I would guess the best place for us to start would be with our title and just follow the words. Using that as our guide, let us begin with. Scripture. Scripture means any sacred or authoritative religious text with a common use referring to the Christian Bible or a specific message from it. You can usually refer to any religious text as considered sacred, to which I would add the Hebrew scriptures. Scriptures both in the Christian Bible as well as the Hebrew Scriptures are understood as containing spiritual truth and divine revelation. We will go ahead now and run the risk of repeating ourselves, but we want to follow the outline we have put together. Sacred writings are usually the most common, meaning any writing regarded as holy by a specific religion. Our Christian Bible often refers to both Old and New Testament and can be used to be a specific message from the Bible. Scripture comes from the Latin word scriptura, meaning writing. Now for those of the faith, and for this particular writing, I’m referring to both the Christian faith and Jewish faith for those people, Scripture is considered to be a source of divine truth, spiritual power, and guidance.
I know that we have in previous writings in the past spoken of faith as being a deep trust or belief in something even without proof which can be applied to a specific religious system, person or ideal. But it involves and depends on confidence and loyalty, and in a religious context, that often means belief in a deity and commitment to their teachings. Faith can also mean an unwavering confidence in someone’s abilities or a firm set of principles. I do not believe that I can express fully enough how important Fidelity and loyalty is as an obligation to ones promises, duty, or an ideal, as seen in the phrase, “in good faith”.
The truth is that faith is not always that simple. The key components of faith are belief, trust, confidence, loyalty and commitment, which in a religious sense involves a commitment of a person’s life to that belief system. That faith goes one step further, and involves action, acting upon that belief rather than just intellectual assent. It means that we’re trusting without actually seeing. In a religious context faith is often described as believing in and trusting in God, even when he cannot be seen. A good example of acting on faith would be of the blind man who asked Jesus for healing, he had the faith that Jesus could do it. Faith also requires us to live a life that can be expressed through service and obedience to God. I guess we could apply a legal point here if you want to from a secular point of view, faith can also be demonstrated through actions that show sincerity of intent.
Let’s add one other word to our blog this week. We’ve been looking at faith and scripture. Now add “practicability”. Now this is a hard one to put into place. When we do a little bit of research, we find that practicability likely would refer to the practical application and real world relevance of the two elements of faith and scripture. I will try to take us through this without it being too confusing. How are faith and scripture joined together to become a practical application to our everyday lives? Well, it does concern our actions in our behavior and how we react to certain situations which includes treating others with kindness and compassion and forgiving others to start with.That’s just a few things that come to mind. They can also be expressed through a good attitude at work with the understanding that all services are ultimately for God and when we practice our faith, that involves disciplines like prayer, reading scripture, worship, and serving others, scripture practicability is in its ability to be applied to everyday life, providing a guidance for living, even when faced with difficult decisions and circumstances. Now there is a word in our vocabulary, which carries a lot of weight and it’s called logic. The concept of faith over practicability suggests that there will be times that our belief should guide actions, even when it seems to contradict the worldly wisdom of logic. So to wrap this up, let’s look at a few of the examples of practical application.
In James 2:26… the Bible states that faith without works is dead, highlighting the necessity of faith being demonstrated through action.
Ephesians 6:1–3 and Colossians 3:20… both of these passages show a child’s submission and obedience to their parents as an act of faith.
Romans 10:9–11… this first speaks to the practical step of confessing faith in Jesus Christ, which is linked directly to salvation.
James 4:17… is a verse that shows the practical application of morality by stating that it is a sin to know you should do good and then not do it.
It’s important that we accept the practicability of both our faith and scripture through the practice of putting our religious beliefs and teachings into our daily actions and behavior. And I would remind us all that the real practicality of scripture lies in its ability to guide and impact real life situations even across different times and contexts.
Come back and join us next week in The Pew.
Life is Good
jk
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