripts use the word basileia (kingdom) and some use basileus (king). That’s why you’ll see “kings and priests” or “kingdom of priests” or “priestly kingdom” depending on the translation. Either way, we’ll have a duty to serve within God’s kingdom as priests.
Rule as Judges
Though it’s unclear whether anyone in the resurrection will be called a “king” other than David (Ezk. 37:24), we will be filling a ruling role as we reign alongside Jesus. It seems that this role is closely linked with that of having authority to judge.
Then Peter said to him, “Look, we have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth: In the age when all things are renewed, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Matthew 19:27-28, NET
This verse is specifically about the 12 Apostles, but Paul tells us “that the saints will judge the world” and even that “we will judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:2-3, NET). How to judge righteously is one of the things we should be learning now, in this life (1 Cor. 6:1-11), partly because it’s an aspect of God’s character that we need to develop to be more like Him and partly because it’s a skill we’ll need in the future.
“And to the one who conquers and who continues in my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations—
hewill rulethemwith an iron rod and like clay jars he will break them to pieces,
just as I have received the right to rule from my Father—and I will give him the morning star.The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Revelation 2:26-29, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Ps. 2:9)
God places a high value on righteousness and justice. He prioritizes those things when He uses His authority as judge, and we will be following that pattern of judging righteous judgement (John 7:24) with the authority He’ll give us in the Millennium. Sometimes, righteousness and justice demand punishment as consequences for wrongdoing, but we’ll also get the chance to exercise godly mercy.
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Serve As Jesus Does
It’s vital that we remember God’s idea of a reigning, ruling, authority figure is very different than what the world typically thinks of. When humans have a lot of power, they almost universally abuse it. God will not tolerate such a thing from His people, now or in the Millennium.
But Jesus called them and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. It must not be this way among you! Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:25-28, NET
We’ll rule the same way that Jesus does–by serving the people under our authority. Pride, arrogance, and lording it over others has no place in a godly ruler. In fact, treating other people like that now can disqualify us from being in God’s kingdom (Matt. 24:45-51). This brings us to an important point. God is watching us today and making a judgement as to whether we can be trusted with the roles He plans to give His people in the future (1 Peter 4:17). If we can’t show Him now that we can become humble, service-oriented, teachable people who will faithfully follow His will, then He’s not going to entrust us with the true riches (Luke 16:10-11).
Teach People
We’ve been talking about how we’ll be ruling, but who will we be ruling? When you read through Revelation, you’ll notice that there are people who aren’t included in the first resurrection and who aren’t killed during the tribulation. There will be human beings alive in the Millennium who survive the end times leading up to Jesus’s return and live on into the Millennium. By the time Satan is released at the end of the 1,000 years, there are whole nations on earth for him to attempt to deceive (Rev. 20:7-8). Coupling that information with Old Testament prophecies (for example, Is. 11:1-9; 65:17-25), we can piece together that when the saints are ruling with Jesus as spirit beings who are part of God’s family, there will also be physical human beings on the earth.
For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the voice of your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers won’t be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
Isaiah30:19-21, WEB
If we’re worthy to be in the first resurrection and rule with Jesus as kingly priests, it’s very likely that we’ll be the teachers saying, “This is the way” and showing people how to walk with God. God wants His people to “obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations” now and there’s no indication that will change in the future (Ezk. 36:27, NET). We will continue to serve Him and keep His commands and we’ll teach others to do so, including the command to keep His Sabbaths and holy days like the Feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14:16-19).
Live Forever With God
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Once God transforms us into spirit beings, death has no more power over us . We’ll be immortal (1 Cor. 15:50-54; 1 Thes. 4:16-17). For those in the first resurrection and those who are written in the Book of Life following the end of the Millennium and the second resurrection, life continues on after the Millennium. We don’t know much about what we’ll be doing as we live forever with God, but we know that there will be a profound change in the earth and that humanity will live more closely with God than ever before.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
Revelation 21:1-4, NET
It can be fun to speculate about the details of what we might be doing in this incredible future, but God evidently didn’t want to tell us too much. I suspect the long-term future He has planned is so wonderful we couldn’t wrap our minds around it. We just need enough of a glimpse to know that we want to be there, and to motivate us to keep growing toward the goal of spending forever with God.
