John 6: 29
” Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’”
How hard is it to believe in someone? Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of what it means to “believe.” One definition of belief is to “consider [something] to be true.” (Webster) Okay … so I say I believe, what then?
Jesus seems to think that there is work involved with believing in Him. Why? What is so hard about saying, “I believe…”
Maybe belief has more to do with our actions that with what we say?
Q: In your opinion, what kind of actions exhibit a belief in Jesus?
There is a subtle difference between yesterday’s question and today’s question. I hope it is helpful and not too subtle a difference!
Actions that show you love the body of Christ (the church) show that you want to obedient to the Word of God.
I, knowing from my experience, believe it is about the change we see in a person… We may stumble and fall and not be perfect in all areas of Our Lives, but we’re trying to make changes once we accept Him into our hearts as our Lord & Savior to be more Christ-like which is acting with compassion, kindness, serving other, putting others before ourselves, and speaking kinder
Thank you, Phil!
As one who stumbles a lot, I appreciate your words!!
I love questions regarding belief. So often we think of belief in a purely intellectual manner. So while it is true that we need intellectual belief – assent to who Jesus is, what He has done, and that salvation is only found in Him – this falls short of true belief if it does not include faith and trust in Jesus as a person.
I like to add faith & trust to discussions about belief as I find these closely related words make it clearer what we mean by ‘if you believe in Jesus you will be saved’ and “the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” We trust and have faith in a person. Yes this is intellectual, but it is also inherently more than just intellectual. It affects our relationship with Jesus and it affects how we live the rest of our lives.
Nathan,
You make an interesting point about the intellectual vs the relational. What I know about you as a person is different than how I relate to you as a person. Does one take more “work” than the other? I think so. As people we have to work at our maintaining our relationships. As Phil points out that requires compassion, kindness, serving other, putting others before ourselves, and speaking kinder. Well said, Phil! The work itself is putting God’s will before our own, and treating others as we treat ourselves.