Luke 17: 1-10
Four Priorities in Biblical Spirituality

by Gary DeLashmutt

Introduction

At first glance, this passage seems to be an unconnected collection of Jesus’s sayings. Upon closer observation, they are part of his continued training of his disciples. They will be the human leaders of his church after he is ascended, so he wants them to be crystal-clear on his spiritual priorities. Otherwise, they would tend to perpetuate the spiritual priorities of their culture . . .

This passage reveals four such priorities, and they are important for us today. We live in a culture that is now interested in spirituality, but profoundly confused about what true spirituality looks like. Consider how different each of these priorities is from what we see in current American spirituality . . .

1: Spiritual Truth

Read 17:1-3a. This is obviously a warning against certain kinds of people, along with a declaration that God will judge such people. The NIV is somewhat misleading (“cause to sin”)—Jesus is not talking about people who urge to ditch in line or look at a porn magazine. He is talking about something far more serious. Skandalon means to set a snare and refers here to false teachers and spiritual deception.

What’s the priority here? That spiritual truth is an important—in fact, a life and death—issue. This passage contains two titanic implications for us today.

We can understand and substantiate spiritual truth sufficiently to recognize spiritual falsehood. Jesus’s warning to “be on your guard” presupposes that there is such a thing as true information about God, our spiritual dilemma, and God’s solution to that dilemma. God has revealed this truth through the Old Testament and himself, and he has provided sufficient evidence that it is the truth because he loves us.
This means that the spiritual relativism of our culture is a lie. It is not true that we have only individual and social constructions of God because God has revealed himself to be a certain way. It is not true that all religions are equally valid because they contradict each other in very basic ways, and because God has revealed the one true way to himself.
We should be intolerant of spiritual falsehood because it is harmful to those who follow it. If this is not true, then why does God say he will judge those who propagate spiritual falsehood?
How would you respond to a QUACK DOCTOR (explain)? People come to him in good faith and pay good money to receive his treatment—and then get worse and even die. Shouldn’t he be put out of business?
What about those who administer false spiritual treatment? Read Matt. 23:13-15. People come to them in good faith—and have their souls damaged and even killed! Shouldn’t they be put out of business? Jesus says this is not our job, but he declares that God will surely do this.
QUALIFY: “Intolerance” here does not mean that we should hate those who disagree or seek governmental restrictions on their freedom of religion. It means that we refuse to affirm that all religious beliefs are equally valid.

Spiritual relativism is a convenient excuse not to seek for the truth, but it is deadly. God has revealed the truth, and you are responsible to find it.

2: Community

Read 17:3b-4. Here is a second priority for biblical spirituality—that it should be pursued in the context of community with other Christians. We cannot progress beyond a primitive level in spiritual maturity unless we are willing to get involved with other Christians.

American spirituality tends to be highly individualistic because American culture is highly individualistic. We have a heritage, which rightly values individual freedom and affirms the significance of each individual (individuality). But American individualism—which emphasizes individual rights and freedoms to exclusion of responsibility to others—is destroying our families and communities. Spiritual relativism has exacerbated the problem: Truth is not the same for everyone so we can pursue it together; it is different for everyone so we must pursue it privately.

What kind of involvement? There are many elements of Christian community, but Jesus emphasizes two in this passage.

“If your brother sins, rebuke him.” We are a community under truth. We all agree that God’s Word defines right and wrong, so we have a basis for moral correction. We also recognize our vulnerability to deception and rebellion—so we agree to both give and receive moral correction from one another as one of our responsibilities in love. This is one of the most searching tests of our love for one another—are we willing to wade in there and risk conflict and rejection for the sake of our Christian friends?
“If your brother repents, forgive him.” We are a community under grace. God has forgiven us at great cost when we richly deserved his judgment. Therefore, we have an obligation to forgive those who sin against us (Eph. 4:32). It is the height of spiritual hypocrisy for Christians to want God to relate to them with forgiveness, and then turn around and reserve the right to make others pay through the nose!

CHRISTIANS: If you want to grow spiritually, you have to be involved with other Christians. Are you involved enough with other Christians that you are both receiving and giving correction—or is this a foreign and distasteful concept to you? Are you involved enough that you are both receiving and extending forgiveness—or is this a bizarre idea? If not, you are missing out! This is why we are a home group-based church . . .

3: Faith

Read 17:5. The disciples rightly saw this willingness to forgive as a tall order! So they asked Jesus to make their faith bigger. His response is frequently misunderstood (read 17:6).

Jesus isn’t berating them for the smallness of their faith—rather, he is encouraging them. They don’t need to have huge faith, because even a little faith can bring tremendous results. (This is the point—not that they should be casting trees into the sea.) This is because when it comes to faith, what matters most is not the size of your faith, but its object.

And of course the object should be God and his purpose as revealed through his Word. In the parallel passage, Jesus says “have faith in God,” and the context here the ability to forgive those who have repeatedly sinned against you. Therefore, this passage cannot be used to support the idea that your faith can tell God what to do (HEALTH & WEALTH), or create reality (NEW AGE). Faith has no power to create anything, much less order God around (OCCULTIC). It is simply the choice to depend on God to do his will. That is why you need to learn God’s Word . . .

This should be encouraging if you are like me. I know that my faith is small, weak, and often riddled by doubt and contradictory feelings. When I focus on the strength of my faith, I go into a downward spiral. But Jesus says, “Don’t focus on the size of your faith. Focus instead on how great God is and what he has promised in his Word. If you do this, God will fulfill his promises and your faith will gradually grow.”

GOSPEL: You may feel you have to be completely free of all doubts about Christianity in order to come to Christ. If that were the case, no one would ever be able to be a Christian. No, all you need is enough faith to call out to Jesus, admit you need to be forgiven, and ask him to come into your heart—and you will see results all out of proportion to your faith! God will forever remove the guilt of your sins, guarantee your eternal life with him, and give you his Holy Spirit so you can experience his love and guidance. I said, “If you’re there . . . “ and he responded this way.
CHRISTIANS: If you are like me, you have areas of your life that you feel can never be changed (EXAMPLES: anger; undisciplined; relational passivity; negativity; fear of conflict). I think, “Others can be changed, but I cannot. Other areas of my life can be changed, but not this one.” It doesn’t do any good to berate myself for how goofed up I am or how weak my faith is. Rather, I need to take what little faith I have and say to God, “In spite of my contradictory feelings and my track-record of failure in this area, your Word says you are willing and able to change me. I choose to believe you, and I am willing to cooperate with the steps you show me to take.” That is enough. If I continue to present myself to God this way, he will gradually change me over time.

4: Humility

Let’s look at one more important feature of biblical spirituality. Read 17:7-10. Jesus is not defending slavery, nor is he likening a relationship with God in a general way to that of a slave and master. The Bible usually uses the parent-child relationship to emphasize the personal and loving way in which he deals with us. Paul calls himself Christ’s bond-servant, which referred to a slave who was redeemed by his master, but chose out of love to stay on as a slave.

Rather, he is drawing attention to an attitude within that social institution that is key in our dealings with God—the humility to recognize that God has a fundamentally higher status than we do. In a culture which tends to portray God as friend, therapist, butler, etc., this corrective is desperately needed. Jesus highlights two implications of this: