The Difference Between Believing and Following

For many Christians today faith is about saying, “I believe in Jesus”:  believing certain creeds and statements about Jesus, believing that Jesus died to forgive sins, believing in Jesus’ divine nature. The purpose thereafter is to convince others to believe the same things. These are not unimportant matters or insignificant truths, but the problem is, as I once heard a respected New Testament scholar say, a person can believe all the right things and still be a jerk. We can believe everything we are supposed to and still miss the point. 

What Jesus calls us to is something much greater than just believing certain truths in our minds, or proclaiming them loudly with our words. When Jesus called his disciples, he asked them to “follow him” (see Matthew 4:18-22, Matthew 9:9, and John 1:43 for a few examples). He didn’t want his followers to simply believe certain things about him, he wanted them to go with him into the world, to serve as he served, to love as he loved, to forgive as he forgave, and to share as he shared. So much did Jesus believe this he once said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father in Heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21). Our call is not merely to believe in Jesus, but to follow Jesus.

You might ask what about John 3:16 which reads, “… whoever believes in him (Son of God) will have eternal life”? First, the Greek word pistis, translated as “believes”, means to have trust or confidence in, to entrust one’s entire life to something. It includes not just our mental beliefs, but our words and actions, as well. Second, in the Gospel of John, Jesus actually defines what it means to “believe”. He says, “whoever believes in me will do the works that I do.” It is more than about having all the right beliefs in our mind and on our lips. It is a radical way of life. 

The Gospel invitation is for us to capture this deeper sense of faith and as we do, God’s Kingdom will grow and the world will change!

You are the hands and feet of Christ!

Brett