God’s plan is so beautiful, and at the end of the story told in the Bible He promises a “happily ever after” greater than we could possibly imagine. Satan and his influence will be done away with. Peace will fill the whole earth. And, assuming we are among the faithful holy people of God during our human lives, we’ll be transformed into spirit beings who are part of God’s family. As God-family members, we’ll be ruling with Jesus Christ and doing the things that Godly rulers do: serving humbly, judging righteously, and teaching truthfully.
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We’ve been talking a lot recently on this blog about faith. Specifically, our faith toward God and the connection between faith, righteousness, and obedience. There’s another aspect that we haven’t really talked about yet, and that’s the faithfulness of the one that we have faith in.
The fact that God is faithful enables us to have faith in Him. You can’t have faith (at least not for very long) in someone who’s unreliable and untrustworthy. Thankfully, God has proven Himself faithful, reliable, and trustworthy for thousands of years, and there’s no reason to think He’ll change any time in the future.
Christ’s Faithfulness
There’s a Greek phrase that Paul uses, pistis Christou (πίστις Χριστοῦ), that scholars aren’t quite sure how to translate. Many older versions use the phrase “faith in Christ” but modern translations are opting more often for “faithfulness of Christ.” It might even be that either translation would work equally well and that Paul’s intent was to imply “that the object of faith is a worthy object, for he himself is faithful” (see NET footnotes on Gal. 2:16). Our faith is closely linked with Jesus’s and the Father’s faithfulness.
We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified. … I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:15-16, 20, NET
With this translation, it shifts the focus of justification off of us believing in Jesus (i.e. having active faith) and onto what Jesus did for us. Instead of being justified by the law, we’re justified by Jesus. That doesn’t eliminate our role–it’s still important to understand that our righteousness doesn’t hinge on keeping the law but rather on being obediently faithful to God. But it does emphasize how vital Jesus’s faithfulness is to this whole process (see also Rom. 3:20-26; Gal 3:21-22; Eph. 3:11-13).
More than that, I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness—a righteousness from God that is in fact based on Christ’s faithfulness. My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:8-11, NET
We owe everything to Jesus and the Father. They want us to actively participate in the covenant relationship they offer us, but make no mistake: everything we can do in this relationship is enabled by the Messiah’s faithfulness. God is the one who sets up the covenant. Jesus is the one who died to free us from the death penalty for breaking God’s law. Jesus and the Father are actively continuing to wash us, forgive us, teach us, and work in us. We get to choose whether or not we participate and we’re required to stay faithful, but we’re not the instigators of the opportunity nor the only ones working on this relationship.
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Faithful Atonement
What did Jesus’s faithfulness involve? As we’ve talked about before, “faith” in the Bible isn’t just something that happens in the mind or a system of belief that we acknowledge. It’s an active, living thing. In the first century, pistis meant “faithfulness, steadfastness, and trustworthiness” (Brent Schmidt, Relational Faith, 2023, p. 11). It also “implied active loyalty, trust, hope, knowledge, and persuasion in the patron-client relationship or within the new covenant brought about through Christ’s Atonement” (p. 11). This isn’t something that goes one-way. Covenants are reciprocal relationships even when one party is infinitely greater than the other. We can’t pay God back for anything He did and we didn’t do anything to deserve His patronage, but once we join in covenant with Him we owe Him our loyalty, obedience, and active faith. Jesus modeled that kind of faith in His relationship with His Father while He lived here on earth as a human, and He’s still being faithful today.
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. For since he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess,who is faithful to the one who appointed him, as Moses was also in God’s house.For he has come to deserve greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house deserves greater honor than the house itself! For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithfulin all God’shouse as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. We are of his house, if in fact we hold firmlyto our confidence and the hope we take pride in.
Hebrews 2:17-3:6, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Num. 12:7)
As a human being, Jesus’s faithfulness to His father gave us a pattern for us to follow. Now that He’s been resurrected and lives forever at God’s right hand, He’s still practicing faithfulness as the Head of the church, the High Priest of the New Covenant, and the Son of God over His house.
One of the ways Jesus demonstrated His faithfulness was by a making “atonement for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17, NET). If you’re reading this blog post the day it goes live, then today is the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This is one of the special annual festival days that God designates as holy to Him. In the Old Testament, this day involved a ceremony with two goats: one killed for the sins of the people as a picture of Jesus Christ and the other banished as picture of what will happen to Satan (Lev. 16; Heb. 2:17; Rev. 20:1-3). This was also the only day that the high priest could enter the most holy part of the temple.
