How would you know? Our series theme is “Lord, Increase Our Faith.” It’s a nice enough-sounding theme. It sounds churchy, like the kind of thing we should be asking for. It has a nice enough graphic to accompany it and a quality bumper video to promote it. But how would you know if it actually happened? At the end of this month, or several months from now, or several years from now, how would you know if a person’s faith has increased? More to the point, how would you know if your faith increased?
A person will be different. What do we really mean when we say that? We mean they act differently. They don’t do the same things or say the same things they used to say. They are different. Isn’t that how we’d tell if someone’s faith increased?
After all, we don’t have a meter that indicates our faith level. Unlike your phone or another screen that has a little battery icon indicating how much power you have left, your faith has no such indicator. Although, that would be pretty slick if we just had an app or widget on our watch or phone that showed where our faith levels were registering. But we don’t. So how do we know? We see it when behavior changes, when we act differently than we used to, when we don’t do the same things we used to do.
Realize that that is going to cause a little bit of tension in this series. God’s Word stresses over and over that we are not saved by what we do, by our obedience or righteousness, or by our good works. Yet it’s actually what we do, our obedience and righteousness, and our good works that are all metrics by which we gauge faith! So our works don’t save us – faith alone does – but if we want to see growth in faith, it will show itself through the works that we do. And as far as works go, Jesus directs his disciples to work on three of the more challenging things Christians are called to do.
First, while he acknowledges that in a fallen world, there will be circumstances that cause people to sin, he tells his disciples – he tells us – don’t you be the person who causes others to sin. “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves” (v.1-3a). Better to die by drowning than to cause someone else to sin? Apparently, Jesus thinks sin – and leading others into sin – is a huge deal!
But we don’t always see it that way, do we? In fact, we become quite good at dismissing our own sin, and downplaying the impact it may have on others. What’s more, whether directly or indirectly, we can even end up encouraging others with certain sinful behaviors. When the line between an occasional drink and drunkenness becomes so blurred for us that we nonchalantly invite others to join us in that sin, Jesus offers us the option of a millstone instead. When we steal from subscription services by sharing passwords with others and nudging them to do the same, Jesus holds out a millstone to us. When we are raving about violence, gore, or sex on the screen and promoting it to others as something “they have to see,” there is Jesus again with his millstone. If Jesus sees sin as such a serious threat, our eyes of faith should see it that way, too.
And when we see sin as the serious threat that it is, the second challenge Jesus issues to us makes even more sense. “If your brother sins, rebuke him…” (v.3b). If sin is serious – and there’s nothing more serious! – then pointing it out and rebuking it is a life and death matter. So not only do we have to watch out that we don’t cause others to sin, but we also have a responsibility to call out sin and rebuke it.
What makes this so difficult? There are two dangers we want to avoid: relishing the rebuke or refusing to rebuke. We relish the rebuke when we designate ourselves spiritual sleuths, sniffing out every possible sin we can in others, not because we care for their souls and spiritual health, but because we delight in sounding the alarm on their sin. If we enjoy pointing out the sins of others, that’s a pretty strong indicator that we’ve got as much to be concerned about in our own hearts as we do anyone else.
The second danger to avoid is refusing to rebuke. This can happen for any number of reasons. We are overly concerned about coming across as judgmental or hypocritical, so we remain silent. Or, we are concerned that doing so will sour the relationship we have with the other person if we rebuke sin (ignoring the fact that it is actually sin – not the rebuke of it – which damages relationships in the first place!). In either case, failing to lovingly rebuke a brother or sister in Christ is really prioritizing our own reputation over someone else’s salvation.
Jesus has called us to do two challenging things: not causing others to sin and then rebuking the sin we see in others. But wait – there’s more!
The third challenging action Jesus calls us to take is supremely difficult. “If [your brother] repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him” (v.3c-4). Did you see how many conditions Jesus attached to his charge to forgive? Count them all up and let me know how many you get. If your total is zero, you counted correctly. There are none. No conditions. When someone sins against you and apologizes for it, you have one response: forgive them. That means the number of times they sin and repent should end up equal to the number of times you forgive them.
