Righteous people live by faith. That’s what the Bible teaches explicitly in multiple places (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38), and what Jesus also taught in not so many words. But what does “living by faith” actually mean? And what does it look like in the 21st century? Those are both questions we’re going to be addressing in this blog post.
If you google “living by faith”, you can find hundreds, if not thousands, of sermons, mini-sermons, blog articles, YouTube videos, etc., all talking about the topic, and claiming that their flavor of the month is what the Bible authors meant. Nine times out of ten it’s not. And so, to avoid confusion, we’re going to go ahead and define “living by faith” as this: trusting in God and not money, or the system, to provide for our material needs. And we’re going to go beyond that in looking at what living by faith is, how to do it, where to do it, when you should do it, and why it’s even important. Let’s get started.
What is it?
For greatest clarity around what living by faith is, let’s look no further than the words of the Master Himself: Jesus. In His famous Sermon on the Mount, He offers some of the most practical words around the topic ever recorded. You can read them for yourself in Matthew 6:24-33. Please take time to read it now.
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Did you catch all that? In summary, Jesus starts by telling us we can’t work for (i.e. ‘serve’) both God and money at the same time. He then tells us to think about the flowers and the birds, how they don’t have jobs, and yet God provides for their needs. Even telling us that the great king Solomon, with all his wealth and glory, still wasn’t clothed as fashionably as the flowers of the field. And then He finished by telling us not to worry about our food and clothes – our most basic needs – saying that’s what atheists and non-believers seek after. Instead, He tells us to seek first God’s kingdom, and its righteousness; and then all our needs will be met.
What’s most amazing about these wonderful words of Jesus is just how practical they are. Not a bunch of theory and theology with little to do with how we live here and now. No, practical words which even a child could understand, and which have an immediate impact on our most universal preoccupations: survival.
So hence we see why we define living by faith as trusting God to supply our material needs. According to Jesus, the entire (unbelieving) world worries about how they’re going to meet their material needs, and they use their lives to seek after meeting them. But Jesus tells us not to be like them, but rather to just get busy serving God, in faith; and then our needs will be provided for. That is living by faith in a nutshell.
2. How do you do it?
Alright, we have now established what living by faith is. But how do you put it into practice in the modern world? That’s what we’re going to address now.
For starters, you quit your job. I know, that may sound shocking for those of us reared in a church system that tells us to use the best hours of our week working for money, and then to give God a small percentage (e.g. “tithe”) on the weekend. But remember what we said earlier: working for money to provide our needs is not the way of faith Jesus came to teach us. And so the first step to live by faith is to quit your secular job, so you can get busy with serving God full-time and trusting Him to meet your needs.
The next step, which really probably should come first, is you need to listen to Jesus. As in, read His actual words… for yourself… and see what He actually taught. You can do so in the first four books of the New Testament – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – and in most cases, the words of Jesus are even colored uniquely in red.
Immerse yourself in His words – be ‘baptized’ in His Spirit – and then pray for grace to start putting them into practice. You are likely to discover, as you do, that you start thinking Jesus couldn’t really mean what He is recorded as saying. Resist that thinking. Rather, when you hear Jesus say challenging and rarely repeated things in the Gospels – stuff like it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to reach heaven (Matthew 19:24), or that we should sell all we own and give the money to the poor (Matthew 19:21), or that we need to give to those who ask (Matthew 5:42), etc. – treat them like a child, taking the words at face-value, and letting them speak for themselves without interpretation.
You will likely find, as you do, that it’s helpful to have even one other person to put those words into practice with. You don’t need a huge group – Jesus doesn’t require us to be in some big church or denomination to have His spirit – but He does only promise His presence in the company of two or three believers gathered together. (Matthew 18:20) So do all you can to find someone else to live by faith with you, if you can; and then get to work with putting the words of Jesus into practice!
3. Where?
So maybe you’re keen to get started with living by faith. But you’re just a bit unsure about where the best place is to start. Let’s clarify that now.
Almost every religion in the world has some special location which they claim is essential to find God’s presence. For Muslims, that place is Mecca. For Jews, it’s the Temple Mount. And for many Buddhists, that place is Bodh Gaya. But Jesus taught something different.
