Written ~ 07-22-23
Luke 17:1-6
“One day Jesus said to His disciples, “There will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting! It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin. So watch yourselves!” “If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” The apostles said to the LORD, “Show us how to increase Our faith.” The LORD answered,” If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘may you be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you!”
In just a few verses, Jesus packs in several morsels of truth and instruction.
Let’s take a couple verses at a time…
Verses 17:1-3a: In these verses Jesus is telling His disciples the probability of being tempted to do wrong. Sin comes at us in so many different ways – the enemy can be sneaky in his tactics; we know to look out for obvious temptations and to avoid them. But in these verses Jesus is talking about another person tempting another believer to sin. The one doing the tempting could be one of your fellow believers. Jesus makes it very clear that the one doing the tempting will suffer great consequence. He says great is the sorrow for the person who “causes one of these little ones to fall into sin.” When I read the words “little ones”, my first thought was it could be children Jesus is talking about, but I also think it could be talking about new believers, “baby Christians.” You don’t want to be the person who causes a child or a newborn Christian to stumble and fall into sin.
So, we all need to take special care – examine ourselves, see what our outward lives, our words, our actions are saying to the new believer and how all those things are affecting the children we have in our care. Jesus says in the first part of verse 3, “So watch yourselves!” In the Message (MSG) it says, “Be alert!” In the Amplified (AMP) it says, “Pay attention and always be on guard.”
If something we are doing in our daily lives – our words, our attitudes, our actions – have the potential to cause another believer to stumble and fall into sin or is teaching a child it is ok to behave in that way even if you’re a Christian…. Oh the “sorrow that awaits.”
Pay attention to your actions- pay closer attention to the words coming out of your mouths. Be on guard. Do not be the person to “stumble” a fellow believer or a child.
Verses 17:3b-4: These two verses are tough- really tough, especially when you’ve just had enough!
“If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, FORGIVE. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.”
In the Message (MSG) these verses say it this way:
“If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again”, “FORGIVE HIM.”
Whew, yikes, I can just see some of us cringing because the actions of some people around us we find to be very difficult to forgive. But Jesus is very clear in these verses that we must forgive those who are doing wrong and who are doing wrong personally to us. I believe forgiveness is a supernatural thing – any of us can say “I forgive you,” but there needs to be a complete wiping away of the offense – it’s not to be rehashed. I truly think we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to take the forgiveness we are giving and ask the Holy Spirit to go one step further and remove it from our memory.
It’s what Jesus did on the cross – His action was a complete wiping away of sin. And when forgiveness is sought after it is forgotten – clean slate – not to be brought up again and again. That’s why Jesus says if a friend wrongs you seven times, forgive seven times, if we have truly forgiven that person each time, they are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean. Now does that mean on the eighth time we can stop forgiving?
Absolutely NOT. Our forgiveness is not dependent on how many times someone wrongs us. If that were the case – if there was a limit, then all of us believers would be doomed! If Jesus were to say, “Oh no! That person just sinned one too many times, they no longer get to go to heaven.” No. Our example is Jesus, our strength to forgive completely comes from Jesus.
Now… if you’re the person causing the wrong to a friend and repeating the offense over and over again.
Well, STOP IT!!
True repentance needs to be sought after and true reversal from those actions needs to be gained. You shouldn’t be asking for forgiveness for the same thing over and over again if true repentance has been sought after.
Verses 17:5-6: These verses seem to come out of left field… we’ve been talking about temptation, sin, repentance, forgiveness… Now all of a sudden the apostles are asking how to increase their faith.
“The apostles said to the LORD, “Show us how to increase our faith.”
In the Message (MSG) it says, “Give us more faith.” Then, also in the Message (MSG) it shows the response from Jesus as this…
“You don’t need more faith. There is no ‘MORE’ or ‘LESS’ in faith…”
So instead of giving us a solution to gaining more faith or increasing faith – We already have exactly what we need! You either have it or you don’t.
I’ve looked up the word faith before, but here’s a refresher:
FAITH:
- An allegiance to duty or a person: loyalty
- Sincerity of intentions
- Belief and trust in and loyalty to God
- Firm belief in something for which there is no proof
- Complete trust
- Something that is believed especially with strong conviction
- Without question
Verse 17:6 says,
“The LORD answered, “If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed (other versions also say poppy seed), you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May you be uprooted and be planted in the sea’, and it would obey you!”
By this response from Jesus, we all have the right amount of faith. But I believe we are the ones who limit what we can do with our faith. So much doubt in the impossible clouds our ability to be firm in our faith. It’s part of our walking in the will of God. He has a purpose for our lives and with the faith we have in believing God knows what He is doing – we have His unlimited power at our fingertips. But because we put the limitations on God, we don’t see everything God can do.
Matthew 14:28-31 says,
“Then Peter called to Him, “LORD if it’s really you tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So, Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me LORD!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him… “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt Me?”
It’s not that Peter did not have faith in the LORD, he definitely did, he just doubted, for even a brief moment and began to sink into his fear.
We have temptations all around us to sin- we have the ability through Christ to forgive – we can achieve true repentance – we have the faith – the right amount of faith to do marvelous things for the LORD!
We can overcome, we can demolish doubt.
WE CAN FORGIVE.
Let’s work hard to accomplish the purpose God has for our lives as believers!
LIVE IN VICTORY!
There is either CAN or CANNOT – there is NO TRY
~AMEN!!!!~