faith
πίστις Greek · Strong’s G4102
Settled English
Every level faith
Key term. Where the sense is 'faithfulness', record a meaning decision.
Where it is used
The text drafted so far uses it 242 times, in 24 books.
Translated otherwise 7
Sentences where the settled English is not used, with the decision that explains why.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You set aside for God a tenth even of your mint, dill and cumin, yet you have abandoned what weighs most in the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness. These are what you should have done, while still not abandoning the others.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: being true and reliable, toward God and toward others The word usually means faith in Matthew (8:10; 9:2). Here it stands in a list with justice and mercy that recalls Micah 6:8 and Hosea 12:7, and most likely means faithfulness, though the two senses overlap.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness (L, B); you are not faithful (R) The key term “faith” gives way to “faithfulness” here, as the second meaning decision explains.
Jesus saw how they trusted in him, and he said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
Not the settled English at: Balanced
trusted in him (B); had faith in him (R) “Saw their faith” sounds odd in English, since faith is not seen. Balanced and Readable say what was seen. Readable keeps the key word faith.
God has passed over those times of ignorance, but now he orders people everywhere, all of them, to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness through a man he has appointed. And he has given everyone a pledge of this by raising him from the dead.”
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
a pledge: assurance, proof that God will do it The noun here has its older sense of a guarantee or proof. The resurrection is God’s pledge that the judgment will come.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
showed everyone that this is true Readable says what the pledge does, following the meaning decision.
If some were unfaithful, does their unfaithfulness cancel out God’s faithfulness?
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: God keeping his word πίστις is usually faith, but used of God it is his faithfulness, his keeping of what he promised (the oracles of verse 2).
But the fruit the Spirit produces is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. No law stands against things like these.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: being reliable and true to others In this list of qualities shown toward others, πίστις means faithfulness, the sense it has in Romans 3:3 and Titus 2:10. Elsewhere in Galatians the same word means trust in Christ, but here it stands between goodness and gentleness as part of a person’s character.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness The key term is rendered “faithfulness” here because of its sense in this list (m2).
But do not put younger widows on the list. When their desires pull them away from Christ, they want to marry, and so they come under judgment for breaking their first pledge.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
their first pledge: their promise to serve Christ as enrolled widows πίστιν usually means faith, but it can mean a pledge or promise. Here the context (enrollment, remarriage) points to a pledge the widows made when they were enrolled; it does not mean they abandoned Christian faith. Marriage itself is not condemned (verse 14).
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
pledge (L, B); promise (R) The sense here is a pledge (m2), so the key term “faith” is not used.
Teach slaves to submit to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back or steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: trustworthiness πίστιν is the word for faith, but here it means fidelity, being trustworthy.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness (L); trusted (B, R) The sense is fidelity (m3), so the key term “faith” is not used for this word.
Every sentence
Each sentence in Balanced English, with the word marked. The verse link opens it in the reader.
Matthew 8 uses
Jesus was amazed when he heard this. He said to those who were following him, “Truly I tell you, nowhere in Israel have I found faith as great as this.
Jesus saw their faith and said to the man, “Be encouraged, my son. Your sins are forgiven.”
Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, he said, “Courage, my daughter! Your faith has made you well.”
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith, let it be done for you.”
Then Jesus told her, “Woman, your faith is great. May it be done for you as you wish.”
He told them, “It is because your faith is so small. Truly I tell you, if you have faith even the size of a mustard seed, you can tell this mountain, ‘Go from here to over there,’ and it will go. There will be nothing you cannot do.”
Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will do more than what was done to this fig tree. Even if you tell this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You set aside for God a tenth even of your mint, dill and cumin, yet you have abandoned what weighs most in the law: justice, mercy and faithfulness. These are what you should have done, while still not abandoning the others.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: being true and reliable, toward God and toward others The word usually means faith in Matthew (8:10; 9:2). Here it stands in a list with justice and mercy that recalls Micah 6:8 and Hosea 12:7, and most likely means faithfulness, though the two senses overlap.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness (L, B); you are not faithful (R) The key term “faith” gives way to “faithfulness” here, as the second meaning decision explains.
