These essays are written in sequence and build on each other. Read the preceding essay here.
We have been exploring the word “faith”.
In an earlier essay we established that faith is a higher form of trust. Faith is facing the unknown with childlike trust in the power of Love and Truth. This is equivalent to childlike trust in The Word.
How does true faith manifest?
The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed,
— KJV, Matt 13: 31-32
which a man took,
and sowed in his field:
Which indeed is the least of all seeds:
but when it is grown,
it is the greatest among herbs,
and becometh a tree,
so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
If ye had faith
— Luke 17:6
as a grain of mustard seed,
ye might say unto this sycamine tree,
Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea;
and it should obey you.
A seed is a small and fragile thing. Such is faith in its early stages. It may not be outwardly visible to others.
The seedling shoots upwards to the heavens, even though its roots are fixed in the earth. True faith is directed upwards at spiritual things, not at earthly goals, even though it manifests in practical earthly activities.
The seed of faith is grown in the soil of daily earthly experience i.e. by trying to live the understanding of faith in daily life.
As already explained in detail knowledge-building experiences only come to him who takes faith-filled action.
As the seed of faith develops into the herb of knowledge and the tree of wisdom, it becomes something powerful that shapes everything about the life of the human being. From his thoughts and words into his earthly goals, family life, choice of work, and general lifestyle.
In this reshaping of his outwardly visible life through the wisdom he has gained through his spiritual experiences, he is able to give courage and support to other human beings by setting an example, by being a trailblazer. Other human beings “lodge in his branches” in a spiritual sense.
There is much today that is called “faith” that does not qualify as the spiritually pure seed of true faith.
We shall consider a few types in this and the following essay.
Faith out of Habit
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
— John 5: 46
He who believes out of habit has a faith that is a childhood habit. What he calls “belief” is actually a set of customs, habits, and thinking patterns he acquired as a child or at a relatively early age.
Had his parents or educators been of a different persuasion and had they taught him something else, there is a high likelihood that he would “believe” that other thing today.
He interprets The Word according to what he was taught, or what he thinks he already knows, instead of trying to open his mind like a child to learn afresh every time from first principles of Love and Truth.
Because of this he does not really know the content of The Word, even though he may think he does, and even though he may be able to recite parts of it from memory.
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.
Christ addressed these words to those who said: “We need no new revelations; we have Abraham as our father; we have the law and the prophets; that is good enough for us”.
Many of these people were very “knowledgeable” about the Mosaic law.
Such statements were only made out of habit, because had such people studied the law and the prophets with a truly open mind, and actually lived out their precepts in the spirit of love, they would have been expecting The Word.
They would also have seen that The Word did not nullify the law or the prophets but restored true understanding of them in their spiritual and loving essence.
They would have had burning questions, and they would have found that The Word clarified those questions for them.
In the same way today, many Christians do not understand that The Word, which is infinite and eternal, continues to be revealed in new ways today that do not in any way invalidate Christ’s Word but only deepen our understanding of It.
Today’s Resolution
- We shall mentally fight against our own old, habitual interpretations of The Word, seeking always to understand it anew.
- We shall remain humble and open to new understanding of The Word, gained through our daily experiences, knowing that the values contained in The Word are without limit.
The Word, (Re)Discovered 