Let’s have a show of hands: everyone who believes that there is a Constitution of the United States raise your hand. OK, good. Now everyone who believes in the Constitution of the United States raise your hand. Some of you might be thinking, “Wait. Didn’t he just ask us to do that?” Well, no. There’s a difference between “belief that” and “belief in.”
“Belief in” is an attitude toward a person or an institution, a sentiment or posture of trust, while “belief that” is just an attitude with regard to a proposition, one’s intellectual assent to its validity. One may believe that there is a Constitution establishing the government of the United States while not actually believing in the institutions and processes of governance that it creates and enshrines. That may be, perhaps, the source of some of our current social and political problems, but that’s another discussion for another time. With regard to our Christian faith, however, the intersection of these two different kinds of belief – “belief that” versus “belief in” – is at the heart of today’s lesson from the Gospel according to John.
