Whilst studying Acts 14:2 today I was interested to learn
more about the word that the ESV translates as ‘unbelieving’. When we talk
about not believing something, we tend to mean failing to be convinced by the
evidence presented. For example, certain people
might not believe in the existence of UFOs, or in global warming or that smoking
causes cancer, because they’re not convinced by the evidence.
When we think about unbelievers, we can be in danger of
viewing them in the same way – as well-meaning people who
just haven’t happened to be convinced by the evidence, as if unbelief was just
a harmless position of neutrality to the gospel. It’s not their fault - they just
don’t know enough to believe! The world,
with its pluralist, post-modern, agnostic attitudes, is happy to have it that
way. Everything is so unclear – how can you expect people to know what to
believe?!
I don't know about you but I have found myself saying the same sorts of things to God. ‘I
can’t help having doubts/not believing certain things!’ ‘Everything is too
confusing… It’s not my fault!’ I have baulked
as I have read in the Bible about the harsh punishments God pronounced on his people
for ‘mere’ unbelief. If people get involved in idol worship, murder, adultery – yes, I can understand you throwing the book
at them, Lord! But unbelief? Aren’t you going a bit over the top?
But the Bible does not mince its words about unbelief and
sees us all as culpable, especially the people of God. Unbelief is not an innocent failure to know
enough to be able to believe. Romans 1 tells us that God has given everyone
enough pointers to cause them to seek him, but the effects of the fall have so
corrupted our minds and hearts that we reject the implications of what we see
around us. Unbelief is not a position of neutrality but a conscious rejection
of God, an active turning our backs on him. The word which the ESV translates ‘unbelieving’, apeitheo, can also be translated
rebellious or disobedient, refusing to conform and being disloyal. And our
unbelief involves all of those things – being disloyal to a God who as both our
Creator and our loving father deserves our filial obedience and love. We are
like teenagers, having grown up enough to know perfectly well what is right and
wrong, but struggling with our desires and trying to squirm out of our
responsibilities. The Bible treats unbelief as more serious than many outwardly
sinful acts because it is a failure to take God at his word. It is the opposite
of the faith which God commended Abraham for and which is the way of salvation
for all who came after him.
So if, like me, you’ve been tempted not to take your own
unbelief too seriously, remember what that word ‘unbelieving’ actually means –
active rebellion against a loving Father and failure to render what we owe to
our great King. And don’t fall into the world’s trap of seeing the unbelief of
the people around you as innocent, understandable or acceptable. Instead, see
them as God sees them – as individuals whose souls are in peril because of
their rebellion to their Creator and King.