Mark 5 uses
Jesus saw how they trusted in him, and he said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
Not the settled English at: Balanced
trusted in him (B); had faith in him (R) “Saw their faith” sounds odd in English, since faith is not seen. Balanced and Readable say what was seen. Readable keeps the key word faith.
Is there still no faith in you?”
“Daughter,” he told her, “your faith has saved you and made you well. Go in peace, free of your suffering.”
Jesus told him, “Go. Your faith has saved you and made you well.”
Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God.
Luke 11 uses
Jesus saw their faith and said, “My friend, your sins stand forgiven.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at the man. Turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found faith this great even in Israel.”
But Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?”
Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
The apostles said to the Lord, “Give us more faith!”
The Lord answered, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree, ‘Tear yourself up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would do as you say.
Then he told him, “Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.”
Even so, when the Son of Man comes, will he find this kind of faith on the earth?”
Jesus told him, “See again. Your faith has made you well.”
But I have prayed for you, so that your faith will not give out. And you, once you have turned back, must strengthen your brothers.”
Acts 15 uses
This man you see and know was made strong by the name of Jesus, through faith in that name. The faith that comes through him has given the man perfect health here in front of you all.
The whole gathering approved of what was said. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert to Judaism from Antioch. They had these men stand before the apostles, and after praying, they laid their hands on them.
So God’s word went on spreading. In Jerusalem the disciples grew greatly in number, and large numbers of priests were coming to obey the faith.
On his arrival he saw the grace of God, and it made him glad. He kept urging everyone to hold fast to the Lord with firm resolve, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
But the magician Elymas, for that is how his name is translated, kept opposing them and tried to steer the proconsul away from the faith.
The man was listening while Paul spoke. Paul fixed his eyes on him and saw that he had faith that he would be made well. So he said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” And the man leaped up and walked.
They proclaimed the gospel in that city and made many disciples. After that they retraced their steps to Lystra, to Iconium and to Antioch. They made the disciples strong in spirit and urged them to hold on to the faith, saying, “We must enter the kingdom of God by way of many afflictions.”
Once they had arrived, they called the church together and told all that God had done as he worked along with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
After a long debate, Peter rose and spoke to them: “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made his choice among you: through my mouth the Gentiles were to hear the message of the gospel and come to believe. God, who knows every heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, as he did for us as well. He made no difference at all between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts by faith.
So the churches grew firmer in the faith, and their numbers rose day by day.
God has passed over those times of ignorance, but now he orders people everywhere, all of them, to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness through a man he has appointed. And he has given everyone a pledge of this by raising him from the dead.”
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
a pledge: assurance, proof that God will do it The noun here has its older sense of a guarantee or proof. The resurrection is God’s pledge that the judgment will come.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
showed everyone that this is true Readable says what the pledge does, following the meaning decision.
You know how I held back nothing that was for your good, but made it known to you and taught you, in public and from house to house. To Jews and Greeks alike I bore solemn witness about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.
A few days afterward Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife, a Jewish woman. He had Paul brought in and heard what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus.
But rise, stand up on your feet. I have shown myself to you for a purpose: to choose you as my assistant and my witness, to tell what you have seen of me and what I will yet show you of me. I will keep you safe from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes, so that they turn from darkness to light and from Satan’s power to God, and so receive forgiveness of their sins and a share in the inheritance among those sanctified by faith in me.’
Romans 39 uses
From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. God promised this gospel long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. It concerns his Son, who by human descent was born of the line of David, and who was appointed Son of God in power, through the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we have received grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations for the sake of his name. You are among them, you whom Jesus Christ has called to be his own. To all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
To begin with, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for every one of you, because people throughout the whole world are speaking of your faith.
I long to see you so that I can share some spiritual gift with you that will make you strong. What I mean is that, while I am with you, we will be encouraged together by each other’s faith, yours and mine.
In it the righteousness of God is being revealed, from faith for faith. As it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
If some were unfaithful, does their unfaithfulness cancel out God’s faithfulness?
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: God keeping his word πίστις is usually faith, but used of God it is his faithfulness, his keeping of what he promised (the oracles of verse 2).
But now God’s righteousness has come to light apart from the law, though the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. It is God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe. No one is treated differently.