Today, the Day of Atonement reminds us of Christ’s sacrifice, looks forward to a time when Satan is removed from the picture, and invites us to think deeply about our High Priest Jesus Christ who “secured eternal redemption for us” when He entered the heavenly Holy Place (Heb. 9:12, NET, see Heb. 9). Thanks to His decision to faithfully fulfill the roles given to Him by His Father, we have the opportunity to live by faith.
Proven Faithfulness
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God’s faithfulness isn’t just a New Testament thing. He’s always been faithful to His promises, people, and covenants. Faithfulness and loyalty are part of who He is.
The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name.The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness,keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
Exodus 34:5-7, NET
The Hebrew word emeth is often translated “truth,” but it’s more than just something being factually true. It also involves “firmness, faithfulness … sureness, reliability” (Brown, Driver, Briggs; H571). The word translated “loyal love” is chesed, and it means “goodness, kindness” (BDB; H2617). The two words both point to God’s faithfulness.
These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.
NET footnote on Ex. 43:6
Faithfulness is such a core part of God’s nature that He included it when proclaiming His name to Moses. He “is the true God, the faithful God who keeps covenant faithfully with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deut. 7:9, NET). This aspect of His character is celebrated throughout the psalms and mentioned in the prophets, including prophecies of the Messiah (Is. 25:1; 42:3; 49:7; 65:16; Jer. 31:3, 32; Hos. 2:20). Yet despite His love and faithfulness, ancient Israel was not faithful to Him (Jer. 3:20; 9:2; 23:10). That’s something that needed to change in the New Covenant.
“In a faraway land the Lord will manifest himself to them. He will say to them, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.’ …
“Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord.“But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.
“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”
Jeremiah 31:3, 31-34, NET
God is faithful no matter what, and He wants people to reciprocate faithfulness in their relationship with Him. He has demonstrated His faithfulness time and time again, including by Jesus’s atoning sacrifice. Because of His faithfulness, we who are in a New Covenant relationship with Him can “live by faith” and please God with that faith (Rom. 1:17; 2 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 11:6). His great faithfulness ought to inspire great faithfulness in us.
The other day as I was reading through Hebrews 11, I noticed the faith chapter follows a pattern: “By faith [name] [action].” Each time the writer mentions a hero of faith, they following it by saying what it was this person did by faith.
As we’ve been studying here on this blog for the past three weeks, faith is linked with the actions we take (see “The Obedience of Faith,” “Be Careful How You Listen,” and “Increase Our Faith“). I thought it might be fitting to follow these posts up with one that’s more concrete; one that moves past discussing faith in action as a concept to looking at the actions that people of faith really did. Hebrews 11 isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a great place to start.
We Understand
By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible.
Hebrews 11:3, NET
I’ve never before stopped to think about the fact that the faith chapter starts with us. We think of this as a list of heroes of the faith, but the very first people mentioned is “we”–the author and all the readers. None of us were there at the creation of the world. The understanding we have to worship God as Creator is something we do by faith.
Abel Offered
By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith he still speaks, though he is dead.
Hebrews 11:4, NET
Abel’s faith prompted him to give an offering to God. If we do this today it’s usually money, but in the Old Testament God’s followers gave physical offerings. In Genesis, we read, “Abel brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering” (Gen. 4:4, WEB). Something about Abel’s offering and the way he presented it pleased God and led to Him commending Abel’s righteousness. We’ll see this connection between action, faith, and righteousness repeated with Abraham as well.
Enoch Pleased God
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death, and he was not to be found because God took him up. For before his removal he had been commended as having pleased God. Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:5-6, NET
Enoch is the one break in our “By faith [name] [action]” pattern. Here, “Enoch was taken” by God–it’s God doing the action, not Enoch. The lines that follow, though show that Enoch was doing something to please God. We’re not sure exactly what all was involved in that, but it is linked with “believe” (translated from pisteuo, the verb/action word form of pistis, which is faith as a noun/thing/concept).
Noah Constructed, Condemned, and Inherited
By faith Noah, when he was warned about things not yet seen, with reverent regard constructed an ark for the deliverance of his family. Through faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:7, NET
I still think about a study I published in 2016 “Grace To Build An Ark.” The first time we see “grace” in the Bible, it’s when God decided to spare Noah and his family from the flood. Like the grace we receive, Noah couldn’t have enacted this salvation on his own, but once he received grace he took action. He built an ark, and here we learn that he did that “by faith.”
