Month: February 2012

The Nature and Causes of Little Faith

“Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Matthew 6:30

I have often wondered what Jesus meant by “little faith”.  One of my favorite authors, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, dissects this concept with precision, and I would like to share his thoughts.

Upon a mountain, before multitudes, Jesus addressed a universal ailment of mankind: that of worry, of anxious care about the material things in life: food, drink and clothing.  In a sense, this care can be expanded to all that we human beings are concerned about while we live in this world.  But Jesus warned against this mindset, and urged the people not to worry.  He expounded upon this argument by pointing to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air: transitory creatures which our Heavenly Father cares for; but then consider again that human beings are of far greater value because humans are eternal beings, loved by the Father so much more than the ephemeral flowers and birds.  Failure to see this logic is one of the causes of the trouble with anxious care.

The other cause of the trouble of worry is little faith.  Notice that it is not the absence of faith, but the small and inadequate amount of it.  What does Jesus mean by “little faith”, what is its nature, and what are its pitfalls?

In general, this type of faith confines itself only to the rudimentary concept of “salvation of souls”, but does not go beyond that; it is not extended to the everyday affairs of life.  But the Bible presents faith as something to be applied to the whole of life;  hence, little faith is a faith which does not lay hold of all the promises of God. Put another way, a person with little faith believes in the salvation of his soul through Jesus Christ, but does not believe that God will supply his material needs in this world, like food and clothing.  (p. 129)

In particular, little faith means that “we are mastered by our circumstances instead of mastering them”.  What is the cause of this, and why does a person of little faith allow things to overwhelm him?  “The real trouble with ‘little faith’ is that it does not think”.  Faith, according to our Lord’s teaching, is primarily thinking, and the whole trouble with a man of little faith is that he does not think, allowing circumstances to clobber him.    The way to avoid this, according to Jesus, is to think.  The Bible is full of logic; Christian faith is essentially thinking:  Look at the birds, think about them, consider the lilies of the field, draw your deductions.  Most people, however, are overwhelmed and ask the questions, “What is going to happen?  What am I to do?”  This type of reflection is the absence of sensical thought, it is surrender, leading to defeat.  But an adequate Faith is defined by Dr. Lloyd Jones as this:  “It is a man insisting upon thinking when everything seems determined to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual sense.”  Little faith, on the other hand, is a failure to think, one that allows the vicissitudes of life to master one’s thoughts instead of deliberating clearly about circumstances, seeing life steadily and seeing it whole. (p. 130)

An inadequate faith can also be described as a “failure to take scriptural statements at their face value and to believe them utterly”.   It would be the inability to see that everything written in God’s Word pertains to us, neglecting to comprehend that we can lay hold of the promises of God, because they belong to us.

It  is also the failure to realize the implications of salvation, and the position of a Christian as a result of that salvation: that of being a child of our heavenly Father.   As children of God, we ought to “know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe” (Ephesians 1,18-19) .  Recall how Jesus depicted the contrast between the children of God and the grass of the field, which flourish today, but tomorrow are thrown into the oven for baking bread.  “All the purposes and the promises of God are meant for us and designed with respect to us; and the one thing we have to do, in a sense, is just to realize what God has told us about ourselves as His children.” (p.132)

Lastly, “little faith is ultimately due to a failure of applying what we know, and claim to believe, to the circumstances and details of life”.  Jesus once asked his disciples where their faith was when they panicked during a storm at sea.  They had faith, but they did not apply it, and so they worried that they might perish, even though Jesus was with them, though asleep at the stern of the boat.

Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes by saying:  “to be worried is an utter contradiction of our position as children of God: there is no circumstance or condition in this life which should lead a Christian to worry”.  The directive by Jesus  to “take no thought” implies exercising faith, understanding the truth of God’s word, and applying it to every detail of our lives. (p. 134)

* Reference: David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Studies in the Sermon on the Mount”, Martino Publishing, CT, 2011, pp. 125-134.

* Photography: Swan on the Waves by Kaur Lass

Philosophers, Temples and the “Unknown God”

“…the world through wisdom did not know God…” I Corinthians 1:21

Epicurean and Stoic philosophers brought Paul to Areopagus so he can expound on this “new doctrine” that he was preaching to the people of Athens. Along the way, Paul’s spirit was provoked within him when he saw the city teeming with temples, where people were worshipping idols.

From his observations of the city, Paul found a springboard from which to launch the Gospel Message:  “Men of Athens, I perceive in all things that you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD”.  Acts 17:22-23. Paul explained to the people that this Unknown God was in reality the eternal and true God.

“The Unknown God” was the God the Greeks could not quite comprehend.  There were many other gods to worship: Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon, to name a few,  yet  these gods were not sufficient for them.  There was this Other Being that needed to be worshipped, but they could not fathom or characterize this “Unknown God” the way they conceived the other gods.

Here was the paradox of it all.  Athens, the great seat of learning, where minds were directed and trained by reason and logic.  Athens, the mother of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and a host of other magnificent minds, the birthing place of diverse philosophies where reason and logic were to reign supreme, was teeming with temples and idols.

