Travelers in faith

We are on the way in our lives and likewise in our faith. We are in the process of creating our own trip report. Fortunately, there are many fellow travelers. Everyone writes their own travelogue.

Along the way, you explore the landscape, talk to other travelers, perhaps join a tour group (a church), or let the enthusiasm of others encourage you to set out for new horizons. If you’ve been around longer, you’ll have adopted some assumptions here and there. In the process, something like an imprint of faith is formed.

How an imprint of faith comes about will not be examined here. What emerges, however, can be viewed with some distance. Two things caught my eye. For some, the quantification of faith is strongly felt. For others, the qualification of faith is central.

Quantifying faith is about “doing things right,” while qualifying faith emphasizes “doing the right things.” It’s a different way of looking at it. Discernment helped me discern the direction of my own faith. This gave me design options and gave me a lot of freedom.

Quantification of faith

Quantification, for example, is about numbers. Then you can see the following thoughts:

• I will hold 30 minutes of quiet time every day
• I will givethe tithes of my income to the church
• Endless eternity is God’s seal of approval.

However, quantification is also about categories that are of great importance to many. Certain assumptions are meant to be a measuring stick for orthodoxy. They are highly cultural and can vary greatly between countries and churches:

• A Christian does not have sex before marriage
• A Christian goes to church every Sunday
• A Christian May Not Divorce Marriage
• A Christian does not drink alcohol.

Many more things could be listed. What else would you add?

All of these things are benchmarks for Christian behavior – at least in certain circles. I want to see why this is going. The observation lies here: The way of looking at it lies on distinguishing “right” and “wrong”. There lies the quantification or the desire “to do everything right”. It is a certain understanding of faith.

Such an understanding of faith quickly drifts into legalism. Jesus constantly found fault with the legalism in many of the religious leaders of his day. The desire to do everything right is human, not divine. What image of God does this speak of?

This view has consequences. There are a lot of aberrations due to the quantification of faith. For some, it is certain that one “must believe” (this is an oxymoron). Here are also rooted ideas about heaven and hell, about a decision of faith – which one obviously has to make, about a supposed absolutely free will (also a quantification!) and other assumptions.

These things are so widespread that they are hardly noticeable. Who thinks about it? Here one finds religiosity that can take the place of a lived faith. The desire to make the reality of God somewhere concretely perceptible or visible is – so it seems to me – also the occasion for charismatic experiences, from speaking in tongues to healing. You want to feel and see. The same applies to a prosperity gospel, according to which every believer should be financially splendid. Seeing, feeling, having – all these things concern a quantification of faith.

There are other things that should perhaps be assigned to this category. There is, for example, this expression “philosemitism” (from gr. philos = friend). It is the antithesis of “anti-Semitism.” Jewish friends of mine once complained about the Philosemites, who were even more Jewish than they were. Meant were Christians who kept Sabbath, celebrated the Seder and put Israel on a pedestal with the address “This is how God works in the world”. This, too, seems to me a quantification of faith and the fulfillment of a religious zeal and need.

The list is endless. Apocalyptic ideas and that set of special teachings (the 10 lost tribes, a flat or hollow earth, etc.) all want to know how to distinguish between “true” and “untrue.” They are seductions that can be traced back to a certain knowledge and attitude of faith, to a “quantification of faith”.

How could it look different?

Qualification of faith

Qualifying faith is about quality. This also expresses itself in an understanding of faith and in an attitude of faith. For example, we can think of the following story, wherein both quantification and qualification become visible:

“And as Jesus passed on from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the custom house, and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he got up and followed him. And it came to pass, as he lay at meat in the house, and, behold, many publicans and sinners came and lay at meat with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, “It is not the strong who need a physician, but the sick. But go and learn what this is, “I want mercy, not sacrifice.” For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Mt 9:9-13. Compare Hos 6:6, etc.

The Pharisees in this story wanted to do everything right. Jesus did the right thing. The Pharisees quantified, Jesus qualified. Not the fulfillment of legal requirements (“sacrifice”), but mercy is to apply. The concern of Scripture is more important than the rules of Scripture.

James writes:

“Mercy boasts in the face of judgment.”
Jk 2,13

Those who think more in terms of the law may already start sweating over such considerations. I write this from my own experience. Mercy appears “spongy.” Rules, on the other hand, appear simple and clear.

Mercy speaks of an attitude of faith. It describes how one encounters the world. Mercy is the lived expression of a lover who thereby passes on God’s love and grace.

A qualification of faith is about quality. It is about the result of an understanding. It becomes practical here not by following rules, but by living out the essence.

Those who prefer a quantification of faith get stuck – by comparison – somewhere in the instruction manual, as if studying the buttons of a coffee machine but not getting around to inviting guests and serving coffee. In mercy, one applies what one has learned in such a way that it becomes a blessing to others.

If I seek the quality of faith, I want to know God’s thoughts. I want to act as He acts. Jesus modeled this in the midst of his people. Paul demonstrated this with the churches among the rest of the nations. That this is possible is the result of a long history that finds expression in the Gospel. I am learning in it how God looks at me in Christ. If I trust the Word with every fiber of my being, it is like a transformation. Paul describes it this way:

“Therefore, if any man be in Christ, there is a new creation: the former things passed away, behold, they are become new.”
2Cor 5,17

This is not just any sentence. It is in a passage where Paul writes, “The love of Christ urges us” (2 Cor. 5:14). It was his experience and realization that became so clear to him that it enabled him to see the whole world in this light. So overwhelming was his understanding that you never get back to legalism with Paul. He’s all about quality. It does not begin and end in our effort, but in God’s work.

“But all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself: He does not impute their offenses to them, and has set down in us the word of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were speaking through us. We plead for Christ: be reconciled to God! For He who knew not sin made Him to be sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
2Cor 5:18-21

Quantity or quality?

Which is more important: should you always “do things right” or rather “do the right things”? That is now the question. Is it about quantity or quality? Do not succumb now to the temptation to “somehow reconcile” the two. It’s the question of focus – where do you want the focus to be? If you have something like a compass needle, where do you want it to point?

This text only wants to be a suggestion to think about these things. Once I was firmly convinced that my effort was necessary for me to find God. It was the recommended path, paved with good intentions and great promises. It was only years later that I had to realize with disillusionment that the quantification of faith does not help. It’s about more important things, about quality. It is about God, more than about me. Or, to put it another way, it’s about getting to know God and not just following supposed rules.

By the way, this is not self-evident. Even in Paul’s day, this realization was poorly anchored among believers. Paul even prays for the believers that they may know God correctly:

“Therefore it is … that I do not cease to give thanks for you and to mention in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you spiritual wisdom and spiritual revelation for the knowledge of Himself …”
Eph 1:15-17

Likewise, the apostle asks for prayer so that he can use the word (!) in the church. Even the Scriptures could not be recognized without prayer.

“Stop in prayer and watch in it with thanksgiving, praying at the same time also for us, that God may open for us a door for the word, to speak of the mystery of Christ, for Whose sake I also am bound, that I may reveal it as I must speak.”
Col 4:2-3

All of these things take place within the community. There are not only success stories, but also real challenges, even for Paul, so that Christ can take shape in the churches and in life. This is what the apostle worked for.

Quality over quantity. Quantity places man in the foreground, while quality places God’s activity centrally. We ourselves determine the focus.

How do you want to shape your faith? What do you need to make this more successful?