Faith and Faithfulness (Part 14)

This is the fourteenth in a series of studies on the topic of faith and faithfulness. (If you are coming to this page from a search engine, I recommend this link for a table of contents of the topics covered in this series.)


It has been nearly a year since I wrote on this topic, but recently, a comment on an earlier post got me thinking and writing again.  I continue to struggle with the meaning of pistis (faith) and the various ways that the word has been used in the Bible.  It seems that there are a small number of cases where pistis is best understood as belief, but I believe that many if not most of the New Testament uses of pistis could be better understood as faithfulness.  I have started writing on the connection between belief and behavior, but then set that aside for a while to work on faithfulness in the book of Romans.  Today's post is the first on that theme.


Romans 1:5


Early in the book, Paul identifies his purpose—"to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles" (Rom 1:5 NET).  He continues, speaking to to the Romans and identifying his motive for writing, "You also are among them,"— the Gentiles— whom he intends to be bring to "obedience."  The phrase "obedience of faith"  (hypakoen pisteos) is repeated in Romans 16:26 where Paul again states his purpose, that the "gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ" (16:25 NET) is intended to "to bring about the obedience of faith" (16:26).  These two instances of "obedience of faith" bracket the entire book, and we miss Paul's message entirely if we understand faith outside of this context.  With this context in mind, we can look at the rest of Romans, reading faith as faithfulness wherever it makes sense.  I have searched for translations or interpretations of Romans that take this perspective and I will use them in the discussion that follows.

HCSB — We have received grace and apostleship through Him to bring about the faithful obedience (footnote) among all the nations, on behalf of His name,...

This reading is an alternative taken from the HCSB footnote. The faithful obedience translates hypakoen pisteos in which the genitive could be mechanically translated— obedience of faithfulness.  There are several other translations (or paraphrases) that write from a similar perspective.

CEB — It is through Jesus that we have received God’s grace and our appointment to be apostles through Jesus. This was to bring all Gentiles to faithful obedience for his name’s sake. 

CPV — Through him I got the favor of an appointment to approach, on his behalf, other races, including you all, about faithful obedience on all matters. So you, too, are Jesus Christ’s guests.

I have found the Cotten Patch Version (CPV) to be especially far toward the faithfulness end of the belief-faithfulness spectrum.  The CPV certainly does not deserve to be called a translation; and it never was intended to be an accurate rendering of the original languages into English.  The author, Clarence Jordan,  describes it as a "version" rather than a translation and wrote: "obviously the 'cotton patch' version must not be used as a historical text. The Revised Standard Version and the New English Bible are excellent for this purpose." Jordan, a native of Georgie who wrote during the height of the civil rights movement, is described as a "man of action" in the CPV link above.  The brief biographical sketch goes on: "A visionary during the struggle for the civil rights of all God's children, he founded an inter-racial community called Koinonia. On this farm, folks worked side-by-side to make a living, following Jesus - a radical concept fifty years ago."


I have only read briefly about his life and work, but I find his pragmatic and contemporary approach to be inspiring.  The gospel was more than an abstract idea or belief for Jordan, but a call for action.  The brief sketch that I quoted above concludes: "By the way, Clarence has had a great influence upon many persons, including Habitat for Humanity founder, Millard Fuller. Furthermore, President Jimmy Carter grew up just down the road from the original Cotton Patch. The foreword to a recently published collection of Jordan's sermons - The Substance of Faith and Other Cotton Patch Sermons - was written by our former President."  The legacy of faithfulness speaks for itself.


Returning to Romans 1:5, even if we might prefer an emphasis on faith, understood as belief, Paul does not allow us to disconnect it from behavior; at a minimum, obedience is a consequence of belief, but Paul might also be saying that obedience is a characteristic of faithfulness.  In either case, Paul desires more than just a mental acceptance from his readers— he is calling for a change in behavior.


The 2010 edition of the NIV has an interesting alternative reading in a footnote.  

NIV alt. — Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that is faith for his name’s sake.

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I have much more to say on this topic, but I have to remind myself that this is a blog rather than a book— it is better to stop and publish what I have completed than to wait until I have every idea completely developed.


I wrote previously on "the importance of good works" in a post called Jesus: A Man of Action.