Operating on faith or wits

Paul made a statement that has always struck me as curious:

“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-2).

At first I want to say to Paul, “Why did you find it necessary to say ‘for not all have faith’? Of course not all have faith. It goes without saying that not all have faith. That is the reason you’re traveling the Middle East to preach faith in Christ.”

But on second thought, I believe Paul is not speaking particularly of Christian faith but commenting on faith as a more general bent or disposition of the human mind. For in a sense there are two kinds of people in the world: people who operate on “faith,” or what is unseen and incalculable, and people whose operating principle is sight and hunches and statistics and their wit and polls and anything tangible or calculable, but not faith.

To be sure, nothing but faith in Christ saves. But I think Paul is for a moment considering abstractly the two—and only two—mutually exclusive principles by which a man may live, those of “faith” and of “wits.” Whereas usually when we speak of the phrase “faith in Christ” our emphasis is on the “Christ” part of the phrase, Paul is here momentarily directing us to the “faith” part, to consider the operations of the mind.

I pause on this verse in 2 Thessalonians because I see its outworking displayed these days in the presidential campaign. It is clear to me as a Christian, as I observe the various tactics and responses to attack on the candidates, that there are two kinds of people running for office: those who believe in a higher control over the affairs of men, and those who don’t.

I know that sounds as odd and superfluous to say as Paul saying “For not all have faith.” But what I mean is that it all comes down to that particular bent of mind. As a candidate finds himself being lied about by other candidates, either he will be settled in his heart that there is a God who reigns and who is able to rescue him, or he does not believe that. If he believes it, he will resist lying in turn; he will defend himself but will refrain from resorting to unseemly means. If he does not believe that God has his back, he will feel he has to resort to saving himself by whatever means he has to use.

There are two kinds of people at all times and in all places: the self-reliers, and the God-reliers. The self-reliers are capable of all kinds of violence when push comes to shove. This is why Paul asks for prayer over his travels. There will be people out there who want to destroy him at all costs. “For not all have faith.”