Faith: What It Is and What It Leads To

Christian faith does not begin with an unexplained feeling, a sudden inward impression, or a decision to believe something without knowing what that something is. Scripture presents faith as a rational, informed, morally responsive trust in Jehovah and in the saving arrangement He has provided through Jesus Christ. Before a person can believe, he must receive information concerning the One in whom he is being asked to place his confidence, the message that One has revealed, and the promises upon which faith rests. This is why the apostle Paul asks in Romans 10:14, “How will they believe in him whom they have not heard?” and then states in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing through the word concerning Christ. Paul’s reasoning establishes an intelligible sequence: the message is proclaimed, a person hears it, he comes to understand what has been communicated, and he may then respond with belief. Knowledge by itself is not saving faith, because a person may possess correct information while refusing to trust, obey, or submit to the truth he knows. Nevertheless, genuine Christian faith cannot exist without sufficient knowledge, because faith must have an identifiable object and definite content rather than being confidence in confidence itself. The person exercising biblical faith knows something about Jehovah, knows who Jesus Christ is, understands the significance of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, recognizes his own sinful condition, and understands that God requires repentance, faith, baptism, obedience, and continued faithfulness. Biblical faith therefore begins with revealed truth entering the mind through the Word of God and becoming the foundation upon which intelligent trust can be built.

Romans 10 Establishes Hearing Before Believing

Romans 10:13–17 gives one of Scripture’s clearest explanations of how saving faith comes into existence, and the argument should be followed according to Paul’s actual sequence rather than reduced to a religious slogan. Paul connects calling upon the Lord with believing, believing with hearing, hearing with preaching, and preaching with being sent, thereby showing that the saving message must be communicated before it can become the object of faith. Romans 10:14 does not portray people as possessing saving faith before receiving the gospel, because Paul specifically asks how they can believe in One about whom they have not heard. Romans 10:17 then states the positive principle that “faith comes from hearing,” locating the formation of faith in a person’s encounter with the communicated message concerning Christ. The hearing involved is more than the physical reception of sound, because Paul’s larger argument concerns a message that must be understood, accepted, and obeyed. Romans 10:16 immediately observes that not everyone obeyed the good news, demonstrating that hearing the message does not automatically produce faith in every listener. Isaiah’s question, cited by Paul concerning who believed the report, shows that the same revealed message can produce faith in one hearer while encountering resistance in another. The decisive difference is not that one person received no information, but that one responded believingly to the truth while another refused the message Jehovah had made available. Christian evangelism therefore has enormous importance, because Jehovah has arranged for people to come to faith through receiving the Scriptural truth about His Son rather than through an independent mystical experience.

Faith Requires Definite Knowledge About Christ

The expression “faith in Jesus” has little biblical content if the person using it cannot explain who Jesus is, what He accomplished, why His death was necessary, and why His resurrection matters. John 20:30–31 explains that the signs recorded in the Gospel were written so that readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing have life in His name. The written record supplies evidence and information intended to produce a reasoned conclusion about Jesus’ identity rather than demanding belief detached from knowledge. Paul follows the same pattern in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4 when he reminds Christians of the good news they had received concerning Christ’s death for sins, His burial, and His resurrection. Paul then declares in 1 Corinthians 15:14–17 that if Christ has not been raised, Christian faith is empty and believers remain in their sins, making the resurrection an objective historical foundation of Christian confidence. A person cannot remove these revealed facts and retain biblical faith merely by saying that Jesus inspires him or gives him religious comfort. Saving faith must embrace the Jesus presented in the inspired record, including His identity as God’s Son, His sacrificial death, His resurrection, His authority as Lord, and His role in Jehovah’s purpose. Acts 2:22–36 illustrates this content-filled preaching when Peter identifies Jesus, speaks of His mighty works, explains His death, proclaims His resurrection, and announces His exalted position before calling his hearers to respond. Biblical faith is consequently not belief without evidence but trusting acceptance of the revealed message concerning the real Christ whom Jehovah sent.