God put him forward as the means of atonement, by his blood, to be received through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, since he had passed over the sins committed before, when God held back his judgment. He did it to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be righteous and also the one who declares righteous whoever has faith in Jesus.
No, by the law of faith.
For we are convinced that a person is declared righteous by faith, apart from works of the law.
Yes, of Gentiles too, since God is one. He will declare the circumcised righteous by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
Does this faith mean, then, that we do away with the law?
But to someone who does no work, yet believes in the God who declares the ungodly righteous, that faith is counted as righteousness. David says the same when he speaks of the happiness of the one whom God counts as righteous apart from works:
We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness.
Circumcision was given to him afterward as a sign, a seal on the righteousness that was already his by faith before he was circumcised. In this way he is father to everyone who believes without being circumcised, so that righteousness is counted to them. And he is father to the circumcised as well: not to those who are merely circumcised, but to those who walk the same road of faith our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.
The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his offspring through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
If the heirs are those who rely on the law, faith is made empty and the promise is worthless.
So the promise comes through faith, in order that it may rest on grace and stand firm for every one of Abraham’s offspring: not only for those who belong to the law, but also for those who belong to the faith of Abraham, the father of all of us. Scripture says, “I have made you father of many nations.” Before God he is our father, the God he believed, who brings the dead to life and calls into being things that do not exist.
His faith did not weaken when he looked at his own body, as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old, or at the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not doubt God’s promise or waver in unbelief. Instead he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God, fully convinced that God had the power to carry out what he had promised.
So now that we have been declared righteous by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also been brought by faith into this grace where we now stand, and we boast in the hope of sharing God’s glory.
That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained it, the righteousness that comes by faith.
Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it came by works. They stumbled over the stone that makes people stumble, as it is written, “See, I am setting in Zion a stone to stumble on, a rock that makes them fall, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will go up into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down).
“The word is close to you, on your lips and in your heart.” This is the message of faith that we proclaim.
So faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand firm by faith.
By the grace given to me I tell each one of you: do not rate yourself higher than you should. Let your thinking be sober and sensible instead, in keeping with the measure of faith that God has assigned to each of you.
We have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us. If someone’s gift is prophecy, they should prophesy in proportion to their faith. If it is serving, they should give themselves to serving; the one who teaches, to teaching; the one who encourages, to encouraging. The one who shares should share generously; the one who leads, with eagerness; the one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Welcome anyone whose faith is weak, but not in order to quarrel over their opinions.
Whatever faith you have about these things, keep it between yourself and God.
But anyone who has doubts and eats anyway stands condemned, because the eating does not come from faith. Whatever does not come from faith is sin.
1 Corinthians 7 uses
While I was with you, I was weak and afraid, and I trembled greatly. My message and my preaching did not depend on wisdom’s power to persuade; they were proof given by the Spirit and by power, so that your faith would be grounded not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
Through the Spirit one person is given a message of wisdom; another, by the same Spirit, a message of knowledge; another, by the same Spirit, faith; another, by the one Spirit, gifts of healing; another, the power to work miracles; another, prophecy; another, the ability to tell spirits apart; another, different kinds of tongues; and another, the interpretation of tongues.
I may be able to prophesy, and know every mystery and everything there is to know; I may have all the faith there is, enough to move mountains; but if I do not have love, I am nothing.
As things are, then, three things last: faith, hope and love. And of these three, the greatest is love.
And if Christ has not been raised, then what we proclaim is empty, and your faith is empty too. Worse, we turn out to be giving false evidence about God, since we have borne witness against God by saying he raised Christ, when he did not raise him, if it is really so that the dead are not raised.
But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, and you are still in your sins.
Stay alert. Hold your ground in the faith. Be brave and be strong.
2 Corinthians 7 uses
We do not mean that we are masters of your faith. Rather, we work alongside you to bring you joy, because you are standing firm in your faith.
It is written, “I believed; that is why I spoke.” We have the same Spirit of faith as the one who wrote those words: we too believe, and that is why we too speak. For we know that the one who raised Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will bring us, together with you, into his presence.
So we always have courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we make our way by faith, not by sight. We have courage, then, and we would much rather move out of the body and make our home with the Lord.
