UNFEIGNED FAITH

By MARVIN DUNCAN, Pastor

Scripture Reading: I Timothy 1:5; II Timothy 1:5

Much of what men believe today is what they want to believe instead of what God's Word teaches. Faith is somehow taken to mean just being sincere in what you want to happen, or being sincere in what you think God would have you do and if your faith (your belief in your own idea) is strong enough, it will come to pass. This is far from what God's Word teaches about faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that the faith that pleases God comes from hearing, that is believing, the Word of God. God will only do that which He has said He will do and God will accept a person only on the basis He has proclaimed. Anything beyond what God has said is not faith--- it is wishful-thinking.

 

It is this taking God at His Word that Paul speaks of as "UNFEIGNED FAITH" in our text verses. This word, unfeigned, means genuine or sincere. It is the sincere trust in what God has said about Himself and about how a man can be justified in His sight that Paul was speaking about when he wrote Timothy that "the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith that is genuine and sincere" (I Timothy I:5). This genuine faith does not go beyond what God has said, but takes every word God has spoken and sincerely believes God will do exactly as He has promised.

Paul was confident that this was the kind of faith Timothy had and his sincere faith had been encouraged in him by his mother and his grand-mother who both had this same genuine faith in what God had said (II Timothy 1:5).

 

Is your faith based solely upon what God has said, or do you have some areas of wishful-thinking involved in your faith? If there is any area of your faith that is not exactly what God has said, you do not have "UNFEIGNED FAITH."

JUST A THOUGHT

Adversity is not simply a tool. Its God's most effective tool for the advancement of our spiritual lives. The circumstances and events that we see as setbacks are oftentimes the very things that launch us into periods of intense spiritual growth. Once we begin to understand this, and accept it as a spiritual fact of life, adversity becomes easier to bear.