When Jesus encountered a woman seeking to know the best place to worship God, Jesus said this: “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.“ (John 4:21)
Did you catch that? It doesn’t matter where we worship God now, just that we do so in spirit and in truth… sincerely and with the right attitude. That means we can start living by faith in God anywhere – we don’t have to go to some special, mystical place to start obeying what Jesus taught on this so-significant subject.
That said, many of us have found from experience that it works best when we leave the comforts of home, to go into a foreign land out of our comfort zone. In fact, this is consistent with what Jesus taught about a prophet not being without honor save in his home country, among his own people. (Matthew 13:57) We have found that as we step away from our native land, to travel abroad to foreign lands, people pay us more attention than they would where we are from; and they are more likely to consider that the message we have to offer is actually one from God.
So don’t be afraid to leave home behind as you step out in faith. Jesus promised many great things to any willing to leave the comforts of home behind for Him and His kingdom (Mark 10:29-30); it helps to remind ourselves of them as we seek to step out in faith.
4. When?
So we’ve covered what, how and where, but when is the best time to start living by faith? After all, there is a season for everything; and it makes sense to get the timing right before we embark on a step as radical as living by faith full-time in God and not money.
Well, for starters, it’s important to recognize that the faith-life Jesus offers is not the bargain, cookie-cutter religion most of us have been brought up to think Christianity to be. No, following Jesus as He taught it demands a great deal from us – our things, our relationships, indeed, our lives – and so it makes sense to consider all of this before making the decision to step out in faith.
In fact, this is what Jesus seemed to be getting at when He taught for us to “count the cost” of what it means to be His disciple (i.e. a ‘Christian’ – Acts 11:26). He wants us to take stock of all the implications of stepping out in faith in Him BEFORE we get started, so we don’t end up starting something we can’t finish. And counting the cost can take time.
On the other hand, it doesn’t need to take as much time as many of us think. In John 4, we hear Jesus give a little illustration about the fields already being ripe for harvest, and how we shouldn’t say “in 4 months” as a way of postponing and procrastinating. In other words, while it may be fair enough to set aside some time to count the cost, we need to make sure we aren’t just putting off stepping out in faith due to fear, laziness, or any other negative reason which doesn’t help us in our faith walk.
No, by all means, take time to count the cost before you step out. Look before you leap. But don’t say “in four months” for what you know in your heart you can start today.
Why?
We’re now going to look at our final point in our deep-dive on living by faith: why we should even do it.
For starters, we should live by faith because Jesus taught it. Because Jesus said that if we love Him, we would obey Him (John 14:15); and because the Bible makes it explicitly clear that living by faith is what righteous people do. (Romans 1:17, Hebrews 10:38, Galatians 3:11) These are all “evergreen” reasons to live by faith, which are not dependent on a set period of time for their relevance.
That said, there is another reason why living by faith is especially significant now: the Mark of the Beast. Let me explain.
For those who don’t know, the Mark of the Beast is a prophecy found in the 13th chapter of the Book of Revelation. It predicts a time period where no one will be able to buy or sell without a ‘mark’ in their hand or head. And the Bible tells us that anyone who accepts this Mark will receive the full wrath of God. (Revelation 13:16-18, 14:9-10)
100 years ago, anyone reading the Mark of the Beast prophecy may have had trouble picturing its relevance. We simply didn’t have the technology in place then for such a prediction to be realized. But things are different today.
We now have the technology in place for the Mark of the Beast to be realized in our lifetime. From the trend toward cashless payments to the landmine of AI data centers and the push for “artificial general intelligence”, what we currently see in world affairs is a backdrop for the Mark of the Beast to flourish. Which makes the only real solution to living without the Mark – living by faith – more pertinent than ever.
So, in effect, live by faith in God and not money because Jesus said so. And because it’s what the Bible teaches. But know that it’s especially important now, with the global implementation of the Mark of the Beast seemingly around the corner. And living by faith is the only way to survive the time of great trouble coming without accepting the Mark of the Beast.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. We’ve looked at what living by faith is, how to do it, where to do it, when you should get started, and why it’s especially important now. So what are you waiting for? Reach out if you’d like any advice, and let’s get started with living by faith today!
