What is Faith?
The bible speaks of a Roman Centurion who was alive during the time of Jesus and had a servant who was sick. This is Matthew’s account (chapter 8).
5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant,[c] ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
The centurion was the one who wanted Jesus to tell him what to do. He knew that Jesus could heal. He also recognized that Jesus was a superior to him. Like Naaman, who was healed of leprosy in 2 Kings 5 at Elisha’s command, the centurion understood that the requirement of faith is that trust must be put into action. You see faith is obedience born from trust.
The centurion trusted the word of Jesus, so it was enough for him to hear it and do it.
In Luke’s account, directly before the story of the centurion, we see that Jesus tells the story of the wise man who build his house on the rock. Jesus likened the one who heard his words and did them to the wise man, a man who dug deep. Obedience requires us to dig deep. We also see Jesus saying in Luke 6, again preceding the account of the centurions faith in the next chapter, “Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I tell you do to?” Luke uses the account of the Centurion to show us an example of true faith - faith that trusts the word of Jesus and acts on it. “Just speak the word and it’s as good as done,” (paraphrase) the centurion was saying.
What was Jesus’ response: “I have not found such great faith in all of Israel.” Faith is hearing the word - Trusting the Word - Doing the Word.
The scripture says, “Without faith it’s impossible to please God for the one who comes to him must believe/trust that he exists, and he rewards those who diligently seek him.” The reward for the centurion’s faith – trusting and going as he was told - was the healing which he had sought.
Here is a helpful thought, all disobedience is grown from a poisoned root of distrust. A lack of trust perhaps that God doesn’t have something better for me; that his word is unreliable; that if I obey him and do what He wants instead of what I want, that I will be worse off than before. So, I’ll keep living my own way.
Faith says, “God is trustworthy.” I can take God at his word and do what he says, I know that my trust filled obedience will please God. My life will be better for doing what he says, not worse.
Have Faith! Believe and Obey Jesus today – The reward is Better.