Philosophy failed.  It only brought the Greeks to the place where they felt there was still an emptiness,  something lacking that cannot be explained by past nor prevailing philosophies:  there was this “Unknown God” that they felt they needed to worship. But who is this Being, and what is His nature?

The world through its wisdom cannot know God.

The mind of man is inadequate to know God.  As John Stott remarks, “Man is an insatiably inquisitive creature. His mind is so made that it cannot rest. It is always prying into the unknown. He pursues knowledge with restless energy. When man’s mind begins to concern itself with God, however, it is baffled. It gropes in the dark.”

This is not surprising, according to Stott, because God is infinite, while we are finite creatures. But God took the first step to reveal Himself to us.   Stott portrays the first four words of the Bible, “In the beginning God”, as a key to understanding the Bible as a whole: everything starts with God;  God  takes the first step.

God in His infinite love took the initiative of creation, of bringing forth light out of the darkness: “Let there be light” Genesis 1:3. He took the initiative of revelation, by revealing His Word through the prophets, and ultimately, through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world.  Finally He took the initiative of providing a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, to free us from our sins and to give us everlasting life.  (John Stott, Basic Christianity pp. 11-12)

What is this everlasting life?  In the words of Jesus, it is to know God:  “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. ” John 17:3

It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can know the only true God, to enter into a loving relationship with Him, to know Him as our very own Father.

*** photo: Temple of Poseidon by Chris Kotsiopoulus

Pink Porcelain Cups

Pink Porcelain Cups

I saw your face
devoid of air:
a crumpled raisin,
blue eyes squinting
at the light.

Your first utterance a memory
of joy,
for in the silence of my sorrow,
piercing cries,
abbreviated gasps for air
broke into sobs of song
filling empty cupboards
of my hungry heart.

I see your comely face
after years have formed
from still-life brushstrokes —
you speak,
I understand
as I did then
when you mumbled words
so long ago.

Showers cascade softly
upon delicate petals,
thirsty leaves;
You pour
our favorite tea
into pink porcelain cups.

by  D. G. Vachal © 2012

* photograph : Pink Painting by TC Davis @Flickr Commons

Unbelief’s Heart of Stone

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”  27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”  28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”  John 9:26-29 NIV      

        

A  blind man healed by Jesus was cast out of the temple because he attested to the fact that Jesus healed him. These very words riled the religious leaders:   ” Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind” (John 9:32).   

The Pharisees would not accept the miracle even though he was staring them in their faces with eyes that were blind from birth but now are able to see.  They had hearts of stone, fixed, immovable, unpersuadable; they had hearts of unbelief.

What is unbelief?  Dr. Lloyd-Jones expounds upon it as a power that controls and manipulates men, a state and a condition that leads to wrath.  The Pharisees were so filled with indignation at the testimony of the man who was healed by Jesus that they cast him out.  There were other accounts of this consuming animosity, including one time when the Pharisees were so enraged at Jesus that they took Him to the brow of the hill in order to throw him down the cliff.

Unbelief  is a power based on prejudice.  Here was the undeniable evidence of the miracle healing power of Jesus, but the Pharisees would not acknowledge it.  They came up with reasons, from saying that Jesus was “merely” the son of Joseph the carpenter,  to the accusation  that Jesus healed the blind man on the Sabbath.

It can be argued by persons who reject the message of the Gospel, that it is a matter of intellect; they would say that they cannot believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because their understanding won’t allow them to do so, that they would be committing intellectual suicide if they did.  Not so, says Dr. Lloyd-Jones.  It is not a matter of intellect, it’s a matter of prejudice.  This is his argument:

” If the possession of intellect and understanding and the capacity for reason makes it impossible for men to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, well then I can say that no man of intellect has ever been a Christian. But the fact is of course that some of the mightiest intellects that the world has ever known have been great Christians and saints adorning the life of the church.”

“Christ and the Gospel and the way of salvation that were able to satisfy the intellect of Paul and Augustine, of Luther, Calvin, Knox, Whitfield and a whole lot of other intellectual giants is at least worthy of your careful and serious consideration”.

The other element of unbelief is pride.  What is holding people back from believing the Gospel message is that they are concerned about themselves, their standing and reputation.  It is intellectual pride and fear that the rest of the unbelieving world would call them fanatical, that they have “lost their capacity for reason”.

Pride and prejudice are the pillars of unbelief.  Dr. Lloyd-Jones concludes that unbelief is a tragedy.  It blinds us to God’s most glorious blessings in time and eternity: His gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ Who came into this world to preach the gospel to the poor:  the poor in spirit, the down and out and the broken, the lost whom nobody else could help because they have made such a mess of their lives; He came to bind the broken-hearted, to give them beauty for ashes, to open prison doors, to deliver people from their sins and the many things that ruin people’s lives.

Unbelief makes one hate and revile the Son of God, much like the Pharisees when, face to face with Jesus, they had so much loathing and abhorrence for Him,  that they were blind to His glory and majesty and they rejected Him, accused Him wrongfully, and put Him to death on the cross.

The good news is that hearts of stone can be transformed to hearts of flesh, as in the conversion of the apostle Paul’s stony heart to a heart of love; from breathing out murderous threats against Christ’s followers, to preaching the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.