We’re also told that through faith Noah “condemned the world.” The word translated “condemned” is katakrino, “to give judgement against” (G2632, Thayer’s Dictionary). Noah wasn’t the one who decided the world was “worthy of punishment” (Thayer), but the actions he took by faith highlighted that he was the only one alive who would be obedient to God and drew a sharp contrast between him and the sinful world.
Noah also “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” In Romans, Paul talked extensively about how “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness” (Rom. 4), but this points out that it happened for Noah as well. It’s really an amazing thing to say about someone in the Old Testament, when many people who knew about God were “pursuing a law of righteousness” yet fell short of “righteousness that is by faith” (Rom. 9:30-31, NET, see Rom 9:30-10:13). Noah’s example provides further support for one of Paul’s main arguments in Romans: that God has always worked with people who pursued righteousness through faith and obeyed God from the heart rather than simply by rote obedience to the letter of the law.
Abraham Obeyed, Went Out, Lived, Looked Forward, Procreated, and Offered
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land as though it were a foreign country, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with firm foundations, whose architect and builder is God. By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, he received the ability to procreate, because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy. So in fact children were fathered by one man—and this one as good as dead—like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sandonthe seashore. …
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He had received the promises, yet he was ready to offer up his only son. God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,”and he reasoned that God could even raise him from the dead, and in a sense he received him back from there.
Hebrews 11:8-12, 17-18 NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Gen 21:12)
Abraham is known as the father of the faithful, and for good reason (Rom. 4:12, 16). His whole life is characterized by faithful action in obedience to God and based on trust in God. Most of the other action words used in this section of Hebrews 11 hinge on that first word: “obeyed.” It was in obedience to God that he left his homeland and “lived as a foreigner” in the land God promised to his descendants. He was obeying when he “offered up Isaac.” We also see a lot of trust in Abraham’s life–trust that God would raise up Isaac if he died, trust when looking forward to a heavenly city, and trust that God would give him a child. For Abraham, as for all of us, faith is an action that involves trusting God, staying loyal to Him, and obeying Him.
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Isaac and Jacob Blessed
By faith also Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future.By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped as he leaned on his staff.
Hebrews 11:20-21, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Gen 47:31)
When we think of blessing today, we usually think of it as something God does for us (e.g. “God blessed us with protection during the storm”) or that we do for God (e.g. “Bless the Lord, O my soul”). In the Bible, though, there’s a third type of blessing as well. People can bless other people. It’s part prophecy, part asking God to bless them. To bless someone like this, you have to have faith in God–faith that He’s guiding the words of your blessing and faith that He’ll carry it out.
Joseph Mentioned and Instructed
By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, mentioned the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave instructions about his burial.
Hebrews 11:22, NET
This is another example of faith that includes trusting God about the future. Joseph’s only guarantee that Israel would leave Egypt is that God told Him about it (Gen. 50:24-26). He trusted God’s word so much that he made plans for the Exodus that would happen long after his death, instructing his brothers to pass down this command all the way to Moses (Ex. 13:19).
Moses’s Parents Hid
By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
Hebrews 11:23, NET
We often think of hiding as something we do because of fear, but that’s the opposite of what’s happening here. Moses’s parents hid him to keep him safe from the murderous pharaoh. My baby is almost 3 months old now, and I can’t imagine how much faith it took for his mother to overcome her fears, put her little baby into a basket in the river, and hope that he’d be safe (Ex. 1:22-2:3).
Moses Refused, Chose, Suffered, Left, Persevered, and Kept
By faith, when he grew up, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,choosing rather to be ill-treated with the people of God than to enjoy sin’s fleeting pleasure. He regarded abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on the reward. By faith he left Egypt without fearing the king’s anger, for he persevered as though he could see the one who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the one who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them.
Hebrews 11:24-28, NET
Movies like The Ten Commandments and Prince of Egypt make it seem like Moses didn’t know about his Israelite heritage until shocked by the revelation as an adult, but this passage in Hebrews indicates he knew for a while. He didn’t stumble into the knowledge or run away because he was scarred. He chose, by faith, to align himself with the people of God even though that meant suffering.
All of the faithful actions recorded here for Moses hinge on looking to the future and relying on God. He chose God over Egypt–long-term good over “fleeting pleasure” and treasures in heaven over earthly wealth. He trusted in God to pass the last plague over Israel if they obeyed His instructions, and though it isn’t mentioned here, we know Moses and generations of Israelites to follow continued keeping the Passover as they looked forward to the Messiah.
People of Israel Crossed Red Sea and Watched Jericho Fall
By faith they crossed the Red Sea as if on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried it, they were swallowed up. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after the people marched around them for seven days.
