Faith – Oligopistos – Matthew 16

As mentioned in my earlier post, I was in discussion with my Sunday School teacher and we verred into the topic of faith.  This topic addresses the first Greek word in our table below

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”.

Strong’s Number G3640 matches the Greek ὀλιγόπιστος (oligopistos), which occurs 5 times in 5 verses in the Greek concordance.

We will look at the the last of the four instances that Jesus (and only Jesus) used this Greek word in this post.

Matthew 16:5-12

To the point, Jesus speaks to the disciples, and us about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.  But what is that teaching?

The Pharisee’s and Sadducee’s Doctrine/Teaching

The passage clearly combines the Pharisees teaching with the Sadduccess teaching.  But they were worlds apart on various teachings.  I found this description informative (check here for more info.)

Religiously, the Sadducee were more conservative in one doctrinal area: they insisted on a literal interpretation of the text of Scripture; the Pharisees, on the other hand, gave oral tradition equal authority to the written Word of God. If the Sadducee couldn’t find a command in the Tanakh, they dismissed it as manmade.

I have always considered the Sadducee to be comparable to liberal elitists, and the Pharisees likened to the tradition laden believers within the church.  Both of these groups promoted a teaching that Jesus warned us of.

Dang it if I can’t find anything clear in this particular passage, but may I suggest a common thread of both these groups?

Both the Pharisee and Sadducee had these common traits

1. They were both religious.
2. They were both political.

1. Religion

Jesus came to create religion.  Why is He knocking it?

Nope.

That is wrong thinking Carl.  Jesus did not come to create a religion.  (Dang it if it wasn’t religion that killed the Messiah.)  Jesus never used the word religion when He preached. He condemned both the Pharisees and Sadducees in thier religious practices (which of itself doesn’t condemn all religion). I can’t find any of the apostles referring to religion (in a positive way) except in the book of James, which definitely does not describe the religion touted by the groups we are speaking about.

2.Politics

So, how does your Christian life relate to the turmoil of the political landscape in your land?  Do you get caught up in the promises, the hopes that politicians freely provide.  Do you see that political power is a positive influence in your nation?

The Pharisee and Sadducee parties were heavily involved in acquiring and maintaining  influence upon the people through the political process.  Political power is the ability to exert external pressure to make citizens/subject to conform, to fit into a certain mold, to control a population.

I am convinced that Christianity and political power cannot exist together.  Religion and politics can exist, since they both seek to influence souls externally.  Not so with Christianity.  Christianity is completely different – The Spirit of God is internal, living and powerful, convincing and convicting each believer to follow God.

Christianity is to be the voice calling corruption to the carpet, not to be in bed with the earthly power.

Somehow, I feel Jesus may have been alluding to this unholy partnership.  Whether this passage speaks of this topic, I will leave with the reader.

Back to the Littleness of Faith

No matter, the littleness of faith spoken of by the Messiah can be directly connected with the manner in which we hear His words.  As a technically trained professional, I struggle daily to communicate literally, clearly and without contradiction, in order to have my message understood.  Vagueness and metaphors are not my cup of tea. (Ooops)

Not so with the Lord.  He often spoke in parables, likening earthly things with heavenly things, communicating on a different level.  He sometimes came down to our level, but He didn’t stay there.  He is calling us to have ears to hear His message, not to change the intent of the message to conform to our culture and training.  This is a mighty challenge!

The Word is powerful, but it is powerful the message it supplies.  We need to hear not only the words but the intent behind them.

Let us not have littleness of faith in our understanding of the Word of God.

Please leave a comment to continue this discussion and come visit next time to continue our look at faith.

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