The Power of a Living Faith
#311 The Power of a Living Faith Luke 17.6
Ever have trouble with resentment? With holding a grudge? I do. And these words spoke powerfully to this spiritual challenge.
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. Luke 17:6
Jesus said these words when his disciples heard the spiritual standard for complete forgiveness in the face of complete failure and sincere repentance. “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4
When the apostles heard this statement they said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
What a powerful spiritual standard, and what a powerful spiritual response to our lack of faith when it comes to letting go of resentment and the spirit of retaliation.
If we have faith like a mustard seed: a living faith has great potential, even when it is little.
A living faith is alive with the union of faith and works. “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:26 “But I say unto you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27-28 A living faith will seek for guidance and leading in how to express its love and stand for holiness in thought, word and action: how to love, how to do good, how to bless, how to pray.
Say to this mulberry tree: Make a declaration in living faith, 4807 sycamore
The mulberry or sycamine/sycamore tree was a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut tree, has wide-spreading branches and affords a delightful shade. Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the underside, and fragrant. The fruit grows in little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. Smith’s Bible Dictionary
This tree is a symbol of deeply rooted, common habits of sin in the form of bitterness, resentment and superiority. The fact that it was a common tree with ‘extensive use’ may testify to the fact that hard heartedness and lack of real love is a common condition. There is a fruit in deep-rooted sin habits of thought and action, but that fruit, though temporarily satisfying leads to spiritual destruction and death. This hard hearted attitude was the subject of Jesus parables in Luke 16.
Be planted in the sea: a symbol of destruction. If you plant a tree in the sea it will die. Jesus refers to this same metaphor in Luke 17:1-2: “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a mill-stone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.” It would be better to have life cut short than to be responsible for leading another to stumble because of Pharisaic attitudes. Matthew 23:15
A living faith believes in the life-power of God and Christ at work in us to overcome sin. A living faith will declare its trust in the uprooting of sin and pray to be led to ACT on the basis of that faith. This living faith has power to uproot even the most deeply rooted sin.
God’s “heredity” within us will always conquer the world outside us. James 5:4a Phillips
This is the [means of] victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. James 5:4b NIV
Ever have trouble with resentment? With holding a grudge? I do. And these words spoke powerfully to this spiritual challenge.
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. Luke 17:6
Jesus said these words when his disciples heard the spiritual standard for complete forgiveness in the face of complete failure and sincere repentance. “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4
When the apostles heard this statement they said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
What a powerful spiritual standard, and what a powerful spiritual response to our lack of faith when it comes to letting go of resentment and the spirit of retaliation.
If we have faith like a mustard seed: a living faith has great potential, even when it is little.
A living faith is alive with the union of faith and works. “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” James 2:26 “But I say unto you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Luke 6:27-28 A living faith will seek for guidance and leading in how to express its love and stand for holiness in thought, word and action: how to love, how to do good, how to bless, how to pray.
Say to this mulberry tree: Make a declaration in living faith, 4807 sycamore
The mulberry or sycamine/sycamore tree was a tree of great importance and very extensive use. It attains the size of a walnut tree, has wide-spreading branches and affords a delightful shade. Its leaves are heart-shaped, downy on the underside, and fragrant. The fruit grows in little sprigs, and in clusters like the grape. Smith’s Bible Dictionary
This tree is a symbol of deeply rooted, common habits of sin in the form of bitterness, resentment and superiority. The fact that it was a common tree with ‘extensive use’ may testify to the fact that hard heartedness and lack of real love is a common condition. There is a fruit in deep-rooted sin habits of thought and action, but that fruit, though temporarily satisfying leads to spiritual destruction and death. This hard hearted attitude was the subject of Jesus parables in Luke 16.
Be planted in the sea: a symbol of destruction. If you plant a tree in the sea it will die. Jesus refers to this same metaphor in Luke 17:1-2: “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a mill-stone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.” It would be better to have life cut short than to be responsible for leading another to stumble because of Pharisaic attitudes. Matthew 23:15
A living faith believes in the life-power of God and Christ at work in us to overcome sin. A living faith will declare its trust in the uprooting of sin and pray to be led to ACT on the basis of that faith. This living faith has power to uproot even the most deeply rooted sin.
God’s “heredity” within us will always conquer the world outside us. James 5:4a Phillips
This is the [means of] victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. James 5:4b NIV