You overflow in everything else: faith, speech, knowledge, eagerness of every kind, and the love from us that now lives in you. Now see that you overflow in this gift of grace as well.
But we will not boast of things outside our measure. We will boast only within the measure of the field that God has measured out to us as ours, and it reaches even as far as you. We are not overstretching ourselves, as we would be if our field did not reach you; we did reach you, bringing the gospel of Christ. We do not boast of things outside our measure, in work that others have done. We hope instead that as your faith grows, we will be given far more room among you, still within our field, so that we can carry the gospel to the lands beyond you, without boasting of ground someone else has already prepared.
Look closely at yourselves: are you holding to the faith? Put yourselves to the test. Or do you not see in your own lives that Jesus Christ is in you?
Galatians 22 uses
The churches of Judea that are in Christ still did not know me by sight. They only kept hearing it said, “The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once set out to destroy.” And because of me they glorified God.
We ourselves are Jews by birth, not Gentile sinners. Yet we know that no one is justified by works of the law; a person is justified only through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because no human being will be justified by works of the law.
I am no longer the one who lives; Christ lives in me. Whatever life I still have in the flesh is a life lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for my sake.
Tell me just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by faith in what you heard?
So then, does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because of works of the law, or because of faith in what you heard?
You can see, then, that the people of faith are the ones who are Abraham’s children.
Scripture saw in advance that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and so it announced the gospel ahead of time to Abraham: “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
So the people of faith share in the blessing together with Abraham, who believed.
It is plain that no one is justified in God’s sight through the law, since “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith. Instead, “Whoever does these things will live by them.”
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse on our behalf, for it is written, “A curse is on everyone who is hung on a tree.” He did this so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would reach the Gentiles, and so that through faith we would receive the Spirit who was promised.
But Scripture has locked up everything under the power of sin, so that what was promised might be given, on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe.
Until faith came, the law held us in custody. We were kept shut in, waiting for the faith that was going to be revealed.
In this way the law served as our guardian until the coming of Christ, so that faith would be the way we are justified.
Faith has now come, and we are no longer in the care of a guardian.
For in Christ Jesus you are all children of God, through faith.
But we, by the Spirit and on the ground of faith, are eagerly waiting for the righteousness we hope for.
For in Christ Jesus, being circumcised or uncircumcised counts for nothing. What counts is faith at work through love.
But the fruit the Spirit produces is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. No law stands against things like these.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: being reliable and true to others In this list of qualities shown toward others, πίστις means faithfulness, the sense it has in Romans 3:3 and Titus 2:10. Elsewhere in Galatians the same word means trust in Christ, but here it stands between goodness and gentleness as part of a person’s character.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness The key term is rendered “faithfulness” here because of its sense in this list (m2).
So whenever we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and above all to those who belong to the family of faith.
Ephesians 8 uses
For this reason, since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s holy people, I have never stopped thanking God for you. I mention you whenever I pray, asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give you the Spirit who brings wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. With the eyes of your heart opened to the light, you will know what hope his call holds out to you, how rich and glorious an inheritance he has in his holy people, and how far beyond all measure is his power at work for us who believe. It is the working of his mighty strength, which he put to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in the heavenly places, high above every ruler and authority, every power and dominion, and every name that can be named, not only in this age but in the age to come as well.
For it is by this grace that you have been saved, through faith. None of this comes from you; it is God’s gift.
God made the mystery known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written already. When you read this, you will be able to see my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In other generations it was not made known to humankind as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets. This is the mystery: through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, which was given to me through the working of his power. Though I am less than the least of all God’s holy people, this grace was given to me: to bring the Gentiles the good news of the riches of Christ, riches no one can ever fully trace, and to make plain to everyone how the mystery is being carried out, the mystery that for ages past was hidden in God, who created all things. God’s aim was that now, through the church, his wisdom in all its rich variety would be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in keeping with the purpose he has had through all the ages, which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him, through faith in him, we can come to God boldly and with confidence.
