Aren’t
Christians supposed to have faith?
Shouldn’t we be showing great faith?
Last week I shared about being Dressed and Ready. Jesus wants to find us doing what He has put
us in charge of. So, are we supposed to
have more faith or more obedience? Let’s
take a look at Luke 17 to find out.
I am so glad
I had the opportunity to write on both Luke 12 and 17. I have struggled with understanding mustard
seed faith because so many people have different views, but this time, I was
able to study it’s meaning. I have
several friends who have described me as strong and faithful, yet I feel very
weak and I have questioned my faith often.
Perhaps, you’ve had someone tell you that they wish they could have as
much faith as you do. What’s your
reaction when someone tells you that? Do
you respond with, ‘aw thanks, it’s nothing?’
My question is, who gets the glory?
You do! You’re the one with such
great faith; the focus is on you!
Which is why
Jesus follows up with the next passage with the servant (Luke
17:7-10). Are you only following Christ because you
want to hear that often quoted line, “well done…”?
There is in
a sense no such thing as great faith; there’s only faith or no faith. Yes, Jesus commended people for their great
faith. And, He often rebuked the
disciples because of their little faith.
But in each case, He was commending a person who simply took God at His
word and He was disciplining men who did not believe God concerning the matter
at hand. So, the matter is not so much
great faith in God, but rather faith in a great God. The smallest amount of faith links us to
Christ, who is mighty.
There is no
one more trustworthy than God! He has a
track record of never failing anyone who trusted in Him throughout human
history. Either we take Him at His word,
or we don’t. If we do trust Him, it is
no credit to us. All it takes is a
little grain of faith in Him, because the issue is not our great faith, but our
great God.
I believe
that Jesus’ point is that it is not a matter of how much faith you have,
but rather, do you have faith in the living God? If so, it can accomplish great things, not
because of the size of your faith, but because of the power and ability of your
God. He will do mighty things through
the person who trusts in Him, even if their faith is seemingly small and
weak. Then the glory goes to God.
How does
this apply to trusting God when we’re faced with the difficult commands of
Scripture as in verse 4? Suppose someone
has wronged you and has asked for your forgiveness, but you are deeply hurt and
you’re struggling with obeying God by granting forgiveness. Maybe the root of bitterness is as entrenched
as the roots of this mulberry tree.
How much
faith do you need to forgive the other person?
I believe the answer is, ‘as much faith as it takes to believe that God
has forgiven you’. You could begin by
praying to God and letting Him know that you are having a difficult time
obeying Him by forgiving this person.
And acknowledging that you know He has forgiven you, and that He forgave
you not because of your great faith, but that God is faithful and keeps His
promises. Ask that He be glorified by
enabling you to forgive this person.
Uproot this bitterness from your heart and plant it in the sea. Mustard seed faith is recognizing that we must
get our eyes off ourselves and onto God and His great mercy and faithfulness,
He is glorified. And in this case of
forgiveness, God can use your mustard seed faith to uproot your bitterness and
bury it forever, and He then gets the glory!
Jesus uses
this graphic illustration of casting the mulberry tree into the sea to say that
even small faith can do what is humanly impossible because it is none other
than Almighty God who works through our faith.
Everyone who has truly believed in Christ for salvation has enough faith
to obey the most difficult commands of scripture, because the issue isn’t our
great faith. The issue is our great
God. Look to Him and He will be
glorified as He works His mighty power through your weakness and small faith.
So really,
when we encounter the difficult commands of scripture, our focus should be more
on obedience and humility. We should
view ourselves as God’s slaves who owe Him obedience in all things. Jesus has a sense of humor here to make a
point. In that culture, something we
don’t quite grasp, slaves had a very simple job description: Do everything your master commands. Period!
Slaves did not give orders, they took orders. They did not negotiate with the owner what
their privileges would be. Slaves had to
obey.
So, when
they came in after a hard day in the fields, they did not expect their owners
to have dinner ready for them. They
couldn’t tell the owner, “I’ve had a rough day.
Get your own dinner!” They were
expected to come in and serve their master.
And they didn’t expect him to thank them for all their hard work. It was their duty to serve him. Only after that, could they eat their own
dinner.
Duty is not
the only picture. Remember last week in
Luke 12:37, Jesus showed us how He as the Master would graciously reverse roles
and wait upon His faithful servants. The
focus there was on His grace! But here
in chapter 17 He is emphasizing our responsibility to do what He commands us to
do. Our focus cannot be on our feelings,
but rather we must focus on our duty.
We live in a
day that encourages us to focus on our feelings. We’re even encouraged to rage against God
when we feel angry because of how He has treated us! Yes, the psalmist sometimes poured out his
complaint before the Lord, and I’m not suggesting that we deny or suppress our
feelings. But there is a right and wrong
way to let the God of the universe know how we feel! We always need to remember our lowly position
before Him. We are but dust and ashes in
His presence and we should be willing to crawl on our hands and knees. He owes us nothing; we owe Him
everything. He does not owe us; He owns
us as His slaves. As such, we owe Him
obedience, even when His commands seem difficult.
There is no
praise or glory in doing your duty. Duty
is that which is expected of a person. I
bet that if you show up to work on time, your boss does not say, “thank you so
much for being here on time! It’s just
wonderful that you do that day after day!”
You are expected to be at work on time – it’s your duty. You don’t squawk about paying your bills, do
you? You owe that money; you are
expected to pay. The point I’m trying to
make is, we don’t earn brownie points with God for doing what He has commanded
us to do. It’s expected for slaves to do
what the master commands.
We should
view ourselves as God’s slaves who are unworthy of any of His blessings. Just read 17:10, “So you also, when you
have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy
servants; we have only done our duty’.”
Charles Spurgeon says that the Lord here is pouring cold water down our
backs, but it is therapeutic. We need
that dousing to remember our place before Him.
Sometimes we get so puffed up about our years of sacrificial service or
our forgiving spirit or how much we have loved others, that we almost think
that God owes us something. But we have
no claim on God. All that we have, we
have received by grace. We were lost and
on the fast lane to hell when God’s mercy rescued us. He graciously gave us the privilege of serving
Him. Should we really be congratulating
ourselves when we obey His commands?
Nowhere in
the bible are we told to grow in self-esteem, but many times it exhorts us to
grow in humility.