Ephesians 1:13 Shows the Order of Hearing and Faith

Ephesians 1:13 reinforces this relationship between knowledge and faith by describing Christians as those who first heard “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation” and then believed. Paul’s language is significant because the object of their faith did not originate inside them; it reached them as a message containing truth that could be heard, understood, and accepted. The gospel told them what Jehovah had accomplished through Christ and what that saving work meant for sinful humans who responded to it. Their subsequent faith therefore rested on communicated revelation rather than private intuition, emotional excitement, inherited religious custom, or confidence in a human religious authority. The expression “word of truth” also establishes that the truthfulness of the message matters, because sincere belief in false teaching cannot become saving faith merely through the intensity of the believer’s sincerity. Someone can possess remarkable confidence and still be wrong if the propositions upon which his confidence rests are false. Christian faith requires truth concerning Jehovah, Christ, sin, atonement, repentance, resurrection, judgment, salvation, and the future fulfillment of God’s promises. This explains why doctrinal accuracy cannot properly be dismissed as an unnecessary concern for intellectual Christians while ordinary believers supposedly need only sincerity and love. If faith follows hearing, then what a person hears profoundly influences what he believes, and false teaching can consequently misdirect the very faith that should rest upon Jehovah’s revealed truth.

Accurate Knowledge Gives Faith Its Content

Scripture repeatedly emphasizes accurate knowledge because Jehovah does not ask His servants to build their lives upon religious misinformation. 1 Timothy 2:3–4 states that God desires people to be saved and to come to an accurate knowledge of truth, connecting knowledge directly with the saving purpose of God. Titus 1:1 likewise brings together faith and “the accurate knowledge of the truth that is according to godliness,” showing that truth, faith, and transformed conduct belong within one coherent Christian life. The Greek term epignōsis, according to its context, can convey full, clear, real, or accurate knowledge rather than vague familiarity with a subject. Colossians 1:9–10 accordingly records Paul’s desire that Christians be filled with accurate knowledge of God’s will so that they may walk worthily, please Him, bear fruit in good work, and continue growing in knowledge. The movement from knowledge to conduct is especially important, because biblical learning is never presented as collecting religious facts for intellectual display. A Christian who learns from Ephesians 4:29 that corrupt speech must be rejected has not completed the purpose of that knowledge until the teaching begins governing the words he uses at home, at work, in the congregation, and in private conversation. Accurate knowledge supplies faith with content, distinguishes truth from religious error, and identifies the course of action appropriate for someone who genuinely trusts Jehovah. The knowledge faith requires is therefore practical and morally demanding knowledge, because what Jehovah reveals is intended not merely to inform the mind but to direct the life.

The Bereans Demonstrate Intelligent Reception of the Message

Acts 17 provides a particularly valuable picture of how hearing, examination, understanding, and belief properly work together. Acts 17:2–3 describes Paul reasoning from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, which means apostolic evangelism included evidence and explanation rather than demands for unexamined acceptance. When Paul later reached Berea, Acts 17:11 says that his hearers received the word eagerly while examining the Scriptures daily to determine whether what they were hearing was true. Their careful examination was not condemned as a lack of faith, because Scripture presents their attitude as noble. They were willing to listen, but willingness to listen did not mean surrendering discernment or accepting a religious claim merely because a persuasive teacher made it. Their faith developed in contact with evidence drawn from the written Word of God, allowing them to determine whether Paul’s proclamation agreed with revelation already available to them. Acts 17:12 then reports that many of them believed, naturally placing belief after their reception and examination of the message. This pattern protects Christianity from credulity, because biblical faith is not a command to accept contradictions, ignore evidence, or regard careful interpretation as spiritual weakness. The Bereans demonstrate that a teachable person can listen humbly, investigate carefully, become convinced by Scriptural truth, and then exercise genuine faith upon the basis of what he has learned.

