Faith is not controlled by religion
The word faith has become synonomous with religious belief, yet it exists outside of doctrine and church buildings.
Faith has become a word loaded with connotations. When we hear it we immediately think of organised religions and their believers. We don’t think of the other meaning of the word: to believe in yourself. To have faith in a particular person or project doesn’t have to be religious in nature. We take it on faith that we will proceed with our days as planned each day. It is also by faith that we survive this world of bills and deadlines hoping for something more.
Faith as a concept is a very human thing to do. If you believe the Bible then humans were created to worship. Ideally God, but we seem happy enough to do it to almost anything. Just look at fandoms for popular singers or even brand loyalty and modern consumerism. It seems part of our DNA to form spiritual bonds to ideas, places and even objects.
Organised religion does take advantage of that by claiming to have the answer to people’s spiritual questions. This isn’t to say religion is always predatory (it’s not) but that some aspects of religion feed on that very human desire to belong to something. To share beliefs. To have faith.
But if we remove the structure of organised religion then you still find faith exists. The power of religion is that it is a group of believers all meeting together. Strength in numbers and the human desire to be part of a group. However, even among churches, most members would have their own “personal faith” that differs greatly from their church.
So they are not necessarily attending a particular church because they have faith in the doctrine, but rather they have faith in the community of the church. Faith is something that religion has sought to codify. God, the Universe or whatever you want to call it seem to have different plans.
Jesus wasn’t impressed with religious faith. Famously falling out with the Pharisees (head priests) as well as openly endorsing non-Jews as having greater faith than Jesus’ Jewish followers:
Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Matthew 8:7-10
For Jesus faith was personal and powerful. Remember though, Jesus was still a devout practicing Jew. So how much removed can his own personal faith have been from his religion. Certainly from the words we have recorded we see in Jesus a Rabbi who wholeheartedly believes in the faith of his religion.
However, he operated “outside” of the organised aspects of the Jewish faith. So much so that he supposedly caused a public scene in the Jewish Temple:
In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables. So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”
John 2:14-16
We have an almost symbiotic relationship between organised religion and those who challenge any of their laws and belief systems. Jesus, seen as a rebellious false prophet by church (Temple) leaders he later becomes the figurehead for an entirely new organised religion. I don’t think the irony would have been lost on Jesus.
Faith is thankfully free and whether you have it in yourself or in your religion you can be sure it will always be evolving.
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