‘Beliefs’ Define Our Belief

“Jesus said to Martha, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’”

~John 11:25-26 (NRSV).

Is Jesus your idolatry? Without getting all up in arms at how that sounds, humour the thought. ‘Idolatry’ is the worship of anything not truly God, or of created things. The question remains: when declaring our ‘in Jesus’ name’s’ are we really acting with sincerity toward honouring Jesus’ name?

Belief – Made Manifest by Action

What is belief but a commitment to action? Faith is much more about what is done than many will think. (Belief is the cause; the action is the domino effect.)

The problem beyond spoken commitment to our Lord is any and all actions engaged upon not indwelt in truth blaspheme God’s name. Power is supposedly invoked at the utterance of God’s name, but God can’t be party to falsity—whether the name of God is used or not.

Simply, many actions bathed in non-truth come from micro belief in things opposed to God’s purposes. Put all a person’s beliefs together—the sum of their actions—and there is basis for their overall belief... Christian or not. There are many who espouse Christian belief, but do not actually live in belief (via their actions) to the Christian way.

Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven... I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’.”

~Matthew 7:21, 23 (NRSV).

Now, I’m not saying that people’s salvation is at jeopardy. But Jesus’ point is, “What use is ‘faith’ if God’s will is not sought and then obeyed?” It is a poor faith at best.

The Sum of Belief

Many people are so good at talking the talk whilst forgetting that walking the talk—and better, walking the walk—is the main point. It doesn’t matter what we say. It’s what we do that reveals our beliefs. All action is grounded in belief. If a belief is held that all black-coloured cars are hot, people in hot climates will not buy black-coloured cars. Dark brown-coloured cars might be more popular. It doesn’t matter if it’s the truth or not, people act in line with their beliefs. And many false beliefs pervade.

Jesus is always truth. God cannot abide in non-truth.

It is God’s will that all false belief—even innocuous beliefs, like black-coloured cars being hotter inside than dark brown ones—be exposed for what they are; lies.

Because people have the habit of aligning to beliefs (and it’s not like we can’t) it’s the Christian’s responsibility to quash any false belief held at its source. The Spirit of God reveals these to us. It’s in listening and obeying that we mature spiritually.

The sum of our beliefs—and the actions that spring from these beliefs—either supports our overall belief in God or it doesn’t. The purposes of our lives is thus to expunge the diluting effect of false belief.

Actions manifest in false belief are destined for the spiritual scrapheap. This is the will of God.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.