In this presentation, I argue that Matthew portrays faith as the individual virtue of
discipleship directed toward God—that in trusting Jesus, motivated by one’s love for
God, the disciple himself becomes righteous. First, I give an overview of the concept of
faith in the ancient world. Second, I survey Matthew’s presentation of faith throughout
his narrative, showing the ways that he utilizes his narrative for the purpose of virtue formation
in encouraging his readers to pursue the virtue of faith. Matthew presents faith
as both trust in and faithfulness to Jesus as God’s authoritative representative. Centered in
his teaching in the Sermon on the Mount on trusting the Father for provision in every
aspect of daily life (6:25–34), Matthew continues to portray Jesus teaching the disciples
about the virtue of faith—requiring wholistic trust in God as a way of pursuing
righteousness (17:14–21; 21:18–22; 24:45–51; 25:14–30). All the while, Matthew depicts
characters who exhibit faith along a spectrum, from absolutely no faith (13:53–58;
17:14–21; 23:23–24), to exemplary faith (8:5–13; 9:1–8, 20–22, 27–31; 15:21–28; 18:1–
9), to the in-between “little faith” of the disciples (8:23–27; 14:22–33; 16:1–12; 17:14–
20). Most importantly, Jesus embodies perfect faith in, and faithfulness to, God the
Father in his humble trust and obedience to the Father’s will in his death on the cross,
shown by both his resolve in Gethsemane (26:36–46) and the Jewish leaders’ ironic
mocking of his faith on the cross (27:27:41–43). Through this narrative presentation,
Matthew encourages his readers to embody the virtue of faith, motivated by their love for
God in pursuit of greater righteousness.