Biblical Faith Is More Than Mental Assent

Although knowledge is indispensable, Scripture does not define faith as the mere possession of correct religious propositions. The Greek noun pistis and the related verb pisteuō communicate belief, confidence, trust, and reliance according to context, and Paul’s treatment of faith gives it a strongly relational and obedient character. Romans 1:5 describes his apostolic work as directed toward bringing about “the obedience of faith” among the nations, while Romans 16:26 returns to the same expression at the end of the letter. Paul therefore frames his great explanation of the gospel with a faith that does not remain isolated inside the intellect but produces an obedient response to Jehovah through Christ. James 2:19 makes the inadequacy of bare mental assent unmistakable by observing that the demons believe that God is one and shudder. Demons possess correct information concerning God’s existence and recognize the authority of Jesus, as passages such as Mark 1:23–24 demonstrate, yet their knowledge plainly does not constitute saving faith. Genuine Christian faith adds personal trust, submission, reliance, loyalty, and willingness to order one’s life according to the truth believed. A person may intellectually agree that Jesus is Lord while resisting His authority whenever obedience conflicts with personal desire, but such agreement falls short of the trusting allegiance Scripture requires. Biblical faith begins with knowledge, includes conviction that the revealed message is true, and advances into personal reliance upon Jehovah and His Son in a way that changes loyalties and conduct.

Hebrews 11 Shows Knowledge Becoming Conviction and Action

Hebrews 11 does not describe faith as wishing intensely for something unsupported by revelation but repeatedly presents people acting because they trusted what Jehovah had communicated. Hebrews 11:7 says that Noah received divine warning concerning events not yet seen and, moved by reverent regard, constructed an ark for the saving of his household. Noah did not invent the coming Flood in his imagination and then call his expectation faith, because Genesis 6:13–22 records Jehovah giving him specific information about the coming judgment and detailed instructions for the ark. Noah heard the warning, accepted Jehovah’s word as true, trusted the One who spoke, and reorganized his life around what he had learned long before the predicted event became visible. Abraham likewise acted upon revealed information when Jehovah called him to leave his former surroundings and later promised that the covenant blessings would continue through Isaac. Hebrews 11:17–19 explains that Abraham’s conduct concerning Isaac was supported by reasoning, for he concluded that God was able even to raise Isaac from the dead. His faith was not the abandonment of thought but thought governed by confidence in Jehovah’s stated promise, power, and truthfulness. Rahab provides another example in Joshua 2:8–11 because she had heard what Jehovah had done in Egypt and against Israel’s enemies, concluded that Jehovah is God in heaven above and on earth beneath, and then acted to protect the Israelite messengers. Hebrews 11 therefore portrays faith as knowledge of Jehovah’s word becoming settled conviction and then directing action before the promised outcome can be seen.

Rahab Shows Why Hearing Must Lead to a Decision

Rahab is especially appropriate when considering hearing before believing because her own explanation begins with what she and the inhabitants of Jericho had heard. Joshua 2:10 records her acknowledgment that they had heard how Jehovah dried up the waters of the Red Sea before Israel and what Israel had done to the Amorite kings Sihon and Og. The inhabitants of Jericho therefore possessed information about Jehovah’s mighty acts, but not everyone responded to that information with faith. Rahab drew the correct theological conclusion in Joshua 2:11 by acknowledging Jehovah as God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. Yet even that confession did not remain merely verbal, because she concealed the Israelite messengers, protected them from discovery, sought mercy for her household, and followed the instructions associated with her deliverance. Hebrews 11:31 consequently contrasts Rahab with the disobedient, stating that she did not perish with them because she received the messengers peacefully. James 2:25 also appeals to Rahab’s conduct to demonstrate that genuine faith becomes active rather than remaining an unproductive profession. The same report concerning Jehovah’s works reached many ears in Jericho, but hearing became faith in Rahab because she accepted the truth of what she learned and transferred her allegiance accordingly. Her example demonstrates with remarkable clarity that information creates the opportunity for faith, while the hearer’s response to that information reveals whether genuine trust has developed.

Abraham Shows That Faith Reasons From Jehovah’s Promise

Abraham likewise demonstrates that biblical faith is neither irrational nor disconnected from what Jehovah has previously revealed. Genesis 15:6 records Abraham believing Jehovah, and Romans 4:20–21 explains that he became strong in faith because he was fully convinced that God was able to perform what He had promised. The content of Abraham’s faith was therefore supplied by Jehovah’s promise, while the strength of his confidence rested upon Jehovah’s ability and truthfulness. When Abraham later faced the command involving Isaac in Genesis 22:1–18, he did not cease reasoning and enter a realm of blind religious impulse. Hebrews 11:17–19 explicitly says that Abraham reasoned that God could raise Isaac from the dead, because Jehovah had already identified Isaac as the son through whom the promised line would continue. Abraham’s reasoning did not stand above revelation and judge Jehovah by an independent human standard; rather, it proceeded from confidence that Jehovah’s command and Jehovah’s promise could not ultimately contradict His faithful purpose. James 2:21–23 then explains that Abraham’s faith worked together with his actions and reached mature expression through what he did. His obedience did not purchase Jehovah’s promise or place God in his debt, because Genesis 15 had already established his righteous standing on the basis of faith rather than meritorious achievement. Abraham therefore illustrates the complete movement of genuine faith: Jehovah speaks, His servant understands His promise, confidence is formed, reasoning proceeds upon that truth, and obedient conduct demonstrates that the confidence is real.

