Writers of old used to speak of the seven virtues. Four of them were called cardinal virtues (cardinal meaning pivotal). They are Prudence, Temperance, Justice and Fortitude. These are ones that civilized people recognize. Then there were three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love. A lot of civilized people don’t recognize these.
1 Cor. 13:13 mentions faith, hope and love. This chapter on love is in the midst of a context on miraculous gifts, which were temporal. Unlike temporal miraculous gifts, these graces are fundamental and permanent. They do not deal with abilities but with character. For these to have been temporal would have been a tragedy and the end of Christianity. So they have been referred to as virtues. He doesn’t explain why Love is the greatest, but it has often been stated that it will remain when faith is gobbled up in sight and Hope will disappear in realization. While it is true that elements of faith will disappear in Heaven, certainly not all of its components will, because belief in God, and trust in Him, will not cease. And just as Hope is essential to life neither will it disappear entirely in that heavenly abode, even though the hope of Heaven will be realized. If love is the greatest then we can certainly say that faith and hope are great.
Why is faith a virtue? At a fundamental level, faith simply means belief in something – whether it is true or false depending on the evidence for or against:- a fairly hard-nosed fundamental exercise using one’s cognitive powers. It’s just a question of logic, certainly not of character or morality, because if a man is mistaken about the evidence it wouldn’t mean he was a bad man, just misled, or not very clever. But obviously this is an insufficient view of Biblical faith. Since Faith is the means of salvation, and thus a very crucial factor in whether we spend eternity in Heaven or Hell, there must be a deeper dimension to it:- there must be a virtuous element to it.
Why is Faith a virtue? First, because there are reasons (excuses) not to believe. The human mind is not completely ruled by reason, contrary to popular belief. That’s the reason many people give for not believing – they say its because they believe in reason and not faith. Myself, I do not have enough faith to be an atheist! Faith and reason are peas of the same pod – Biblical faith is reasonable faith! (cf. John 20:30,32; John 3:1,2). But modern man is often quite unreasonable – In The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape says to Wormwood; Unlike in earlier times…your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn’t think of doctrines as primarily true or false, but as academic or practical, outworn or contemporary, conventional or ruthless. Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the church.
And so the world has presented to us a thousand reasons not to believe, and we have chosen faith – 1 John 5:4. Because things are either true or false there is no neutrality in this choice set before us – either the Bible is the Word of God or it is a fabrication: either Jesus Christ is the Son of God or He is a liar and schemer of the very worst kind. The repercussions of this choice for the human mind is starkly put forth in 1 John 5:10: he that doesn’t believe God has made Him a liar; because he doesn’t believe the record God gave of His Son.
To have faith in Christ and His word is to choose a path less travelled. It is to choose to believe that which the world regards as foolishness. It is to choose to take up a cross and follow Christ, when there are belief systems that would not impose any burden or challenges. Faith is a virtue because, though it promises eternal blessings at the end (1 Pet. 1:9), it incorporates a discipleship where we concede, not my will, but thine, be done.
Once a believer doesn’t mean always a believer. This is true in the secular field as well. A person may lose a loved one on the operating table and consequently lose faith in doctors and anaesthetics. Boeing aircraft, before the pandemic, would take off and land 1,000,000 times a month, but after a crash some lose faith in the ability of planes to fly safely. A man knows a girl is a liar and so ought not to trust her, but when he is with her his emotions take over and he thinks, perhaps she’ll be different this time. He loses faith in what he knows to be true. After a near-drowning experience, one might lose faith in the ability of water to support the human body.
In the religious sphere we have the same thing. Reason, logic, history and all that is fair and noble and conscience-driven within us tells us that we ought to believe and obey the gospel. At the point of belief, often it is convenient to believe – things gel, make sense, and the course is clear. We act upon that but it is not long before there is some sort of blitz upon that belief, and it becomes very convenient that Christianity be not true – it’s more convenient not to believe. It’s not sound logical reasons that do this – the Bible doesn’t change and neither does history or logic or common sense. It’s other things that enter in to test faith (Heb. 6:9-11; 10:36,32-35; Luke 8:14). It maybe that one is in financial straits and opportunity exists to make some money unethically, or one’s peer group doesn’t believe, or one want’s a new wife/husband.
Then there is change of mood. Faith is caught in the turmoil of life, and it has to survive in the midst of disappointments – both with God and man (eg. Ps.73:13,14). Was Jesus disappointed with Judas’ betrayal, or with Peter’s denial? Undoubtedly, but it didn’t change a thing as far as His own faith was concerned. Paul understood this – 2 Cor. 12:15. Legion are those who have lost their faith, and when pushed for explanation it comes down to; Well, the people in the church didn’t treat me right! Of course they didn’t – they’re human beings! Only God treats us exactly right all the time and it doesn’t always seem so some of the time. Faith is a virtue because it must teach your moods “where to get off”. We have to remind ourselves that our moods change and at the same time we have to consciously hold before our mind’s gaze what our faith is all about everyday. That is why prayer, Bible study, and worship are so important. Faith won’t stay alive without sustenance. So those who give up just drift away from the faith: they certainly do not reason themselves out of it by honest argument.
Faith is a virtue because it cannot be separated from our actions – in fact, faith is where the action is. It’s so easy to believe things that require nothing of me other than a mental acceptance. I readily accept the earth is round for I have to do nothing about it. I readily accept that Columbus sailed the blue in 1492 for it makes no demands of me. This is why many have a dead faith in Christ – they believe Jesus died on a cross for them, but that is where they leave it – they do not want it to make demands of them. And one who continually stifles any response to the cross is steadily hardening the heart for greater love than this God cannot show toward man that He should lay down his life for us. But a virtue must be practiced – faith must be practiced. It is easy to sit on the sidelines and point out hypocrisy amongst those who try to follow Jesus. Dead faith can easily find fault with living faith just as living faith finds fault with dead faith. And dead faith cannot be criticized for what it does – it is safe from such censure for it does nothing! But living faith can be criticized for what it does and how well it does it.
Some think that Christians live a sheltered life, and that the man in the world who “has known the depths of Satan” (Rev. 2:24) is the well-rounded man-of-the-world. But the unrighteous know little about temptation – they have lived a sheltered life by giving in to sin. It’s only those who try to do right in a wicked world who know what temptation is. You know the strength of a current by trying to swim upstream, not by floating downstream. You find the strength of the wind by walking against it, not by hiding in a cyclone shelter.
Only one man ever succeeded in fighting temptation and winning every time. Only He knows what the full strength of temptation is. What we learn about trying to practice virtuous living is that we fail, and fear of failure stops some people from trying. It’s easy to try and be good for an hour, or a day, but what about a week, a month, a year….the rest of one’s life!? In the failures that come, in all that there comes the temptation to give up on our faith. And many do, thinking that faith in Christ is a failure. But we are the failures and our faith in Christ is the victory, for “in Him we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” ((Eph. 1:7; 1 Jn 1:7; 2:1). In that there lies the reason for practicing the virtue of faith.