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, in keeping with the riches of his glory, he will give you power, making your inner self strong through his Spirit, so that through faith and in love Christ will make his home in your hearts. You are rooted deep and set on a firm foundation, and I pray that you will have the strength to grasp, with all God’s holy people, the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, a love that goes beyond knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
It was he who gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers. He gave them to equip God’s holy people for the work of serving, so that the body of Christ would be built up, until all of us arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Then we will be a mature adult, grown to the full measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. We will no longer be infants, thrown about by the waves and driven this way and that by each new wind of teaching, at the mercy of people who play tricks and cunningly scheme to lead others astray. Instead, as we speak the truth in love, we must grow in every respect into him, the head, Christ. From him the whole body is joined and held together by every ligament that supplies it. As each part does its own work, the body grows and builds itself up in love.
So stand your ground. Tie truth around your waist as a belt, and put on righteousness as your breastplate. For shoes, put on the readiness that the gospel of peace gives. In every situation take up faith as your shield; with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows of the evil one.
Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 5 uses
Since I am sure of this, I know that I will stay, and stay on with all of you, to help you move forward and find joy in the faith. Then, when I come back to you, you will have even more reason to boast in Christ Jesus because of me.
Just one thing: live as citizens in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or am away and only hear about you, I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side as one for the faith of the gospel, and not letting your opponents frighten you in any way. This courage is a sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and it comes from God. For God has given you the gift, for the sake of Christ, not only of believing in him but also of suffering for him. You are in the same contest that you once watched me face, and that you now hear I am facing still.
And even if my life is being poured out like a drink offering over the sacrifice and priestly service that your faith offers, I am glad, and I share my joy with all of you.
More than that, I count everything as loss because knowing Christ Jesus my Lord is worth far more than all of it. For his sake I have lost everything, and I count it all as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, with no righteousness of my own from keeping the law, but with the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ: righteousness from God, resting on faith. I want to know him, to know the power of his resurrection and what it is to share in his sufferings, as I am being shaped into the likeness of his death, hoping that somehow I may arrive at the resurrection from the dead.
Colossians 5 uses
Every time we pray for you, we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s holy people. That faith and love spring from the hope kept safe for you in heaven, the hope you first heard about in the message of truth, the gospel that has reached you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, and it has done the same among you from the day you heard it and came to know God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who serves Christ faithfully on our behalf. He is also the one who told us about your love in the Spirit.
Once you were estranged from God, hostile to him in your thinking, as your evil deeds showed. But now you have been reconciled by Christ’s death in his physical body, so that God may bring you into his presence holy, without blemish, and free from any charge, provided that you stay in the faith, firm on your foundation and steady, not drifting away from the hope held out in the gospel you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.
I may be far away in body, but in spirit I am there with you. I am glad as I see your orderly life and the solid strength of your faith in Christ.
You have received Christ Jesus as Lord. So let your whole life be lived in him, with roots sunk deep in him, built up in him, made strong in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanks to God.
For all the fullness of God’s own being dwells in him bodily, and in him you have been made full. He is the head over every ruler and authority. In him you were also circumcised, with a circumcision no hand performed: the old life that the flesh ruled was stripped off you, in the circumcision that Christ gives. You were buried with him in baptism, and in baptism you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
1 Thessalonians 8 uses
Every time we mention you in our prayers, we give thanks to God for all of you. Before our God and Father we never stop remembering the work your faith does, the labor your love takes on, and the endurance your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ gives you. Brothers and sisters loved by God, we know that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with full certainty. You know what kind of people we were among you for your sake.
The word of the Lord has echoed out from you, and not only through Macedonia and Achaia: in every place people have heard of your faith in God. So there is nothing we need to say.
So, when we could not bear the waiting any longer, we decided to stay behind in Athens on our own and sent you Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ. We sent him to make you strong and to encourage you in your faith, so that none of you would be shaken by these troubles.
So I too, unable to wait any longer, sent Timothy to learn how your faith was standing. I feared the tempter might somehow have tempted you, and our hard work would have come to nothing.
1 Thessalonians 3:6 1 Thessalonians 3:7
But Timothy has just come back to us from you, with the good news of your faith and love. He tells us that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you. So, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and trouble your faith has given us comfort about you. Now we can truly live again, if you are standing firm in the Lord.
What thanks can we give back to God for you, for all the joy we feel before our God because of you? Night and day we pray with great urgency to see you face to face and to fill in whatever is still missing from your faith.
