In the Epistle for today, Paul implores us to remain established in the faith, which brings up the question, what is the faith? What is faith itself? There is a popular idea of what faith is out in society, and many churches do teach it. It is the idea that faith is about having the right answer. You need to have the right answer about knowledge, you need to have the right answer about the nature of God, or the correct Biblical interpretation, or the morally correct position on some social matter, or knowing the right words to say. That is what faith is: being right. And since faith and salvation are so intertwined, it creates an anxiety about what happens if you fail the test, and the depth of the consequences if you do. In some traditions it is not failing the test, it is about getting any one answer wrong. If you don’t get an A+ it isn’t good enough. What are the implications of that? It can create a huge sense of anxiety in people, even trauma for understanding the faith in this way.

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