Human language is alive and powerful. With our words, the Bible says we have the power of life and death. We can change people just with the things we choose to say to them. However, we should also note that we have the power to change the meaning of these words. For example, there is a certain three-lettered word in our language that rhymes with “grass” that used to refer to a domesticated farm animal, but now we have given it a negative connotation in order to describe people who exhibit particular qualities of this domesticated farm animal. This didn’t happen overnight, but it should show us that our words and the meanings of our words change.

Unfortunately, this has seemed to happen with the language we use in Scripture. The New Testament, originally written in Greek, has now found itself to be translated into English as well as a thousand or so other languages. This is great news as more people get to hear and read the Gospel, but we should also note just how easy it would be to take a Greek word and turn it into an English word that is similar but not the same.

This has happened with the Greek noun “pistis.” Pistis generally means faith, but it can also mean belief and trust. Within these English words, we have taken one Greek word and given it a wide spectrum of meaning while the first audiences of the Gospel would have only heard one meaning. For instance, Greek manuscripts will use one word, Pistis, when discussing faith, but our English translations will at times use faith, belief or trust depending on the context. Here are some examples:

Romans 10:9-13 reads, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

James 1:22-2:20 reads, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves … Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world … What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”

Finally, Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Now why does all this matter? It matters because we have lost the true meaning of pistis. It is great that we have faith in God, but this faith must be tied to faithfulness. We are dangerously misled when we read Scripture to say that in order to be saved all we must do is have an intellectual belief about God, and I think this shows up in our theology. Most of the time we just have kids and adults alike answer our questionnaire or have them repeat a prayer after us in order to lead them to Christ. But I want us to see that true salvation only comes through faithfully following the ways of Jesus. Therefore, pistis and its verbal counterpart are much better translated as “trust” or “trusting” for it is only in trusting the ways of God do we find the experiential salvation of Christ. In other words, we must trust that God is indeed God.

This isn’t to make “salvation” harder to come by, but rather, this is to show us what true salvation is. Salvation is not believing or knowing things about God, much like the devils do. Salvation is trusting that God’s ways of living bring life. Go live as Jesus did, for only there will we ever find salvation.

(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene.)