Pistos: The Faithful God

Word of the Week

February 15, 2025

Pistos: The Faithful God

 

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NASB2020

Everyone who visits Yellowstone National Park wants to stop and see “Old Faithful.”  Though there are quite a few geysers in the park, “Old Faithful” is the one you can count on.  About every 90 minutes, you can be confident that you will see a column of hot water blow over 100 feet in the air.

In reality, there are occasional variations in the schedule.  Eruptions can be anywhere from 35 to 120 minutes apart, but there’s a 90% chance that you will see the water head skyward within a few minutes of the 90-minute mark.

Geologists tell us that there was a massive drought 800 years ago that turned off the spigot completely.  Even “Old Faithful” is not completely reliable.

The Bible, however, tells us that God is absolutely faithful.  Thank goodness!

Today we are going to look more closely at that promise by examining the Greek word for “faithful.”

In Greek, “faithful” is pistos [peess-TAHSS]. Faith is a central concept in the New Testament, so it is no surprise to find that this word appears 67 times.  It actuallys conveys two different ideas, depending on the context.

1. It can mean “trusting, believing.”

Someone who trusts in Jesus is called pistos.  Acts 10:45 describes the Jewish “believers” who witnessed the conversion of Cornelius.  1 Timothy 6:2 instructs Christian slaves to be loyal to their Christian masters because both of them are “believers” [pistos].  And 2 Corinthians 6:15 asks how there can be harmony between a “believer” [pistos] and a non-believer.

In these passages, it describes someone who puts their faith in someone.  It’s a way of describing someone who commits their lives to Christ and His promises.

2. More often, it means “trustworthy, reliable, dependable.” Why do you believe the gospel?  Because it is worthy of your trust.

Who or what can you trust?

Sometimes you can trust people.  Paul used pistos to describe many of the emissaries that he sent to the various churches:  Timothy (1 Corinthians 4:17), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7), Epaphras (Colossians 1:7), and Onesimus (Colossians 4:8).  Though these men were not perfect, they were reliable.  The churches could count on them to tell the truth and to represent Paul well.

Sometimes you can trust sayings.  Particularly in his later epistles, the apostle Paul liked to underline key statements by declaring, “This is a trustworthy statement” (1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8).

However, you can always trust God.  Over and over, the New Testament announces that God is faithful.

• God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9).
• No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind, and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).
• But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no (2 Corinthians 1:18).
• The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).
• If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
• Christ is a “merciful and faithful high priest” (Hebrews 2:17).
• Let us hold firmly to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).
• By faith Sarah “considered Him faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11:11).
• Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God are to entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right (1 Peter 4:19).
• If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
• Jesus is called “the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5) and when He returns He is called “Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11).

It’s quite a spread of reassurance, isn’t it?  Whether we are dealing with temptation, sin, suffering, or Satan, God is totally reliable.  His character never changes.  His promises never fail.  His power never runs dry – not even after 800 years!

 

Study Hint:

Greek words often come in clusters with a verb, noun and adjective that carry similar meanings.  That’s the case here.

The verb pisteuō means “to believe.”

The noun pistis means “faith.”

And our adjective pistos is the only one of the group that carries a double meaning:  one who believes and one who is believable.

A study of all three words would be very valuable, but you would want to be cautious in noting the difference between this word and the others in the group.

 

Coming Up

We have been focusing on some of the character qualities of God, and we will come back to this topic for more later on.  However, we will start next week looking at some of the specific words that readers brought up in their responses to the survey.  Next time we will focus on Acts 26:20 where Paul talks about repentance and turning to God.  What do those involve?

Ezra Project 2025