This teaching addresses a fundamental and necessary topic: how to identify when our faith is contaminated. Although God is the one who delivers faith and it is spiritual by nature, it is possible for it to become contaminated. The apostle Paul recognizes this reality when he instructs Titus about the importance of having sound and hygienic faith.
The Problem of Contaminated Faith
Scripture warns us in First Timothy 1:19: “holding faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck”. Many believers never realize that their faith is contaminated, and therefore cannot make the necessary adjustments to align themselves with God’s will.
The danger lies in the fact that many confuse faith with positive thinking, a worldly philosophical movement that has infiltrated the Christian environment. These people believe they are living by faith when they declare, decree, or visualize, but in reality they are following psychological principles, not biblical faith.
The Five Main Causes of Faith Contamination
1. Faith Not Founded on the Correct Gospel
The first cause of contamination is when faith is not supported by the correct foundation of the Gospel. As First Corinthians 3:11 establishes: “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus the Christ”.
The foundation of the Gospel is recognizing that Jesus is God. It is not enough to call Him “son of God” in a sense that minimizes Him. First Timothy 3:16 clearly declares: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh”.
The Gospel of John confirms it: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), and “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14).
Any other foundation, however impactful or powerful it may seem, does not generate true faith but contamination. Many base their faith on miracles, testimonies, supernatural signs, or on the declaration that “God can do everything,” but this is not the foundation established by God.
2. Importing Lifestyles from the World
The second cause of contamination is bringing to the Gospel our previous habits, personality, behaviors, and ways of life. When the Cretans converted, they maintained their characteristics of being “always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). That’s why Paul instructs: “Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13).
The Gospel requires total transformation. As Scripture says: “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We cannot preserve our way of thinking, speaking, or conducting ourselves from the previous world. We cannot “consecrate” worldly abilities and introduce them to God’s Kingdom without transformation.
The apostles were fishermen, but Jesus told them: “I will make you fishers of men”. He changed the object of their activity. Christian life is spiritual, not human, psychological, emotional, or religious.
3. Faith that Does Not Produce Action
The third cause is having convictions that do not move us to act. James expresses it clearly: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). And he adds: “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26).
Faith is dynamic, not static. It is not for meditation or reflection; that would be philosophy, not faith. If what we believe does not motivate us to act, to move, then we do not have faith but a contamination that leads us to death.
Contaminated faith produces the result that Paul describes: some “have suffered shipwreck concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 1:19). A shipwreck always results in loss and death.
4. Evaluating Faith by Results
The fourth cause is measuring or evaluating faith by the results obtained. Hebrews 11:13 teaches us: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”.
Faith is not evaluated by results. Many businesspeople and people with an administrative mindset from the world import these concepts to the Gospel, expecting to see immediate results. They think: “if I tithe, then I should receive in return.”
Genuine faith is being able to continue believing and confessing what God has said, even though we have not received anything visible. Faith is not a selfish element to receive benefits; it is to do what God wants us to do and establish His testimony on earth.
5. Needing to See to Believe
The fifth cause is calling things by their name only after seeing or experiencing them. Romans 4:17 describes God as “God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did”.
Thomas represents this contaminated faith when he says: “I have to see to believe.” But Jesus responds: “Jesus said to him, ‘Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:29).
Mature faith calls things by their name as God calls them, without having seen them. As Second Corinthians 5:7 says: “For we walk by faith, not by sight”.
If we need to see in order to call things by their name, our faith is contaminated. Perfect faith can proclaim God’s reality even though it is beyond our understanding or possibilities.
The Danger of Contaminated Faith
Contaminated faith does not lead to life but to death. It produces:
- Sickness
- Depression
- Disappointment
- Scarcity
- Deterioration
This explains the words of Jesus the Christ in Matthew 7: “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
These were believers who operated in supernatural signs, but they had the wrong foundation. They did not fully recognize that Jesus is God, and therefore did not understand His sovereignty.
The Call to Sound Faith
God desires that each one have sound, hygienic faith, free from contamination. This requires personal work on our part. We must:
- Establish the correct foundation: Recognize that Jesus is God
- Discard worldly lifestyles: Allow total transformation
- Activate our faith: Let our convictions move us to act
- Not evaluate faith by results: Maintain faith even if we don’t see immediate answers
- Call things by their name: According to God’s Word, not our experience
The goal is to develop faith that leads us to establish the testimony of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, remaining firm until the Son of Man returns and finds faith on earth.
Sound faith produces life, joy, rejoicing, and the assurance of walking correctly with the Lord. It is faith that transcends circumstances and remains firm in God’s Word, founded on the eternal truth that Jesus the Christ is God manifested in the flesh.
