The True Meaning of Little Faith

Peter warns us of the inevitability that false teachers will infiltrate the Church.  2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.

These false teachers will come in under the radar saying things that sound good and reasonable but which actually distort the meaning of God’s word.  It is the same tactic Satan used with Eve in the Garden.  They may say salvation is by believing in Jesus Christ, but then use terms like really belief or truly believe.  I’ve even heard things like you must believe in your heart vs. just believing in your head.  Some call that the 18” rule of faith. 
Anyway, those who say such things are implying there is more than one way to believe.   And that doesn’t make sense.  Something is either true or it is not.  You either believe something or you don’t, there is no such thing as almost believing.  I do not know of a single place in the Bible where the word believe is modified by an adverb.  Jesus Christ simply said believe. 

The Lord did sometimes remark about the disciples having little faith.  But faith is a noun. It is not a verb like the word believe.  Being a noun, it referring to what is believed not the action of believing.  And the volume of what we believe can change from person to person or over time.  Here is an example of what I mean.  Read Matthew 8:18 & 23-27 for the context in which Jesus said “O you of little faith.” 
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The Lord said to the disciples let’s go to the other side of the Lake.  The same Lord they had witnessed healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law, the Centurion's servant and the leper.  The same lord who had delivered the sermon on the mount.  As they crossed the lake it got rough, big waves and wind were tossing the boat round.  The disciples got scared woke Jesus up and urged Him to save them.  They believed Jesus Christ could save them.  So, what was wrong with their faith?  The issue was they had not believed everything Jesus had said.  The focus of their faith was too small.  They had forgotten it was Jesus who said let’s cross to the other side.  And if Jesus said we’re going to the other side, then they were going to reach the other side even if He, Jesus, was a sleep.   

Their faith was deficit in content; it was too small.  It does not mean their belief was weak.