Hebrews 11:29-30, NET
The people of ancient Israel are often seen as a cautionary tale–an example of disobedience that we’re to learn from and not imitate (1 Cor. 10:1-12). But there were times that they acted in faith, and we can look to those times as positive examples. They were scared at the Red Sea, but when God parted the waters they fled through this supernatural way of escape by faith. They weren’t the most formidable army in the world, but Joshua didn’t hesitate to lead them into the promised land and trust God to provide the victory. Once again, we see that actions of faith are linked with trusting God.
Rahab Escaped
By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the destruction of the disobedient, because she welcomed the spies in peace.
Hebrews 11:31, NET
Rahab didn’t know anything about the God of Israel except what she’d heard about the things He’d done through and for His people (Josh. 2:8-13). That was enough, though, for her to say, “Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11, WEB), and to act based on faith in Him. You don’t need to know everything about who God is and what He expects from you to begin a life of faith.
Summary of Other Faithful Actions
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And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, administered justice, gained what was promised, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight,and women received back their dead raised to life. But others were tortured, not accepting release, to obtain resurrection to a better life.And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed apart, murdered with the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins; they were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth. And these all were commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised.For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us.
Hebrews 11:21-40, NET
The actions of faith often seem exciting and heroic when we look back on them. At the time, though, I imagine they were often harrowing for people. The verses in Hebrews tell us people like Moses and his parents acted without fear, but there was still uncertainty. They trusted God, but they didn’t know the outcome when they started out.
Sometimes, the actions we take by faith lead to things like conquering kingdoms, attaining the promises, escaping from lions, and raising the dead. Other times, these actions lead to God’s people being tortured, mocked, imprisoned, and homeless. No matter what the outcome, the point of this chapter is that we can trust God when we act in faith. In the grand scheme of things, He always works things out for good. Sometimes that’s obvious in this life, but whether we see a good outcome here or not, the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises will happen in His kingdom.
These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. For those who speak in such a way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. In fact, if they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:13-16, NET
Every single person mentioned here in the faith chapter is still waiting to receive all that God promised them. They’ll be resurrected at the same time as the New Covenant believers are at Jesus’s return (see “Rethinking Heaven: Capturing A Vision of the Resurrection“). The faith chapter begins by including us (“by faith we understand”) and it ends with us as well (“they would be made perfect together with us”). When we remain faithful to God–demonstrated by the actions of faith that we take in obedience to Him–we’ll inherit the promises right alongside all the faithful people who’ve followed God over thousands of years.
In our lives as Christians, we’ve probably all thought at some point that we’d like to have more faith. We look at the heroes of faith in the Bible and read Hebrews 11, and we think it’d be nice to have faith like that. Jesus’s disciples had a similar desire.
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”So the Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this black mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled out by the roots and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
Luke 17:5-6, NET
At first, it seems like Jesus didn’t give them a helpful answer. They asked for more faith, and He said if you had faith you could do this and this, but didn’t actually tell them how to get that faith. But then, as He so often did when teaching, He proceeded to tell them a story.
“Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’?Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’?He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he?So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”
Luke 17:7-10, NET
The disciples asked for more faith, and Jesus gave this enigmatic response. First, He told them what they could do if they had faith. Then, he told them this story about the slave and the master. Finally, He gave them an instruction: “So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’” It’s this story and concluding instruction that serve as the answer to the disciples’ plea, “Increase our faith!”
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Master and Slave
When we read the word “slave” with modern eyes, we become very uncomfortable. We think of involuntary subjugation and mistreatment. In many English translations, they use the word “servant” or “bondservant” to avoid using “slave.” However, “δοῦλος (doulos) … does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another” (NET footnote on Matt. 8:9). “Bondservant” is a pretty good translation, since doulos “often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another,” but it’s not a word that most modern English speakers are familiar with. That makes “slave” the best translation option even though our modern sense of what that means is a little different than what doulos meant in the ancient world.
It’s important that we understand doulos because the master-slave relationship is one that Jesus and New Testament writers frequently use to explain how God and His followers relate to each other. Jesus has multiple parables about the kingdom that compare us to slaves and He and/or His father to a master (Matt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30). While Jesus did say, “I no longer call you slaves … But I have called you friends” near the end of His human life (John 15:15), Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, and Jude all call themselves slaves of God the Father and Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Tit. 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Pet. 1:1; Jude 1:1). In the sense that Biblical writers use the word, we don’t have a choice about whether or not we’re slaves. All people either serve sin and the devil as their master, or serve righteousness and the one true God (Romans 6). We just get to choose whom we serve. With that in mind, let’s look at Jesus’s response to His disciples again.
