BELIEVE

The English word believe fascinates me.

In the book Faith and Belief: The Difference between Them, Wilfred Smith outlines how the definition of the word believe like many other words has changed over time.   

          Literally, and originally, the word believe means “to hold dear, to cherish, to love.”  The word extends out of the Latin into the old English root word leve which means “love.”  To believe was to belove. 

We have lost the verb form of this usage.  The last vestige of it remains in the noun – Beloved.  Beloved and believe are intricately connected. 

          This original meaning of believe made an impact on the earliest English translations of the Bible.  In the English New Testament – the word faith is used 246 times for the Greek noun pistis.  When the first English translators came to the verb form of pistis – they had no English verb for faith.  Instead of creating a new English word – the translators used the word believe.  Believe as belove, hold dear, to trust – fits perfectly as the verb for faith. 

          When the original readers of the 1611 King James Bible read the word believe they understood it to mean:  “to belove, to hold dear, to cherish; to orient ones oneself toward a person with affection and trust; to cling to, to commit oneself to.”    

          The definition of the word believe changed dramatically during the 1700’s during a period in history called the Enlightenment.  Many great things came out of the Enlightenment – modern science, our American Revolution and our constitution.  Yet, this period also changed how we view religion and God.  Religion moved from believing in Jesus to a belief that Jesus was who he said was. We wanted certainty in religion the same way we wanted certainty in science.  

After the Enlightenment to believe meant: “to hold a particular opinion or conviction; agreeing with ideas intellectually.”   Before the Enlightenment we were called to believe in a person; afterward, we were called to believe in a proposition of ideas.

This shift from “belove” to “conviction” creates a spiritual disparity.  When we make “believing” a certain set of facts about Jesus as our only criteria of faith, we miss a critical biblical teaching.  Scriptures calls us to believe in Jesus with our whole lives – to hold him dear, to cling to him, to trust in him.

Believing in Jesus calls us to a life of discipleship.  Believing in Jesus transforms our lives, our families and our communities.  Today, Jesus invites you to believe – to cling to, to love, to trust – in him. Your life will never be the same.