What Is Faith and Who Are Believers
The purpose of Scripture is to teach obedience. Moses did not seek to convince the Israelites through reasoning but rather bound them through covenants, oaths, and acts of benevolence. He encouraged obedience to the laws by threatening punishment and promising rewards. The gospel teaching contains nothing more than simple faith: to believe in God and honor Him, which means to obey Him. The entirety of Scripture centers on love for one's neighbor. Whoever loves their neighbor as themselves, according to God's command, is truly obedient and happy under the law. This command serves as the sole measure of general faith and is the only standard by which all doctrines of faith that everyone must accept should be determined.
Faith is nothing other than thoughts about God, the ignorance of which eliminates obedience to Him and which are necessarily given with such obedience:
- Faith does not save in itself but only in relation to obedience; faith without works is dead.
- Whoever is truly obedient will necessarily possess true and saving faith. We can only judge whether someone is a believer or an unbeliever by their actions. The Spirit of God dwells in those who have love, for God can be perceived through love for one's neighbor. Faith does not demand so much truth as it requires devout doctrines, ones that prompt the soul toward obedience. These strengthen the soul in love for one's neighbor, for it is only on this basis that everyone is in God, and God is in everyone.
The doctrines of universal faith must aim at affirming that there is a supreme being who loves truth and love, to whom everyone owes obedience for their happiness, and whom we must worship through the practice of justice and love for our neighbor.
From this, everything else can easily be defined:
- There is God, a supreme being who is necessarily just and merciful, the model of a righteous life. Anyone who does not know or believe in God's existence cannot obey Him or recognize Him as their judge.
- God is one. This is also essential for the highest reverence, admiration, and love for Him. Reverence, admiration, and love arise because someone excels in greatness above all others.
- God is omnipresent; everything is evident before Him. If we did not believe that He sees everything, we would doubt His justice in governing all things.
- God has supreme authority and sovereignty over all things. He acts not under the compulsion of any law but out of His grace. Everyone owes Him absolute obedience, while He owes nothing to anyone.
- Worshiping God and obeying Him consist solely in His justice and love, that is, in love for one's neighbor.
- All who obey God by following this way of life will be saved, while others, dominated by the desire for pleasure, will be condemned.
- God forgives the sins of the penitent. Everyone would despair of their salvation without this. There is no one who does not sin. However, those who firmly believe that God forgives human sins out of mercy and grace and whose faith ignites an even greater love for God have truly come to know Christ in spirit, and Christ dwells in them.
The knowledge of all these truths is necessary for people to obey God. If any of these truths falter, obedience also ceases.
Spinoza "Teológiai-politikai tanulmány", Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, 1984