Hearing Without Doing Produces Self-Deception

The necessity of hearing must never be confused with the idea that hearing alone fulfills Jehovah’s requirement. James 1:22 commands Christians to become doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves, which means exposure to biblical truth can become spiritually dangerous when a person mistakes familiarity with revelation for obedience to revelation. Someone may attend Christian teaching for years, memorize many passages, discuss theology intelligently, and defend correct doctrines while refusing to alter conduct plainly condemned by Scripture. James compares the passive hearer to someone who looks at his face in a mirror, walks away, and immediately forgets what he observed, whereas the effective doer continues looking into God’s instruction and acts accordingly. Jesus makes the same distinction in Luke 6:46 when He asks why people call Him “Lord, Lord” while refusing to do the things He says. Matthew 7:24–27 similarly contrasts the person who hears Jesus’ words and acts upon them with the person who hears those same words but does not act, showing that both individuals receive information while only one responds faithfully. Knowledge can therefore increase responsibility, because learning Jehovah’s will removes ignorance and places the hearer before a truth requiring decision. John 13:17 expresses the practical relationship plainly by connecting knowing Christ’s instructions with happiness when those instructions are actually practiced. Christian hearing reaches its intended purpose when revealed truth becomes belief, belief becomes obedient action, and obedient action continues to be nourished by further knowledge of Jehovah’s Word.

Faith and Works Must Be Distinguished Without Being Separated

James 2 protects Christians from redefining faith as a verbal claim that produces no corresponding conduct. James 2:14 asks what benefit exists if someone says he has faith but has no works, emphasizing that the subject is a claimed faith whose reality must be examined. James 2:17 answers that faith by itself, when it has no works, is dead, demonstrating that inactivity is not the normal condition of genuine saving trust. Paul does not contradict James, because Paul opposes works presented as a meritorious basis for earning righteous standing before God, while James opposes an empty profession that calls itself faith while refusing obedience. Romans 3:27–28 excludes human boasting, and Romans 4:4–5 explains that justification cannot be treated like wages owed to a worker who has accumulated sufficient merit. Yet the same Paul speaks in Romans 1:5 and Romans 16:26 of “the obedience of faith,” demonstrating that grace does not turn rebellion into an acceptable expression of trust. Galatians 5:6 similarly identifies what matters as faith working through love, joining confidence in God with practical Christian responsibility toward others. Obedience therefore neither purchases Christ’s sacrifice nor increases its saving value; rather, obedience is the proper response of one who truly believes Jehovah’s promises and acknowledges Jesus Christ as Lord. Faith and works must consequently be distinguished because works do not earn salvation, but they must never be separated because living faith necessarily begins directing the conduct of the believer.

Repentance Shows What Believing the Message Produces

When the gospel is properly heard and believed, repentance naturally follows because the message reveals both Jehovah’s holiness and mankind’s sinful condition. Acts 2 provides a concrete example after Peter explains Jesus’ identity, death, resurrection, and exaltation to the crowd gathered in Jerusalem. Acts 2:37 reports that his hearers were deeply affected and asked what they should do, showing that apostolic proclamation was intended to produce a response rather than mere theological interest. Peter answers in Acts 2:38 by commanding repentance and baptism, and Acts 2:41 reports that those who accepted his word were baptized. Their repentance did not purchase Christ’s sacrifice, because the entire saving arrangement had already been provided by Jehovah through His Son. Their response demonstrated that they believed Peter’s message sufficiently to change their position regarding Jesus, abandon the former course associated with rejecting Him, and identify themselves openly as His disciples. Acts 26:20 likewise summarizes Paul’s preaching as calling people to repent, turn to God, and perform deeds consistent with repentance, showing that repentance possesses observable consequences. A person who says that he believes Jehovah’s judgment concerning sin while deliberately protecting the very conduct Jehovah condemns reveals a conflict between his profession and his actions. Hearing produces saving benefit when the message is accepted as authoritative truth and moves the hearer toward repentance, reliance upon Christ’s sacrifice, and a changed direction of life.

