What does it mean to believe?

 Jn 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The word “believe” is one of the most important words in Christianity. The sole requirement to be saved and become a child of God, to pass from spiritual death unto life, is to “believe”. As the familiar, often quoted verse John 3:16 states, whosoever “believes” in Christ will not perish, but will have everlasting life. 


The Gospel of John, the book of the Bible most often referenced and recommended for new believers to read to understand the foundation and essence of the gospel message, uses the word “believe” almost 100 times. In every single case, John used the word “pisteou” (Strongs G4100) when referring to belief. 


So, with everything riding on that one word, with the whole question of eternal life itself wrapped up in it, it seems obvious and imperative that we would want to search out and fully understand what that word means in its full definition and all that it entails.


The Strongs Concordance defines the word “pisteou” as follows: From pistis; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. Credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ) -- believe(-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.


As that definition states, to “believe” means to put our faith in Christ, to entrust and commit ourselves unto Him. Pisteou is the verb form of the noun “pistis” which implies that it is not static, but active in the life of a believer. We are not merely agreeing with and acknowledging a past event, we are placing an active and ongoing faith and commitment to Christ. We are not merely believing in “what Christ did for us”, we are actually entrusting and committing ourselves unto Him as our new manner and pattern of life. To reduce “believe” to something less than new life in Christ is to miss the point and misinterpret what the word means and to present a false gospel.


This is why John also recorded these words of Jesus: But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand (Jn 10:26-28).


If we are His sheep, we won’t merely believe what He did for us, we will also “follow him” where He leads us, that’s what Jesus is saying will be the defining characteristic of His sheep. We follow Christ because we trust Him and have committed ourselves unto Him. 


Those who don’t *follow* Jesus and submit to His Lordship, are not His sheep and they will not have eternal life. They have a form of “belief”, but it is not “pisteou”, the type of belief and faith that saves.


Sadly, much of evangelical Christianity has reduced the word to exactly that, mere mental assent. The gospel message is no longer “come to Christ and commit yourself unto him”, it is now: “just believe what Jesus did for you” or “just trust in His finished work and you’re good”. Change and transformation, while ideal and something a believer “should” do, is no longer taught as a requirement to be His sheep and have eternal life. It’s a great message if the goal is to grow the numbers and fill the pews, but it often results in the lack of true conversion and is why there are so many tares among the wheat in the Church today. The Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthian Church for this when he said: Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame (1 Cor 15:34).


Interestingly, Jesus taught in the parable of the sower to not try and root the tares out. When the servants asked if they should pull the tares up, this was the response: But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn (Matt 13:29-30).


In explaining the parable to His disciples, Jesus clarified the meaning by saying this: As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.


Notice Jesus didn’t say to gather out of his kingdom those who “don’t believe what I did for them….” No, he said to remove those that “offend, and them which DO iniquity”. This is because true belief “pisteou” will result in followers of Christ who no longer “offend and do iniquity” as their new practice of life and being His follower and disciple. They now follow Him and keep His commandments, they have true pisteou, the kind of belief that saves.

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