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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Acts 6:7 - 6:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
To the faith (τῇ πίστει)
Opinions differ greatly as to whether this is to be taken as meaning faith in Jesus Christ, or faith considered as Christian doctrine - the Gospel; the faith in the ecclesiastical sense. This passage and Gal 1:23 are the strong passages in favor of the latter view; but the general usage of the New Testament, added to the fact that in both these passages the former meaning gives a good, intelligible, and perfectly consistent sense, go to confirm the former interpretation.
1. In the great majority of New Testament passages faith is clearly used in the sense of faith in Jesus Christ: “the conviction and confidence regarding Jesus Christ as the only and perfect mediator of the divine grace and of eternal life, through his work of atonement” (Meyer).
2. This interpretation is according to the analogy of such expressions as obedience of Christ (2Co 10:5), where the meaning is, clearly, obedience to Christ: obedience of the truth (1Pe 1:22). Accordingly, faith, though it becomes in man the subjective moral power of the new life, regenerated through the power of the Spirit, is regarded objectively as a power - the authority which commands submission.
3. This interpretation is according to the analogy of the expression hearing of faith (Gal 3:2), which is to be rendered, not as equivalent to the reception of the Gospel, but as the report or message of faith; i.e., which treats of faith, ἀκοὴ, hearing being always used in the New Testament in a passive sense, and often rendered fame, rumor, report (see Mat 4:24; Mat 14:1; Mar 1:28; Joh 12:38; Rom 10:16). Compare, also, obedience of faith (Rom 1:5; Rom 16:26), where faith is to be taken as the object, and not as the source, of the obedience; and hence is not to be explained as the obedience which springs from faith, but as the obedience rendered to faith as the authoritative impulse of the new life in Christ.
The great majority of the best modern commentators hold that faith is to be taken as the subjective principle of Christian life (though often regarded objectively as a spiritual power), and not as Christian doctrine.