Baptism Follows Informed Faith Rather Than Preceding It

The biblical relationship between knowledge and faith also explains why Christian baptism belongs to informed believers rather than infants incapable of understanding the gospel. Jesus commanded His followers in Matthew 28:19–20 to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to observe everything He had commanded, placing baptism within the process of conscious discipleship. Acts repeatedly follows the pattern of proclamation, reception of the message, faith, repentance, and baptism rather than presenting baptism as an act performed upon someone who cannot hear or believe. Acts 8:12 states that when people believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news concerning God’s Kingdom and the name of Jesus Christ, men and women were baptized. Acts 8:35–38 similarly describes Philip explaining the good news about Jesus to the Ethiopian official before the man requests baptism and is immersed in water. The baptism has meaning precisely because the candidate has heard the message, understood who Jesus is, accepted the truth, repented, and deliberately chosen the Christian path. Romans 6:3–4 connects baptism with burial and rising to walk in newness of life, making immersion an appropriate visible representation of the believer’s changed relationship to his former sinful course. Baptism itself is not a magical act that produces faith where understanding and personal trust do not exist. It is an obedient response flowing from faith already formed through hearing and learning the gospel, marking the informed believer’s public identification with Christ and commitment to the life His teaching requires.

Faith Must Continue to Grow in Accurate Knowledge

Hearing before believing describes the beginning of faith, but Christian learning does not stop after initial belief. Colossians 1:9–10 was addressed to people already recognized as Christians, yet Paul continued praying that they might be filled with accurate knowledge of God’s will and increase in the knowledge of God. Mature faith therefore requires continual nourishment because new situations, moral decisions, doctrinal questions, personal weaknesses, and responsibilities repeatedly call for the application of Scriptural principles. Romans 12:2 speaks of transformation through the renewing of the mind, demonstrating that Christian conduct changes as thinking is brought increasingly into agreement with God’s revealed standards. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 explains that all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be fully equipped for every good work. The Christian does not graduate from Scripture and advance into a supposedly higher form of spiritual guidance based upon private impressions, inward voices, or mystical messages. The Holy Spirit caused the inspired Word to be written, as 2 Peter 1:20–21 explains, and Christians today submit to the Spirit’s guidance by learning and obeying that Spirit-inspired revelation. Ephesians 6:17 appropriately describes God’s Word as “the sword of the Spirit,” directing attention to the objective revelation the Holy Spirit produced rather than to unverifiable personal experiences. Faith remains strong when the believer continually hears Jehovah through Scripture, corrects mistaken thinking, deepens his understanding of Christ, and allows accurate knowledge to govern increasingly specific areas of conduct.

Faith Leads to an Obedient Christian Life

The faith Scripture describes inevitably reaches into ordinary decisions because trusting Jehovah means accepting His judgment as wiser than the desires and standards of imperfect humans. A Christian who believes Colossians 3:23–24 will work conscientiously even when no supervisor is watching because he understands that his conduct is ultimately answerable to God. A believer who accepts Ephesians 4:25 will reject deliberate deception even when dishonesty appears capable of producing financial, professional, or social advantage. Someone who trusts Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 6:14–15 will work toward forgiveness rather than feeding resentment merely because retaliation feels emotionally satisfying. A Christian who accepts the sexual standards expressed in 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 will govern private conduct according to Jehovah’s holiness rather than treating secrecy as permission to sin. These actions do not constitute attempts to purchase salvation, for Romans 6:23 identifies eternal life as God’s gift through Christ Jesus. They show instead that the believer regards Jehovah’s Word as sufficiently true and authoritative to govern choices when obedience carries personal cost. Hebrews 5:9 describes Jesus as the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him, harmonizing obedience with faith because genuine trust submits to the authority of the One trusted. Biblical faith therefore leads beyond correct statements about God into a life in which work, speech, sexuality, forgiveness, family responsibilities, use of material resources, worship, and relationships are increasingly brought under Christ’s instruction.

