Measure of Faith

But I say to every one of you, through the grace given to me, not to have an over-high opinion of himself, but to have wise thoughts, as God has given to every one a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3 BBE)

Thinking higher of yourself is to buy into the Kingship/Economic modeling of the world. In God's family everyone is of equal value and no one is to lord it over anyone else. To think we are better and more valuable than someone else is to believe they are less valuable than us, and in doing so we are judging both them and ourselves. Judging is a high-risk activity (2:1-5) that always leads to problems and division and really is even abusive in nature. No matter how much evidence we can accumulate to justify our opinion, in comparing ourselves with others we are taking ourselves out of the will of God. We are no longer living in the renewal of our mind; we are no longer proving what the will of God is. We are in fact usurping God's place as judge and furthermore we are going about trying to establish our own righteousness (10:3).

The alternative for this faulty kind of thinking is to think moderately, reasonably, with correct perspective and wisdom about ourselves. That is not to say that we should think only negatively about ourselves and put ourselves down, mistaking shame for humility. Both elevating ourselves above others and denigrating ourselves compared to others are two sides of the same coin of pride. It is thinking within the world's system of value and distracts us from the truth that God wants us to live within.

So how do we go about thinking about ourselves differently than we are used to doing? How can we respond differently when we are attacked with assaults of shame or even flattery? How can we live in a world that only knows and operates within the comparative system and yet not fall under its spell?

I think the answer, as usual, needs to be found within the context and impressed into our hearts, not just our minds, by the Holy Spirit who is given to lead us into all truth. There are important elements surrounding this instruction that must be utilized to be able to live this kind of life.

First of all, right in the very same verse we can see that every person has been given a measure of faith. That is something that could be explored for a great deal of time and holds a lot potential for enlightenment. As I have been learning more and more about what real faith is I am embarrassed at the silly notions of faith that I was taught and assumed for most of my life. But to put it simply, I believe that real faith can only really grow to the extent and directly proportionally to the depth of relationship that I have my Creator.

Faith is not something that can be pumped up or inflated with intense emotional experiences. Faith is not increased by very intense intellectual determination to expel all conflicting ideas or emotions from my mind in order to somehow arrive at a purified, rarefied faith that will finally cause God to come through with what I want. In fact, I am coming to believe that faith cannot be increased by working on it directly at all. I might be wrong on this point, but right now that is how I perceive it.

When the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus did not plainly lay out a formula or a set of exercises for them to do to strengthen their “faith muscles”. (see Luke 17:1-10) When I studied this passage inductively for the first time I was amazed at what emerged from that study. What I saw was not a set of instructions explicitly addressing the disciples question but a description of a very close relationship of dependence, service and implicit trust within a tightly knit group of people. The assumptions held by the people in the parable said almost more than the more obvious activities displayed on the surface. Jesus laid out this story as a means of answering the disciples desire for more faith.

But the good news here in Romans is that absolutely everyone has already been given a piece of faith to start with. So it is a denial of reality for anyone to say they do not have any faith. Jesus pointed out on various occasions people who were faithless (had less faith) and even chided the disciples at different times for having so little faith, but everyone has a measure of faith from which to start. The real issue is what each one of us chooses to do with the faith that we already have been entrusted with.

There are various opinions about the idea of investing faith in order to grow it, much like investing money or seeds into the ground in order to get a larger return. There are elements within these arguments that lead us into false ideas about God and about faith, that is certainly true. At the same time, it seems clear that faith needs to grow and needs certain conditions or choices to stimulate that growth.

As I am thinking about it, it is coming to me that maybe the problems with the investment mentality is not the investment part of the model but the separation of the investing mentality from the importance of our relationship with the object of faith. When we start focusing on faith itself instead of the One worthy of trust, then we begin to put more faith in our faith instead of in a clearer knowledge, both intellectual and heart knowledge, of the real truth about God. This is the nature of a counterfeit and is very common.

Even in worldly circles there is a great deal of stock put in positive thinking, believing in yourself and mental success imaging; utilizing the imagination to create exciting scenarios of success until they become a reality. I am not denying that these kinds of techniques many times have powerful effects on our lives and can produce phenomenal results at times. But it is all to easy to get blinded by the “light” of what we assume is success and faith according to human perspective and thereby fail to see the real nature of true faith in the process.

But whatever true faith really is and looks like, it is a valuable assurance to know from this verse that each of us, somewhere in our hearts already have what we need to start out with. That we need to have much more faith is an understatement at best. But whatever it is, we already have been given the seed with the potential impregnated within it to grow into the mature faith that will secure us firmly to the very heart of the God who loves us and longs to share His life with us for eternity. And it is also true that this true seed can only really flourish and thrive as we choose to position ourselves more and more in the life-giving presence of that same God and surrender control of our lives to His Spirit to be renewed and transformed (transfigured) into His beauty.

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