{"id":88896,"date":"2025-07-24T12:10:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:10:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=88896"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:34:16","slug":"four-characteristics-of-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/four-characteristics-of-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Characteristics of Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by David Gibson<\/p>\n<p>To say that faith is a significant theme of the Bible is an understatement. What better place to begin than the great Faith Chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11. In this chapter, the noun &#8220;faith&#8221; is found 24 times, and the verb &#8220;believe&#8221; is used once.<\/p>\n<p>Hebrews 11 could be called &#8220;Case Studies in Faith.&#8221; Here are real people, much like us, who struggled with major problems and overcame them by faith.<\/p>\n<p>What are the characteristics of faith?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, faith is the assurance that what we do not see is real (Hebrews 11:1). There are three categories of what we do not see:\n<ul>\n<li>things in the past, which we did not witness (Hebrews 11:3);<\/li>\n<li>things in the present that are invisible to our eyes (Hebrews 11:6); and<\/li>\n<li>things in the future (Hebrews 11:7, 10).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Second, faith acts. It does something. &#8220;<em>By faith Abel offered&#8230;.By faith Noah&#8230;constructed an ark&#8230;.By faith Abraham obeyed&#8230;.By faith Abraham &#8230;offered up Isaac&#8230;.<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 11:4, 7, 8, 17).<\/li>\n<li>Third, faith enables us to please God (Hebrews 11:2, 6, 39). God is pleased when we show we trust Him.<\/li>\n<li>And fourth, faith brings a great reward (Hebrews 11:6). God richly blesses those who live by faith, not by sight.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note the words immediately preceding the Faith Chapter: &#8220;&#8216;&#8230; <em>but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.&#8217; But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 10:38-39).<\/p>\n<p>Believe it!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by David Gibson To say that faith is a significant theme of the Bible is an understatement. What better place to begin than the great Faith Chapter of the Bible, Hebrews 11. In this chapter, the noun &#8220;faith&#8221; is found 24 times, and the verb &#8220;believe&#8221; is used once. Hebrews 11 could be called &#8220;Case&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[139,49],"class_list":["post-88896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-belief","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67015,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-by-faith-only\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":0},"title":"Not By Faith Only","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton When the Bible says, \"not by faith only\" (James 2:14-24), why is it that you hear major denominations claiming that salvation is \"by faith alone\"? I would be embarrassed to hold to a doctrine that directly contradicts the word of God. If the Bible actually taught\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-is-the-evidence\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":1},"title":"Faith is the Evidence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 31, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Doy Moyer \"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen\" (Hebrews 11:1, NASB). Some translations say that faith is the \"evidence\" of things not seen (KJV, NKJV). What does this mean? We often point out that faith is not blind. Because of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67391,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/understanding-bible-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":2},"title":"Understanding Bible Faith","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Hebrews 11 by Don Bunting One (or Two) Chapter Lessons","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85479,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faith-in-the-unseen\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":3},"title":"Faith in the Unseen","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeff May via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 Christians must have vision far greater than 20\/20. They must, by faith, be able to see the unseen. Their faith must go where their eyes cannot. This is the grand message of Hebrews 11, which was written to backsliding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-obedience-relate-to-saving-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":4},"title":"How does obedience relate to saving faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does obedience relate to saving faith? Answer: \"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, \"Depart\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60949,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/at-what-point-does-faith-save\/","url_meta":{"origin":88896,"position":5},"title":"At What Point Does Faith Save?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richie Thetford Many denominations will have us believe that we are saved by faith\u00a0before we do the action in accordance with God's command. No doubt you have seen those on television attending a huge denominational service who are invited to come forward at the conclusion of the service and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}