Strong Words

When I managed the Kinder Supermarket, there was a gentleman who was a long-time employee named Johnny V.  Johnny would get a plate lunch of rice and gravy from our little deli and walk behind the store and sit in a swing underneath a massive oak tree and he would eat lunch.  He would bring a little transistor radio out with him and tune it in to a local radio program that played Cajun French music and he would listen to French music while he ate.

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On one occasion I walked out to join Johnny while he ate and listened to his music. As I walked up on him, I could hear the familiar sounds of the accordion and Johnny kept time to the music, tapping his foot as he chewed.  He broke into a big grin as I walked up.  I asked him what he was smiling about and he said, "It's just what that song said."  So I said, "What was he singing, Johnny?  I don't understand much french at all."  He said, "Well, it doesn't translate into English very well.  It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."  So I said, "Give it a try."

Johnny said, "The song is singing about a guy who is trying to dance with a big woman and is having a hard time.  The song says, "Dancing with you is like trying to pull a sled through some tall grass!" So that was what he was smiling and laughing about.  Words don't always translate well from language to language.

This weekend our young people's Sunday School lesson was based on text from Romans.  Romans 10:9-10 to be precise:

That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

That verse is central to the Christian faith, telling the 'nuts and bolts' of what is involved in salvation. The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek and translated into other languages, including English.  I've italicized, bolded in red, and underlined the word believe.  What does that word mean?  Of course we know what it means, but what did the word believe mean in the original Greek?  I find the answer interesting.

I have a Strong's Concordance, which is a big, thick book that will help you see what the original words meant.  In the front of Strong's, you find the word believe under Romans 10: 9-10.  It points you back to the Greek and the word believe is found in Strong's Greek 4100.  The word believe in Romans 10:9-10 comes from the Greek word pisteuó.  In English, Believe, as Strong's tells us, the Greek word means:

specifically, in a moral and religious reference, πιστεύειν is used in the N. T. of "the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul"; thus it stands α. absolutely to trust in Jesus or in God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something.

Pisteuo, (Believe) in the Greek is a much stronger word than believe is in the English.  I can BELIEVE it is going to rain today, but that is not firm conviction.  I'm just saying it MAY rain today. I may say I BELIEVE LSU will win every single football game remaining on the schedule, but would I stake my life on it? Absolutely not!

Believe, I think in the context of how we use that word in everyday language is mere "head knowledge" or opinion, or wishful thinking.  See, that's not what the Apostle Paul was talking about in Romans 10:9-10.  It is not the same word.  Believing in that context is not mental assent or hoping. It is KNOWING it in your heart.  There is even evidence of what he's talking about in verse 10. Belief in your heart, results in fruit (righteousness).  Belief in your head does not always do that. Pisteuo produces fruit and results in action, culminating in salvation.  Strong words, indeed!  May God find us faithful!!