Day: July 27, 2020

Confidence · Faith · Persuade

Faith – Peíthō – Obey

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Faith 2As mentioned in my introduction to faith post, I was in Sunday School class a while back and had the opportunity to discuss Christian maturity with the teacher, and as you may have guessed, we wandered off into the subject of faith.

Faith

He had told me there are a number of Greek words in the New Testament that are translated “faith” in our English Bible, and I let him know I thought otherwise.

So I came home and did a quick study, using Blue Letter Bible web site.  The following table gives a summary of the New Testament Greek words used when describing our English word “faith”.

Strongs # Greek Transliterated English Equivalent
New Testament (Greek) for “faith”
G571 ἄπιστος apistos that believe not, unbelieving, faithless, unbeliever, infidel, thing incredible, which believe not
G1680 ἐλπίς elpis hope, faith
G3640 ὀλιγόπιστος oligopistos of little faith
G4102 πίστις pistis faith, assurance, believe, belief, them that believe, fidelity
G4103 πιστός pistos faithful, believe, believing, true, faithfully, believer, sure not tr
G6066 ὀλιγοπιστία oligopistia littleness of faith

faith 4I’m glad he challenged me to look it up and I think we were both sort of correct.

The root word found in each of the above greek words is pistos/pistis, and when checked in that web site I like (see above), both are derived from the Greek word “peíthō”.

Strong’s Definitions
πείθω peíthō, pi’-tho; a primary verb; to convince (by argument, true or false); by analogy, to pacify or conciliate (by other fair means); reflexively or passively, to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty):—agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be (wax) conflent, make friend, obey, persuade, trust, yield.
For future posts, I would like to explore the concept of faith, and each of the terms found in the table above.  But for now, I would like to consider the root word peíthō.

Peíthō

In the Strongs Concordance definition above I have italicized a number of synonyms that are synonyms for the root word Peíthō.  
Consider the following shade of the Greek word Peíthō.
Obey

This has got to be the hardest synonym to discuss, given the current condition of the modern church and my own weakness and failings.

Many times in the New Testament, Jesus tells His disciples that to love Him is to obey Him. 

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14:23

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

Yes – but I think there is even more to it!.

John 13:35

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we obey Him, we show the world that we love Him.

And as I try to understand the gospel, it is becoming apparent to me that one who realizes I love Jesus due to my obedience to His will is the one who is typing this message.  Yes, although I am in the world, and have been told I am not part of it, I still gain (have) confidence (see above) through my active participation in the known will of God for my life.

Consider.

To “Peíthō” is to obey the One who is the object of faith.

One more post on the word Peíthō, and I will ask you to YIELD to the desire to visit.  Hope to see you then.

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Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.