34 Dictionaries by Larry Perry
Romans 16:26 English Standard Version (ESV) but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—
Since God’s command is to bring about obedience of faith, it is essential that we understand faith. Looking to the Blue Letter Bible as a resource we will find thirty-four bible dictionaries that define faith and its uses. Having read all those dictionaries has been very difficult because of the language of the authors is intellectual in design, to convince us over this very important issue. There is no plain text reading.
This may serve you as an example of the complexities in trying to define faith.
1 Corinthians 12 English Standard Version (ESV)
Spiritual Gifts
9 to another faith by the same Spirit,…
Faith is listed in the spiritual gifts in such a way as to lead us to believe that faith is not given to all of us.
Ephesians 2:8 English Standard Version (ESV) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Since we cannot be saved without faith, then we all have been given faith as a gifts from God to be saved. Since both of these passages are true, then 1 Corinthians 12:9 must contain a narrow usage of faith that may be defined more thoroughly within one of those thirty-four dictionaries. To search out the exact meaning of faith as it is used in 1 Corinthians 12:9 using those intellectual pursuits puts us at risk of misunderstanding scripture by making it an intellectual decision.
Habakkuk 2:4 English Standard Version (ESV) “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Romans 1:17 English Standard Version (ESV) For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for* faith,[a] as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”[b]
Footnotes:
a Or beginning and ending in faith
b Or The one who by faith is righteous shall live
Even within plain language there are complexities as the KJV uses *to faith.