“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”  The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”

Luke 17:3 – 5

These later teachings of Jesus are compelling.  As I see it, the children of God are being sinned against all the time!  That is not a surprise because they have decided to place their lives in God’s hands, not the world’s. This means they live in a different “world” from those who do not believe.  All believers can do is to rebuke the sinners even though that seems like an endless task that we are called to do again and again.

I note that the reason for the rebuke is to encourage people to repent, not to exonerate us or condemn them!   We know where we are with God, they have no idea.  That does not mean that we just clam up.  It means being honest about to whom we belong.

Jesus sums it up with this simple statement, “Increase our faith.”  We do not have any responsibility for the faith of others, but we are responsible, before God, to have faith where non-believers are simply confused and helpless.

So today, as May closes, my plea is that I might be faithful to my Jesus, even if that looks futile!  He is able!