Instability

Instability of character — inconsistency, fickleness, and the inability to maintain commitment — is presented in Scripture as a serious spiritual deficiency. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, forfeited the rights of primogeniture for his "unstable" character: "Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence, because you went up to your father's bed" (Gen. 49:4). Pharaoh's cycle of relenting and re-hardening during the plagues is a pattern of instability. Israel's pattern of faithfulness in crisis and faithlessness in ease runs through Judges in repeated cycles.

James defines instability as the double-minded man (dipsychos, "double-souled") who wavers in prayer like a wave of the sea: "that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways" (James 1:7–8). The antidote is steadfastness (hupomone) — the patient endurance that the testing of faith produces (James 1:3–4). Paul prays for believers to be rooted and established in love (Eph. 3:17), and commends the Colossians for the steadfastness of their faith (Col. 2:5).