Belief and Trust

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7 KJV

7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:7 NIV

7 If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.
1 Corinthians 13:7 TLB

We can see from the New International Version that the word believeth in the King James Version can be attributed to trust as well, because it says always trusts instead of believes or believeth in 1 Corinthians 7.

The Message expresses that love trusts God always. The Amplified version says that love is ever ready to believe the best of every person. The Weymouth translation says she is full of trust. It would therefore be useful to study the meaning of this Greek word as well.

The Greek word pisteuō (G4100) appears a total of 250 times in the King James Version of the Bible. It is translated as believe 114 times, believed 78 times, believeth 33 times, believest 8 times, believing 6 times, committed 5 times, trust 3 times, commit 2 times, believers 1 time.

According to Strong’s Dictionary of Greek Words, the Greek word pisteuō translated believeth in the King James Version, means:

From G4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), that is, credit; by implication to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well being to Christ): - believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

According to Thayer’s Greek Definitions, this Greek word means:

1) to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
1a) of the thing believed
1a1) to credit, have confidence
1b) in a moral or religious reference
1b1) used in the NT of the conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of soul
1b2) to trust in Jesus or God as able to aid either in obtaining or in doing something: saving faith
2) to entrust a thing to one, i.e. his fidelity
2a) to be intrusted with a thing

We can see, therefore, that the same word used for believing in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is also translated elsewhere in the King James Version, as trust – although only three times. This word is used in the trust context with reference to something being committed to a person’s trust.

Thayer’s Greek Definitions describes this Greek word as: to entrust a thing to one and to be intrusted with a thing. 1 Timothy 1:11 provides an example of this.

11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
1 Timothy 1:11 KJV

James Strong says that the believing aspect of love includes: to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing.