Jump Start # 70
Luke 17:5 “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”
The plea of the apostles here, I believe, is felt by many who love and walk with the Lord. Faith is the oxygen of our soul. Faith is the foundation of our relationship with the Lord. Without faith, a person cannot be saved. Faith can be shipwrecked as Paul told Timothy.
The setting of this passage is interesting. Jesus was teaching about forgiveness. He said, ‘If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.’ It is here that the apostles asked for more faith.
Could it be that they understood that forgiving someone is very difficult? Forgiveness is to release a debt that someone owes. The debt is forgiven. They owe nothing. To forgive is to offer grace. Forgiveness is not earned, it is a gift. Forgiveness comes with a cost. Often the “forgiver” has been hurt or wounded in some way. It may be financially, emotionally, physically, sexually, mentally, or even spiritually. Forgiveness is not given after the person has made everything right, such as, they have returned what was taken, or they have repaid all debts. In such cases, there is nothing to forgive. They paid the debt. Nothing else is owed. The Biblical concept of forgiveness involves releasing a person of his obligation while he still owes. He hasn’t paid it back. He hasn’t restored things. All he has done is begged for mercy or said that he is sorry. Justice demands taking him to court. Justice demands you pay back every penny. Justice demands that I will have nothing to do with you ever again. Forgiveness releases the justice. There is no need for justice because forgiveness has been offered.
Forgiving is hard! Major hard. It is one of the hardest things you will ever do. Human nature wants us to hold a person under our thumb until they scream for mercy. A little vengeance. A little pain. A little getting back and getting even. Those thoughts race through our minds. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve been mad at a hospital for the treatment of one of my children. I’ve been mad at a teenage driver who smashed his car into one of my kid’s car and put them in ICU for four days. Call the lawyer. Write a threatening letter. Throw eggs at their house. Many unpleasant thoughts like that race through the mind and heart. I’m thankful today that I didn’t do any of those things. Forgiveness. It’s tough. Add to this the words of Paul, “…forgiving each other, JUST AS God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Eph 4:32). How many times have you been forgiven by God? A hundred times? A thousand? More than that? Often for the same things. Often when we have made a real mess of things. Forgive.
Forgiveness is one of the characteristics that is truly Christ like. Many can be benevolent, kind, helpful, without being godly. But to forgive, you must have a heart like Jesus.
It is interesting that Jesus didn’t grant the apostles request. He didn’t increase their faith. In the following verse Jesus tells them if they had the faith of a mustard seed they could move a mulberry tree, but He never said, ’Yes, I’ll give you more faith.’ Jesus can’t do that. Faith is up to us. He gives us the reasons to believe. He shows, He demonstrates, He proves that He is who He said He was. But believing, trusting and accepting is up to us. If God gave us faith, then God would be responsible for those who don’t believe. That’s not how it works. Faith is up to us. Jesus holds out His hand. He asks us to trust Him and take His hand. The decision is ours. We need to increase faith. We do that by knowing God’s word (Rom 10:17). We do that by spending time with God.
The greater the faith, the stronger we become. Your habits, who you hang out with, what you think about, all have an impact upon our faith. We can do things that weaken our faith or increase our faith.
Increase our faith. How is your faith? How are you at forgiving? The two fit together. The larger the faith, the easier it is to forgive.
Roger