“little faith”

Faith is Not a Substance: Part 4

But wait a minute – Jesus said “little faith.” Wouldn’t that imply size, not position?

Let’s look into that phrase:

The single Greek word for “little faith” is oligopistos. Pistos is the noun form of peithō, which means faith or faithfulness. Faith and faithfulness, as we saw in the Hebrew, means to lean on or rest upon someone or something else that is supporting you. Oligos is the Greek word for little, small, or few. It also means of degree or intensity: light, slight. So to be of oligopistos – or “little faith” – is to be leaning on your support in a weak manner. It is to be of light weight upon your support. It is to not let the source hold you up well, or to not trust your position upon the pillar or in the arms of the one holding you.

Another word to consider is doubt. One Greek word translated into the English “doubt” is the word diakrinō, which literally means with or because of judgment: to separate, make a distinction, discriminate, to prefer, to withdraw from one, desert, to separate one's self in a hostile spirit, to oppose, strive with dispute, or contend. It is understood to imply making a discerning judgment and in doing so separating yourself from that which you have judged.

If faith is being persuaded to rest in the source, then doubt is discerning and considering things other than the source and, in turn, separating yourself from that position of faith. In addition to doubt, the word is also translated waver. You can find this Greek word used 24 times in the New Testament. (Some text to note would be: Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:23, Romans 4:20, James 1:6).

One other Greek word worth noting is distazō. It is only used twice in the New Testament and each time is translated doubt. It is derived from the Greek word dis which means twice. For example, Jesus asks Peter why he doubted when waking on water. Distazō is the word used for doubt in that reference. Jesus is essentially saying, “Why did you think twice? Why wasn’t your focus singular rather than divided? Therefore, the reason Peter began to sink was that he took his eyes off of Jesus and considered his environment instead of his source.

PART 5