Are You Persuaded?

"Persuade" and "persuaded" is a very helpful word when it comes to faith, and believing.

Why?
Because "faith" is thrown around all the time. You are probably just as likely to hear "keep the faith" at a basketball game as you are in a church service.

The same for "believe". There can be miracles, when you believe. "Just keep believing".

These are "subjective". They focus on the something that might mean something completely different depending on the individual. We are concerned about subjective, of course, because the individual must believe. The individual must have faith. But, we must ask, "believe what?" "faith in what or whom?". The object of our faith and the object of our belief must be specified. Remember last time….we talked about "objective" faith and "subjective" faith?

Example:
Driving on ice in the winter.
Two individuals, or two subjects.
One believes the ice will hold them. The other subject is not convinced.
The object is the ice.

What is the most important in this story?
The faith of subject #1 -- the one who is fully convinced?
The faith of subject #2 -- the one who only has a mustard seed of faith?
The object of the faith -- the ice itself.

It will either hold them or not.
If the ice, the object, has integrity, it holds. It holds both the person great faith, and it holds the person just a grain of faith.
If the ice, the object, does not have integrity, it does not matter how strong or weak the faith of the subject was.

The object of your faith is the most important.
The object of your belief is the most important.

And, this is why the word "persuade" is so valuable.
Because, "persuade" is the root word of faith.
And, "persuade" is the root word of believe.


PERSUADE
1. peitho (πείθω, 3982) in the active voice, signifies “to apply persuasion, to prevail upon or win over, to persuade,” bringing about a change of mind by the influence of reason or moral considerations, e.g., in Matt. 27:20; 28:14; Acts 13:43; 19:8; in the passive voice, “to be persuaded, believe” (see BELIEVE, No. 2, and OBEY), e.g., Luke 16:31; 20:6; Acts 17:4, RV (KJV, “believed”); 21:14; 26:26; Rom. 8:38; 14:14; 15:14; 2 Tim. 1:5, 12; Heb. 6:9; 11:13, in some mss.; 13:18, RV (KJV, “trust”). See ASSURANCE, B, No. 3.
Note: For Acts 26:28, KJV, “thou persuadest,” see FAIN, Note.
2. anapeitho (ἀναπείθω, 374), “to persuade, induce,” in an evil sense (ana, “back,” and No. 1), is used in Acts 18:13.¶ In the Sept., Jer. 29:8.¶
Note: For plerophoreo, rendered “being fully persuaded,” in Rom. 4:21 and 14:5, KJV, see ASSURANCE, B, No. 2.

W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, and William White Jr., Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1996), 469.