But we belong to the day, so let us keep our heads clear, with faith and love for our breastplate and the hope of salvation for our helmet.
2 Thessalonians 5 uses
2 Thessalonians 1:3 2 Thessalonians 1:4
We are bound to thank God for you at all times, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing beyond measure and the love every one of you has for the others keeps increasing. So we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God, because of your endurance and faith in all the persecutions and troubles you are bearing. All this is evidence that God judges rightly, and the result will be that you are counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you are suffering. For it is right for God to repay with suffering those who make you suffer, and to give rest to you who suffer, as to us also, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with his mighty angels in a blaze of fire, bringing punishment on those who do not know God and on those who refuse to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, cut off from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, on that day when he comes to be glorified among his holy people and marveled at by all who believed. And you are among those believers, for when we bore witness to you, you believed it.
With this in view we pray for you constantly. We ask our God to count you worthy of the life he called you to, and by his power to fulfill every good desire you have and every work your faith takes on. Then the name of our Lord Jesus will be honored in you, and you will be honored in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we must always thank God for you, brothers and sisters whom the Lord loves, because God chose you, as the first of a harvest, to be saved, through the Spirit who makes you holy and through your faith in the truth. To this he called you when we brought you the gospel, so that you would come to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us: pray that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified everywhere, as it was among you, and that we may be rescued from perverse and wicked people, for faith is not found in everyone.
1 Timothy 19 uses
From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true son in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
When I was leaving for Macedonia, I urged you to stay on in Ephesus, so that you could order certain people to stop teaching a different doctrine and to stop giving their minds to myths and endless lists of ancestors. These lead to speculation rather than to God’s plan, which works through faith. The aim of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a faith without pretense. Some have missed this aim and wandered off into empty talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying, or the things they are so sure about.
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, because he judged me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to speak against him, persecute his people and treat them violently. But I was shown mercy, because I did not know what I was doing in my unbelief, and the grace of our Lord poured over me, along with the faith and love that are found in Christ Jesus.
Timothy, my son, I am entrusting you with this charge, in keeping with the prophecies once spoken over you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have thrown their conscience aside, and their faith has been wrecked.
For this purpose I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love and holiness, with self-control.
In the same way, deacons must be worthy of respect, sincere in what they say, not heavy drinkers, and not greedy for money. They must hold on to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
Those who serve well earn a good standing for themselves and great boldness in their faith in Christ Jesus.
The Spirit says clearly that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teaching comes through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to keep away from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanks by those who believe and know the truth.
If you teach these things to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, feeding yourself on the words of the faith and of the good teaching you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths.
Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set the believers an example in how you speak and live, in love, in faith and in purity.
Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
But do not put younger widows on the list. When their desires pull them away from Christ, they want to marry, and so they come under judgment for breaking their first pledge.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
their first pledge: their promise to serve Christ as enrolled widows πίστιν usually means faith, but it can mean a pledge or promise. Here the context (enrollment, remarriage) points to a pledge the widows made when they were enrolled; it does not mean they abandoned Christian faith. Marriage itself is not condemned (verse 14).
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
pledge (L, B); promise (R) The sense here is a pledge (m2), so the key term “faith” is not used.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
But you, man of God, run from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Compete well in the good contest of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in front of many witnesses.
Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Turn away from godless, empty chatter and the contradictions of what is wrongly called knowledge. Some have claimed it, and in doing so have strayed from the faith.
2 Timothy 8 uses
I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, whenever I remember you in my prayers, as I do night and day. I remember your tears, and I long to see you, so that my joy may be complete. I recall your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and which I am sure now lives in you.
Keep to the pattern of sound teaching you heard from me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
Stay away from godless, empty chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly, and their teaching will spread like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are among them. They have wandered away from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they are destroying the faith of some.
Run away from the passions of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, together with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people oppose the truth. Their minds are corrupt, and they have failed the test of faith.
But you know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, my persecutions and sufferings, the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, and the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and are sure of, since you know who taught you, and how from infancy you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Titus 6 uses
From Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent to bring God’s chosen people to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness, a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life. God, who never lies, promised this life before eternal ages began, and at the right time he made his word known through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior. To Titus, my true son in the faith we share: grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
So rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith and pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of people who reject the truth.
