Appendix D
UNBELIEF ©
(I Cor 7:12-15)
I Cor 7:12-15 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not
[Gk. apiston], and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. (13) And the woman which hath an
husband that believeth not [Gk. apiston], and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. (14)
For the unbelieving [Gk. apistos] husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving [Gk. apistos] wife is sanctified
by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. (15) But if the unbelieving [apistos]
depart, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. |
To understand unbelief, we must first understand what it is to believe. To believe (Gk. pisteuo; noun form,
pistis) is to be convinced that what you have seen or heard is true (John 20:29).
Gk. Apistos is a state of unbelief, in which a person lacks confidence in what he or she has seen or heard despite the number of times
the evidence has been presented. Unbelief characterizes a person who has not come to the point of believing GOD's Word.
The only way to arrive at a state of belief is to hear the Word of GOD (Rom 10:17). There are those who may hear GOD's Word
but not arrive at a state of belief (faith) because they are not convinced that what they have heard is true (Acts 28:23,24).
The following Gk. apistos, apiston, and apistian are all derivatives of Gk. apistia:
Gk. Apeitheia or apeitheo (refusal of belief and resulting
disobedience) is the result of Gk. apistos. A person who refuses to believe and therefore
disobeys, is living according to his or her unbelief (Gk. apistos).
§ Heb 3:12 "They should watch that no single one of them had 'an evil heart of unbelief,'
which would be exhibited by 'turning away from the living God.'
Heb 3:18 Oath in Psalm 95 refers to Num 14:30 'I raise my hand [in oath] that you would
dwell in it.' This clearly refers to life in the promised land . . . The disobedience about
which the author spoke came after the Lord had sworn that they would not enter the land. They then confessed their
sin and said they would repent and enter the land. Moses told them not to, because the Lord would not be with them,
but they 'disobeyed' and tried to take the hill country, so the Canaanites and Amalekites defeated them (Num 14:39-45).
Heb 3:19 After the spies brought back the evil report and the people complained and made plans
to go back to Egypt, the Lord, in His anger, asked Moses, 'How long will they not believe in me?' (Num 14:11),
and he threatened to destroy them. It was on this basis that the author of Hebrews concluded that the exodus
generation was 'not able to enter because of [their] unbelief.' "
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In Hebrews 3, they could not enter the Promised Land because of Gk. apistia (vss 12 & 19).
Being in a state of unbelief (Gk. apistia) resulted in or led to a state of disobedience (Gk. apeitheia).
They were not to have an evil heart of Gk. apistia because, in falling away from the living GOD, they may end in a
state of Gk. apeitheia and, as those Old Testament Israelites, not enter that rest.
CONCLUSION: An unbeliever, as in I Cor 7, is one who lacks confidence in what he or she may have heard from the
Word of GOD. A person who refuses to believe what he or she has heard and act according to his or her unbelief
(Gk. apistos) through disobedience is in a state of Gk. apeitheia.
The converse would suggest that a believer is one who is convinced of what he or she has heard from GOD's Word and obeys.
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