There is a great deal of confusion. It is the confusion about what faith is. One asks “What faith do you have?” perhaps meaning ancestry (from a Christian home?) or denomination (to which church community do you belong?). It can also ask whether one has certain religious feelings (the magic word here is “spiritual”). For many, faith is synonymous with a particular message (that one “believes”). The last then quickly mutates into a means of demarcating and denouncing others. Faith is then only the imprint of one’s own group, which stands in the struggle with all others. Still others see faith as nationality. “You are from the West, therefore you are a Christian”. That’s where you are born into a religion. This is how drawers work.

Faith is incredible and – like a chameleon – can apparently adjust the color according to its mood or environment.

Faith is incredible

But all this has little to do with what is testified in the Bible. In this paper, I am not concerned with the whole diversity of faith around the world, not even with the diversity of faith within Christian communities, but specifically with assumptions of faith that are lived out in evangelical circles to this day. Not all that glitters is gold. There are also tangible problems with just this central word “faith.”

So what about “faith”?

The essence of faith

You can’t buy faith. It is not an object that I can pick up in an unknown place. Faith I can not see. Faith is based on the verb “to believe”. It is an activity, an active attitude. It is not an accomplishment, but something I “do” every day.

Faith is simply “trust”, as it appears from the languages of the Bible and as it is already mentioned in several posts here. He who believes trusts. This is not a “holding true” of any “facts”. Trust is much more direct and personal. We can trust God, that is, we can trust Him.

Faith is therefore personal, because only I can “trust” myself. No one can do that in my place. We are believers, but each in his own way. For the time being, this has nothing to do with the “content” of faith, the reference point of trust. This is not unimportant, but trust is a verb, not a thing. It is an activity. We believe means that we actively trust ourselves.

General or personal?

Suddenly I had two ideas in my head. On the one hand, the publicly presented idea that faith is something very stable and even powerful, whereby I can “tap into God,” so to speak. On the other hand, the idea of trust. Let’s compare the two ideas.

Congruence in faith

Two ideas I have in mind: on the one hand a general idea of what faith “should be”, on the other hand a simple “trust”. The first is firmly cemented, the second is alive and can only be lived. That was a contrast. This was a crack in the thinking. However, there was light shining through this crack. I began to understand that there was not only one view, only black and white, only absolute trust or abysmal godlessness, but my faith and trust are very personal. Everyone believes and trusts out of their own humanity. I had not understood that until then, or had consciously blanked it out.

I took a closer look at this “crack in the thinking”. I turned to the Bible again, checked to see if black and white thinking is taught in the Bible. But maybe it was about something else that I had overlooked so far? I felt that I needed to consciously address the congruence between life and faith.

The consequences of this confrontation were staggering. It all made sense. Everyone around me had a personal faith. All were encouraged to believe by the same proclamation, but the result was always “personal”. That’s logical, isn’t it? No, it wasn’t. At that time it was new to me. That’s why I can understand anyone who is struggling with it today. I had to learn to differentiate. Although I heard “what faith was like” in sermons and Bible studies, didn’t they pretend to have a uniform understanding? The unified understanding was never there in reality. Everyone believed personally. However, this was rarely celebrated.

Over time, I became acquainted with three types of faith communities, all of which are going nowhere:

1. Communities where the Bible was no longer even on the table,
2. Communities that had only the Bible on the table and blanked out everything personal, living and also contemporary.
3. The mixed form, in which the Bible is quoted, but only within the framework of the favored passages, dogmas and interpretations. Then add some emotionality to force the impression of personal reference.

All these types of faith communities have an identity problem and inevitably lose their Christian identity. You either lose your connection to the Bible or your connection to life. Living faith, however, wants to leave both in connection. Faith should fertilize my life. I want congruence between life and faith, not imposed, but lived. This is only possible with personal confrontation, that is, with confrontation that also takes myself seriously. Otherwise, one gets lost in ideas, doctrinal buildings and the like.