Teach the older men to be clear-headed, worthy of respect and self-controlled, and to be sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
Teach slaves to submit to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back or steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness: trustworthiness πίστιν is the word for faith, but here it means fidelity, being trustworthy.
Not the settled English at: Literal, Balanced, Readable
faithfulness (L); trusted (B, R) The sense is fidelity (m3), so the key term “faith” is not used for this word.
Greet those who love us in the faith.
Philemon 2 uses
Whenever I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God, because I keep hearing about your love for all God’s holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that the generosity that flows from your faith will be put to work, as you come to know fully all the good that is ours, for the sake of Christ.
Hebrews 32 uses
For we too have been told good news, as they were. But the message they heard did them no good, because they did not join in faith with those who truly listened.
So let us leave behind the first message about Christ and be carried forward to maturity. Let us not be laying a foundation all over again: turning away from dead works and putting faith in God, teaching about ritual washings and the laying on of hands, the raising of the dead and eternal judgment.
Our desire is that each of you show the same eagerness right to the end, until your hope is fully assured. Then you will not grow sluggish; you will follow the example of those who, by faith and patience, are receiving the promises as their inheritance.
So then, brothers and sisters, the blood of Jesus has given us confidence to go into the sanctuary. He has opened for us a way that is new and living, a way through the curtain, which is his flesh. And we have a great priest who is over the house of God. So let us approach with hearts that are true, fully sure in our faith, our hearts sprinkled and cleansed of an evil conscience and our bodies bathed in clean water.
“But my righteous one will live by faith; and if he turns back, my soul finds no delight in him.”
But we are not people who draw back and are lost; we are people of faith, and our lives will be kept safe.
Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for, the proof of realities we do not see.
By faith we understand that the ages were set in order by God’s word, so that what we see did not come into being from anything visible.
By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain’s. Through faith he was attested as righteous, since God bore witness about his gifts. And through faith, though he died, he is still speaking.
By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. Before he was taken, it was attested of him that he had pleased God. And no one can please God without faith, since anyone who approaches God has to believe both that he exists and that he repays those who search for him.
By faith Noah, warned by God about what could not yet be seen, acted with reverence and built an ark for the salvation of his household. Through this he passed sentence on the world, and he came to inherit the righteousness that faith brings.
By faith Abraham obeyed God’s call to leave for a land he would later be given as his own, and he set out without knowing where he was headed.
By faith he lived as a resident alien in the land of the promise, as if it were someone else’s country. He lived in tents, along with Isaac and Jacob, his fellow heirs of that same promise.
By faith, together with Sarah herself, he received the power to become a father, even though he was past the age for it, since he held that the one who had made the promise was faithful.
All these died still holding to faith. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it from far off and welcomed it, and they openly said that they were foreigners and passing visitors on the earth.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. The man who had been given the promises was offering up his only son, the son about whom he had been told, “Your offspring will be named through Isaac.” He counted on God’s power to raise people even from the dead, and from the dead, in a figure, he did receive him back.
By faith Isaac also blessed Jacob and Esau with regard to what was still to come.
By faith Jacob, at the point of death, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and he bowed low in worship over the tip of his staff.
By faith Joseph, when his life was coming to an end, spoke of the Israelites’ coming exodus and gave orders about his bones.
By faith, when Moses was born, his parents kept him hidden for three months. They saw what a fine child he was, and they did not fear the king’s decree.
By faith Moses, once he was a grown man, would not let himself be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the hardships of God’s people instead of enjoying sin’s pleasures for a short time. He reckoned that to bear the reproach of Christ was worth more than all the riches of Egypt, because he kept his eyes on the reward.
By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king’s rage, and he held firm as one who saw the unseen God.
By faith he held the Passover and had the blood spread on the doorframes, so that the one who struck down the firstborn would not touch the Israelites.
By faith Israel went through the Red Sea as if it were dry ground; the Egyptians made the attempt too, and the sea swallowed them.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell, when Israel had gone around them day after day for seven days.
By faith Rahab the prostitute escaped the death of those who refused to obey, since she had taken in the spies in peace.
