Luke 17:1-10 Increase our Faith

 Jesus gives instructions to His disciples. This appears to be another eclectic collection of advice. First of all He talks about stumbling blocks. It is inevitable but those who are stumbling blocks will face metaphorical judgment of being cast into the sea tied to a millstone. But His followers have instructions that if their brother (presumably in the faith) sins, they should be rebuked, and forgiven if they repent. So that they do not become a stumbling block deserving of walking the plank. Matthew 18:15-17 gives a lengthier explanation of this same process. In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter asked a follow up question that Luke did not record, as to how far a follower of Jesus should go in order to reconcile with a sinning brother. The answer then (490 times) is slightly different from Luke 17:4 (seven times a day). Jesus seems to be saying, in effect, it is not a count, it is a matter of forgiving the offending brother if he repents, regardless of how many times it is.

           The second part of this advice is response to the disciples' request that Jesus increase their faith. Whether this is a response to Jesus' previous comments is hard to tell for certain. Perhaps the disciples were saying that they needed more faith to forgive the offending brother as much as Jesus was telling them to. In any event, Jesus says that the path to faith is to have a tiny bit of genuine faith, but a lot of obedience. Hence, mustard-seed sized faith is enough, if it is coupled with the servant's heart described in the parable in verses 6-10. When God tells us to do something, and we actually obey (not that common, in my experience), we shouldn't expect thanks or praise from God; instead we should say that we have done what we ought to have done. We might receive the servant's accolade recorded in Luke 19:17.

          The train of thought Jesus seems to be following is that if we start with a tiny bit of faith, and then obey God when He tells us to do something, then our faith will grow to the point where we can forgive our brother who offends us seven times a day when he repents. There seem to be no limits on what God might ask us to do - clearly forgiving a sinning brother is one of them, or feeding the poor who are lying outside our gate, or handling others' money honestly and with integrity. But these are just examples, not a list.