“Would any one of you say to your slave who comes in from the field after plowing or shepherding sheep, ‘Come at once and sit down for a meal’?Won’t the master instead say to him, ‘Get my dinner ready, and make yourself ready to serve me while I eat and drink. Then you may eat and drink’?He won’t thank the slave because he did what he was told, will he?So you too, when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty.’”
Luke 17:7-10, NET
First, Jesus asked His listeners to put themselves in the master’s role. You wouldn’t think it was a remarkable thing, He points out, if your slave did as they were told and served you. Like the slave in this story, we have a master that we’re expected to serve. When we do everything God has commanded us to do, we shouldn’t think we’ve done something amazing. That’s just what’s expected of us. It is our duty to obey God in everything. And somehow, that is connected to faith.
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Doing What We Hear
Paul tells us that “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the preached word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17, NET). As we talked about last week, a Jewish writer like Paul would have connected the idea of hearing to the action of doing. If you really hear or listen to something God says, then you’re going to act on what you hear. Faith follows from hearing God’s word and, as we talked about the week before last, that faith involves obedience to what God says.
When I read, “when you have done everything you were commanded to do, should say, ‘We are slaves undeserving of special praise; we have only done what was our duty’” I think of the difference Jesus drew between people who made a show of righteousness and people who lived genuinely righteous lives. Usually, this came up in relation to the Pharisees, who prided themselves on keeping God’s law to the letter and even adding more laws on top of it.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them.I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place. So anyone who breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever obeys them and teaches others to do so will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”
Matthew 5:17-20, NET
Clearly, the true righteousness Jesus talks about here has something to do with keeping the commands of God but it isn’t confined to just being an expert in the law or keeping that law as strictly as possible. In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continued talking about taking God’s law to the next level. Our righteousness has to go beyond the letter of the law to obeying God in the spirit and intent of His law. For example, it’s not enough to avoid murder; Jesus also expects us not to despise or condemn others (Matt. 5:21-22). It’s not enough to refrain from cheating on our spouses; we’re not even to lust after someone who doesn’t belong to us (Matt. 5:27-28). If we’re only keeping the letter of the law, then we are servants who have merely done our duty. If we want to be deserving of “special praise,” we need to demonstrate a higher degree of commitment to God than what He expected under the Old Covenant.
Now we have such confidence in God through Christ.Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 2:4-6, NET
Paul explains “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” more fully in Romans, especially Romans 7-8. The law gives knowledge of sin, but it can’t save us from the death penalty that comes from breaking God’s law. We need Jesus’s sacrifice for that, and when we have a relationship with Him we’re “free from the law of sin and death” and under “the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2, NET).
The Law That Gives Freedom
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Many people think of God’s law as something restrictive, demanding, and confining. But when we’re in a New Covenant relationship with the Father and Jesus, the law becomes something else. It’s not so much that the law of God changed, but that our relationship with it changed.
But if you fulfill the royal law as expressed in this scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show prejudice, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as violators.For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law. Speak and act as those who will be judged by a law that gives freedom.For judgment is merciless for the one who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.
While Paul often emphasized how we don’t rely on the law for salvation (even though we still owe God our loyalty and obedience), here, James emphasizes the continuing importance of God’s law. If we really love our neighbors as ourselves, then we’re keeping God’s whole law the way He intends us to (Rom. 13:8-10). But if we break one of the more detailed commands summed up by “love your neighbor as yourself” then we’re guilty of violating God’s law. He’s merciful, though, and the law is there for freedom not condemnation. It lets us know what kind of works we should produce when we have faith.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear.
But would you like evidence, you empty fellow, that faith without works is useless?Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? You see that his faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Now Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And similarly, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way?For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
James 2:14-26, NET (bold italics mark a quotation from Gen. 15:6)
Belief that acknowledges God’s nature then does nothing based on that knowledge is the same kind of “faith” that the demons have. Faith that’s linked with righteousness takes action. Active faith does good works, not because works will save us but because our salvation links us with God the Father and Jesus Christ. A real relationship with them inspires change, growth, and goodness in us. As we follow Jesus’s example and obey God in the spirit of the law, not just doing our duty to obey in the letter of the law, our faith continues to grow.
Like An Anchor 