Time would run out on me if I told about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets. Through faith they overcame kingdoms, ruled with justice, won what had been promised, and shut the mouths of lions. They put out the power of fire, got away from the sword’s edge, found strength when they were weak, grew mighty in war, and drove back foreign armies.
Through their faith all of these were attested by God, and yet they did not receive the promise. God had in view something better for us: they were not to be made perfect apart from us.
So then, since we too have so vast a cloud of witnesses all around us, let us strip off every burden, and the sin that wraps itself around us so readily, and let us run the race laid out ahead of us, and run it with endurance. Let us keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer who leads the way in faith and brings it to perfection. For the sake of the joy that lay ahead of him, he endured a cross and counted its shame as nothing, and he has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne.
Keep in mind those who led you, who brought you the word of God. Look closely at where their way of life led them, and follow the example of their faith.
James 16 uses
My brothers and sisters, whenever you find yourselves in trials of every sort, regard it as a reason for great joy, because you know that the testing your faith goes through produces endurance.
But you must ask in faith, without wavering. Anyone who wavers is like a wave out at sea, driven by the wind and thrown this way and that.
My brothers and sisters, you do not hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ while you show favoritism, do you?
Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world’s eyes to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised to those who love him?
What use is it, my brothers and sisters, for someone to claim faith if that person has no works?
That faith cannot save the person, can it?
It is the same with faith: if it has no works, it is dead in itself.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”
Show me your faith without any works, and I will show you my faith by means of my works.
Do you want to be shown, you empty-headed person, that faith without works does no work?
You can see that his faith worked together with his works, and his faith reached its goal through those works. So the Scripture came true that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend.
You see, then, that it is by works that a person is justified, and not by faith only.
Just as a body with no spirit in it is dead, so faith with no works is dead too.
The prayer made in faith will save the one who is ill, and the Lord will raise them up. And if they have committed sins, they will be forgiven.
1 Peter 5 uses
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Out of his great mercy he has given us a new birth. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead he has brought us into a hope that is alive, and into an inheritance that can never decay, never be stained, and never wither. That inheritance is kept safe in heaven for you, and God’s power is keeping you under guard through faith until the salvation that stands ready to be revealed at the last time.
This is why you are overjoyed, even though for a little while now, if it must be so, you have been distressed by trials of many kinds. They come so that your faith, once tested and shown to be genuine, may be found to bring praise and glory and honor at the time Jesus Christ is revealed. Faith like that is worth far more than gold, and gold perishes, even though it too is tested by fire.
You have never seen him, yet you love him. You do not see him even now, but you believe in him, and you are overjoyed with a joy that words cannot express, a joy already filled with glory, because you are receiving what your faith aims at: the salvation of your souls.
If you call on God as Father, the one who judges each person by what they have done and shows no favoritism, then live in fear of him for as long as you are strangers far from home. For you know the price of your release from the useless way of living you inherited from your forefathers. That price was not silver or gold, things that decay, but the precious blood of Christ, who was like a lamb without flaw or stain. God knew him before the world was made, and in this final age he has made him known for your sake. It is through him that you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So your faith and hope are fixed on God.
Stand up to him and hold firm in your faith. You know that your brothers and sisters all over the world are enduring these same sufferings.
2 Peter 2 uses
From Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who, through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, have received a faith that is worth just as much as our own.
This is why you must put every effort into this: let your faith provide goodness, and goodness knowledge, knowledge self-control, self-control endurance, endurance godliness, godliness affection for your fellow believers, and that affection love.
1 John 1 use
And our faith is the victory that overcame the world.
Jude 2 uses
Dear friends, I was doing all I could to write to you about the salvation we hold in common, but I found I had to write and urge you to fight hard for the faith that was handed over to God’s holy people once for all.
But you, dear friends, keep building yourselves up on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves within God’s love, while you look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life.
Revelation 4 uses
I know where you make your home: the place of Satan’s throne. Still you keep a firm grip on my name. Even in the days of Antipas, my witness and my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan lives, you did not disown your faith in me.
I know your works—the love, the faith, the service, the endurance that are yours—and that your recent works outnumber your first ones.
Here is where God’s holy people need endurance and faith.
This is where God’s holy people need endurance, those who keep God’s commandments and hold to their faith in Jesus.