These three responsibilities we have as Christians are hard things! So the disciples’ response comes as no surprise at all. “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” (v.5). That’s a completely understandable response from someone who realizes how tall the task is. It’s a natural request for any Christian who is well aware of the difficulty level of the three things Jesus just urged them to do. It shows something pretty remarkable about those listening to Jesus: they knew their faith had room to grow and they knew Jesus was the one to grant that growth.
The apostles’ response would be an appropriate response for us, too, wouldn’t it? “Lord, what you ask of me is no small thing, and I don’t have it in my to carry it out, so give me what I need to follow through!” But that isn’t always our first response. Maybe sometimes it is. But other times we simply dismiss what Jesus asks of us, if we’re honest. It’s hard, we don’t like hard things or struggling to change into what God calls us to be, so we just don’t do it.
That describes a pretty good chunk of Christians, doesn’t it? They are today right where they were a year ago, three years ago, ten years ago, and frankly, they aren’t that interested at all in the hard work of growing in their faith. But if we have one takeaway from this series, maybe it could be this: healthy things grow, and if we aren’t growing in our faith, what does that say about how healthy we really are?
We might have expected Jesus to respond by leveling up the faith of the apostles right then and there. But instead, Jesus’ response at first appears a bit cryptic. “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’” and it will obey you” (v.6). He doesn’t say, “OK, I’ll do it.” Instead, he brings up a mustard seed and replanting a mulberry tree in the sea.
Wait, what? The disciples just asked for an increase in faith and Jesus responds by talking about a tiny, itty-bitty faith as small as a mustard seed. And who uproots a mulberry tree to send it into the sea? What gives? What is Jesus saying to us as we consider his statement?
Think about it like this. I don’t mind the dad role of getting to play clean-up when kids don’t finish their food. All in all, it’s really a pretty good gig. However, what I don’t have much patience for is whining about getting more when you haven’t finished what you started with. After all, that’s often how the leftovers end up left over anyway. They don’t only happen when a child doesn’t like the food, but also when a child likes it so much that they’re sure they want more piled onto their plate. Then they end up with a full stomach and a good portion of food left on their plate. They request more before they’ve even finished what they had.
That’s the issue Jesus is addressing regarding our faith: why ask for more faith if we haven’t fully tapped into what we’ve already been given? Jesus’ point is that we stop focusing on asking for more faith until we start focusing on putting the faith we already have to work. The issue isn’t that you need more faith, but rather that you aren’t tapping into what even the slightest amount of faith can do.
This all should actually make perfect sense to us, too, shouldn’t it? Good theology emphasizes that it isn’t how much faith a person has that saves her, but rather the object of that faith. So big faith or small, when Jesus Christ is the object of that faith, it’s a saving faith!
That’s why your faith is capable of so much – not because your faith is so great, but because Jesus is! Jesus already secured our salvation. Jesus already fills us with forgiveness. Jesus already perfected the three earlier challenges he tasked us with. Jesus already lived and died and rose. Jesus already did everything.
And Jesus still does everything. It’s still Jesus who does through you whatever you have in mind to do. It’s still Jesus – the object of your faith and the fuel for your faith – who can do magnificent miracles with even a minute, mustard-size faith.
Think of how complex your phone is. Most of us use it for a handful of things, but it is capable of doing far more than most of us will ever use it for! That’s OK for your phone, but does that sound OK for your faith? Your faith – as it is right now – is capable of far more than you are using it for. Yes, it locks in heaven for you, but it can also move mountains in the meantime until you get there!
So let that be the first thing in this series. Whatever you have in mind to do, whatever you’re waiting for a greater faith to accomplish, whatever you think requires a significant spike in some non-existent faith meter before you can proceed… get to it. Do it. Today. Tomorrow. The next day. Don’t wait for your faith to increase. Put the faith you have right now to work right now. Watch God increase your faith as your faith-filled efforts continue to be fueled by your faithful Savior and his almighty Word.