Faith Leads to Evangelism Because Others Must Hear

Romans 10:14–17 not only explains how an individual comes to faith but also establishes why evangelism belongs to the responsibility of every Christian. If people cannot believe in the One about whom they have not heard, then Christians who possess the saving message cannot reasonably treat its proclamation as an optional activity reserved for a professional religious class. Jesus commands His disciples in Matthew 28:19–20 to make disciples and teach them to observe everything He commanded, making transmission of Christian knowledge part of Christian obedience. The believer who knows that reconciliation with Jehovah comes through Jesus Christ has information of eternal importance that other people need to hear and understand. Acts 8:26–35 provides a concrete example when Philip approaches the Ethiopian official, listens to the passage he is reading, begins from that Scripture, and explains the good news about Jesus. Philip does not merely urge the man to “have faith” without content, because he supplies the knowledge necessary for informed belief. Paul likewise says in 1 Corinthians 9:16 that necessity rested upon him to proclaim the good news, revealing the seriousness with which he viewed his responsibility to communicate the gospel. Evangelism is thus closely connected with the very nature of faith: those who have heard and believed become participants in bringing the same truth within the hearing of others. Christian faith speaks because it knows the message is true, understands what is at stake, loves Jehovah and Christ, and desires that other people obtain the accurate knowledge upon which saving faith can be formed.

Faith Leads to Endurance Along the Path of Salvation

The New Testament does not treat faith as a single past action whose continuing existence becomes irrelevant after an initial profession of belief. Colossians 1:21–23 speaks of reconciliation through Christ while also calling Christians to continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast rather than being moved away from the hope of the good news. Hebrews 3:12–14 warns believers against developing an unbelieving heart and states that Christians become sharers with Christ if they hold firmly to their original confidence to the end. Matthew 24:13 similarly identifies the one enduring to the end as the one who will be saved, making perseverance a genuine feature of the Christian path. Paul himself writes in Philippians 3:12–14 that he had not already obtained the final goal but continued pressing forward toward the prize. Romans 13:11 even tells existing Christians that salvation is nearer than when they first believed, showing that salvation includes a future completion rather than being exhausted by the initial moment of faith. This continuing responsibility does not mean Christians earn eternal life through accumulated merit, because eternal life remains Jehovah’s gift through Jesus Christ according to Romans 6:23. It does mean that the faith through which a person enters the Christian path must remain living, obedient, nourished by accurate knowledge, and firmly directed toward Christ. Hearing before believing is therefore the beginning of a lifelong pattern in which the Christian continues hearing Jehovah’s Word, strengthening conviction, correcting conduct, deepening trust, and remaining loyal while awaiting the life God has promised.

Faith Leads to the Hope of Eternal Life

The ultimate direction of genuine faith is life, because Jehovah has attached the promise of eternal life to His saving arrangement through Jesus Christ. John 3:16 presents the alternatives as perishing and receiving eternal life through faith in the Son, while John 3:36 places faith and disobedience in revealing contrast. Eternal life is not the automatic continuation of an inherently immortal human soul, because Romans 6:23 explicitly calls eternal life “the gift of God” through Christ Jesus. 1 John 5:11–12 likewise states that God gave eternal life and that this life is in His Son, making the hope dependent upon Jehovah’s provision rather than a natural indestructibility belonging to humans. John 5:28–29 locates the hope of the dead in resurrection, describing those in the memorial tombs hearing Christ’s voice and coming out. Faith therefore looks forward because it believes Jehovah’s promise concerning resurrection, judgment, Christ’s Kingdom, and the life He will grant to those approved through His Son. Such hope is not wishful thinking, since it rests upon the God who cannot lie, as Titus 1:2 emphasizes, and upon the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ that guarantees the reality of Jehovah’s saving power. The Christian who genuinely believes this future promise will not treat present obedience as meaningless, because future life gives present choices their proper moral seriousness. The knowledge faith requires thus begins with hearing Jehovah’s revealed truth, becomes conviction and trusting allegiance, expresses itself in repentance and obedient discipleship, continues through sustained attention to the Spirit-inspired Word, moves the believer to teach others, and directs his hope toward the eternal life Jehovah gives through Jesus Christ.

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