How Jesus Helped His Disciples Increase Their Faith

Meditation on Luke 17:5-10

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
6 And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a mustard
seed, you would say to this mulberry tree,

    'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea';

and it would obey you.

7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending
sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the
field,

    'Come immediately and sit down to eat'?

8 "But will he not say to him,

    'Prepare something for me to eat,
     and properly clothe yourself
     and serve me while I eat and drink;
     and afterward you may eat and drink'?

9 "He does not thank the slave because he did the
things which were commanded, does he?

10 "So you too, when you do all the things which are
commanded you, say,

    'We are unworthy slaves;
     we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

In Luke 17:5 the apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.

How does Jesus help them? In two ways, both of which
are by telling them truth. So even in the way he
responds he shows us that faith comes by hearing.
Knowing certain things should increase our faith.

1. First, he strengthens our faith by telling us in
verse 6 that the crucial issue in accomplishing great
things to advance the kingdom of God is not the
quantity of our faith, but the power of God.

He says,

    "If you had faith like a mustard seed,
     you would say to this mulberry tree,

       'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea';

     and it would obey you."

By referring to the tiny mustard seed after being
asked about increased faith, he deflects attention
away from the quantity of faith to the object of
faith.

God moves mulberry trees. And it does not depend
decisively on the quantity of our faith, but on his
power and wisdom and love.

In knowing this we are helped not to worry about our
faith and are inspired to trust God's free initiative
and power.

2. Second, he helps their faith grow by telling them
in verses 7-10 that when they have done all they are
commanded to do, they are still radically dependent on
grace.

Jesus gives an illustration. You might want to read it
again in verses 7-10. The gist of it is that the owner
of a slave does not become a debtor to the slave no
matter how much work the slave does.

The meaning is that God is never our debtor.

Verse 10 sums it up:

    "So you too,
     when you do all the things which are commanded you, say,

       'We are unworthy slaves;
        we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

We are always his debtor.

And we will never be able to pay this debt,
nor are we ever meant to.

We will always be dependent on grace.

We will never work our way up out of debt to a place
where God is in our debt.

    "Who has ever given a gift to him that he should be repaid?"
    (Romans 11:35).

When it says in verse 9 that the owner does not
"thank" the slave, the idiom for "thank" is
provocative. I think the idea is that "thanks" is a
response to grace. The reason the owner does not thank
the slave is that the servant is not giving the owner
more than what the owner deserves. He is not treating
the owner with grace. Grace is being treated better
than you deserve.

So it is with us in relation to God. We never treat
God with grace. We never give him more than he
deserves. Which means that he never owes us
thanks.

God never says "Thank you" to us. Instead he is always
giving us more than what we deserve and we are always
owing him thanks.

So the lesson for us is that when we have done all we
should do - when we have solved all our pastoral care
problems and fixed the attitudes of all our people and
mobilized the most missions and loved the poor and
saved marriages and reared godly children and
boldly proclaimed Christ - God owes us no thanks.
Instead we will at that moment relate to him as
debtors to grace just as we do now.

This is a great encouragement to faith.

Why?

Because it means that God is just as free to bless us
before we get our act together as he is after.

Since we are "unworthy" slaves before we have done
what we should, and "unworthy" slaves afterwards as
well, it is only grace that would prompt God to help
us. Therefore he is free to help us before and after.
This is a great incentive to trust him for help when
we feel like our act is not together.

So two things increase our faith:

1) that God himself and not the quantity of our faith
is the decisive factor in flinging mulberry trees out
of the way;

and 2) free grace is decisive in how God treats us
before and after we have done all we ought to do. We
never move beyond the need for grace.

Therefore let us trust God for great things in our
little faith, and let us not be paralyzed by what is
left to be done in our lives and in our church.

Pastor John Piper
Bethlehem Baptist Church
www.desiringGOD.org