Faith And Duty

Luke 17:5-10

Today’s Gospel reading from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer for this past week has two lessons Jesus taught His disciples.  One lesson being about having more faith, and the other lesson being about our service and duty to the Lord. Let’s take a look at what Jesus has to say about each topic in this Scripture passage.

Jesus had just finished telling His disciples and the crowds of people following Him a series of parables.  Afterwards, His twelve apostles came to Him, asking for an increased faith (vs. 5). That is something that many Christians have prayed for.  We have all desired more faith, especially if we have been praying for a serious matter. Faith is a total dependence on God, and a willingness to do His will.  It is a complete and humble obedience to God’s will, and a readiness to do whatever He calls us to do.

Jesus told us that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, a very small seed, we could do miracles (vs. 6).  Like a tiny seed, a small amount of genuine faith in God will take root in our lives and grow. When a seed is planted, at first its growth is imperceptible.  Then it starts to grow, it spreads, and will produce major results. A tiny seed of faith is enough if it is alive and growing. We do not need more faith to comply with the Lord’s instructions, but rather genuine faith.  It’s not the amount that matters.  Our faith must be based completely on the Lord’s ability, not our own.  God can work in amazing ways through a willing vessel (II Corinthians 4:7).

God does not necessarily grow our faith instantly.  He begins with what little faith we have, and proceeds to grow that.  With each act of believing and obeying we show, God will strengthen our faith.  He will provide occasions for us to believe Him and to respond in obedience. Those occasions the Lord gives us are often what we call “problems”.  Instead of looking at them as problems, we should look at them as opportunities to grow our faith.

The second lesson the Lord Jesus taught us in this Scripture passage is how we respond when we do our service and duty to God (vs. 7-10).  Many of us know some fellow believers who love to brag about what they do for the Lord. They seem so proud of the fact that they serve in this or that ministry.  They love to boast of their long Christian service “resume”. Jesus reminds us here that we are servants. In the days when people had slaves or servants, those slaves or servants weren’t praised for what they did.  That was what they were there for. We should not be singing praises to ourselves when we’ve done nothing praiseworthy. Don’t pat ourselves on the back for doing what we’re supposed to, for obeying God.

Jesus does not want us to grow proud over the things He enables us to accomplish by His Spirit (I Corinthians 9:16).  If we have obeyed God, we have only done our duty, and we should regard it as a privilege. Obedience is not something extra we do.  Obedience to God is our duty.  Jesus isn’t saying that our service to Him is meaningless or useless.  In fact, at the Judgment Seat of Christ believers will be rewarded for their service to God (II Corinthians 5:10).  What Jesus is warning against here is those who want to brag to others about what they feel they are doing in order to try and look super-spiritual in their eyes.

Each of these is an important lesson to learn.  Let’s look for those opportunities that the Lord sends us to grow and strengthen our faith.  And let’s be sure that we don’t waste our time boasting, either to ourselves or others, about our service for the Lord, as it is really our duty as believers to do so.