Biblical Vision Of CommitmentPrimjer

Faith as commitment 

The Greek word for faith/believe in the Bible is the word ‘Pistis’. The word is also translated as believe in many of the translations. One of the dominant ways this word is understood in our times is ‘coming to a conclusion about certain facts’. So to have faith or to believe in Jesus is to understand facts about His life and death. Not that it is a wrong way of defining it, but to merely define it in terms of cognitive propositions is to reduce such a loaded word into our simplistic post enlightenment understandings.

In the early church before a person was baptised, they were asked the question, do you have ‘Pistis’ in Jesus Christ? The person would then respond by saying Yes Pistis in the father, Pistis in the son, Pistis in the Holy Spirit. They, however, did not just mean this in terms of coming to certain factual propositions about the trinity, but that from here onwards I give my complete allegiances to this God.

The concept can be compared to a person joining the army and taking an oath of allegiance. This does not reduce the cognitive dimension in any way; a person has to ascribe and believe certain propositions to come to a position of faith. But we see that faith is much more.

Faith is giving our ultimate commitment and loyalty to the one we are devoted to. As Christians we are devoted to Jesus Christ. We give our ultimate loyalty and allegiance to Him. Faith is about committing to Him on a daily basis. To make our choices and decisions in line with our commitment to Him. No matter what comes our way or how Satan seduces us with the things of this world, we are called to be committed to the one we have put our faith in.