I want congruence between life and faith, not imposed, but lived.

For once, listen carefully to what people in a faith community (of any kind) say about faith and being human. It usually involves a particular narrative, a particular concept of belief, with limited assumptions. However, this is not a belief. This is just a cultural imprint based on the history of a community. I take a critical look at this supposedly uniform understanding and the pressure to conform in the article “Gleichschaltung in der Gemeinde”.

Is faith absolute?

When I write that faith can only ever be personal, I often encounter a backlash. The other person fears that I am relativizing faith. One then stands in an understanding wherein everything is absolutely fixed. With a personal and differentiated understanding, “faith” would be lost. If you fear that, you are still trapped in this black and white thinking. Because: Nothing is relativized, but only differentiated. Differences are recognized so that you can see more clearly.

My personal understanding is not absolute. Whoever claims this puts himself on a level with God, Who alone is above all. No human being is absolute. No person’s faith is absolute. God is absolute, but my trust is relative. It is relative to my being human, my background, my understanding, and my being true.

Thus, one does not have to do violence to the concept of truth if one realizes that one understands only a fraction of it oneself or “trusts” it deficiently. It just takes some humility to realize that you are totally dependent on God. Kind of like what a father says to Jesus:

“Immediately the father of the baby exclaimed aloud with tears: I believe! Help my unbelief!”
Mk 9,24

Quite amazing: This man was not a hero of faith, but with his testimony and story he encourages people until today “who cannot believe so firmly”. He was helped because he put his trust (!) in Christ. The power was not in himself, but he sought it from Him.

Uncertainty in faith

Uncertainty in faith is often confused with unbelief. If you think in absolute categories, such a view creates incredible pressure. Uncertainty in faith, however, is not unbelief, but it goes up and down in personal faith. This is normal. Being aware of this is honest and sober. You don’t feel the same way every day, you don’t think clearly every day, you aren’t hopeful every day, and you sometimes doubt yourself or even God. This is the reality in our lives. Are you a hero of faith? Well, I’m not – and that’s a good thing.

Here is the difference: those who recognize themselves as weak learn the meaning of grace. Paul describes this as follows:

“Who is weak, and I am not weak with him?”
2Cor 11:29-30

Paul was not a hero of faith. For me, he is a model of sobriety.

“In myself I will glory in nothing, except the infirmities in me.”
2Cor 12,5

The same he continues:

“But He [Gott] assured me, “My grace is sufficient for you; for My power is made perfect in weakness.”” Very gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in the infirmities in me, that the power of Christ may tent upon me.”
From: 2Cor 12,7-10

This is the testimony and experience of Paul. He writes this to the church in Corinth so that they will learn to pay attention to what is important. From the example of Paul, we can see that he was not always strong and victorious. He was weak, troubled, persecuted, and much more.

Paul differentiated. On the one hand, he recognized his own weakness. On the other hand, he recognized the power of Christ. This differentiation seems indispensable for a healthy faith. Precisely because he understood his limitations, he trusted in God and in His Christ. Very matter-of-factly, he puts the focus on something other than “faith performance” when he writes:

“If someone thinks he has recognized something, he has not yet recognized it in the way one must recognize it. But if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.”
1Cor 8,2-3

Faith is relative

Truth, for it to be truth, remains absolute. My understanding, however, is limited. Truth is greater than myself. God is also greater than I am. My faith is only my personal faith. This belief fluctuates, but can be nourished. This allows my confidence to grow. It is a growth, toward becoming an adult in the faith:

“Until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to the mature man, to the measure of the fullness of the completion of Christ, that we may no longer be babes, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine as by surging billows, and carried about by the unpredictability of men, by the cunning that is calculated to spread error by design.”
Eph 4:13-14

Faith is relative, because I’m just on the road myself. I am learning. But I can reach out to foster this growth of faith in love, in myself as well as in others. Grace can do such a thing in you and me.

Deepening

• What do you want to pay attention to in the future?
• What was new to you here and what does that do to you?