“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much”

Luke 16:1-17 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. ² And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. ⁹ And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ¹³ No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ¹⁷ But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” Jesus spoke these words in the context of being wise in financial matters. Money and wealth are not evil. It is as Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:10, the love of money that is the root of all sorts of evil.     For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.    Jesus says: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”   God quite often blesses those He blesses with an abundance of wealth. He would not give something which was evil. It is as in most things a question of the heart. Do we serve money or do we with whatever amount of money and wealth we have been given serve God? 

 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much”  This same principle also applies in other areas of faithfulness in our lives. Often we wonder why we do not see great miracles, why our prayers for healing, provision and deliverance are not answered. Could it be that we are not faithful in very little things? Jesus says: “if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20) So it does not require great faith to accomplish great things, it requires faith in the one who is great. We don’t really need a greater faith, we need a greater faithfulness. We need to trust God and believe Him for the very little things so that our faithfulness and our trust increases for the bigger things. We need to understand the magnitude of the blessing and ability we have in Christ. Jesus says:  “ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷ that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”  The Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, abides with us and in us. This is the same Spirit who was present with God at the creation of the world. Genesis 1: 2-3 says: the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. ³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.   God the Father was not moving, the Spirit was moving. God spoke and the Spirit moved and was the creative power behind God’s word. That same power, the Spirit of God, now dwells in each follower of Christ.

Just before Jesus spoke of the promise of the Spirit, the promise that the Holy Spirit of God would indeed abide with us and be in us, Jesus said:   Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. (John 14: 12-14) We have the ability to do the works that Jesus did and greater works because of the Holy Spirit. We don’t need great faith, we need great faithfulness. We need to trust and yield to God the Father, Jesus our Lord and the Holy Spirit in all that we do, growing in faithfulness, trusting in the little things so that our faithfulness is increased. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have not changed. It is our faithfulness which must change if we are to do the things Jesus did.

There is another element of our faithfulness though, in John 14: 15, Jesus says:  “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  In today’s text He says:  “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ¹⁷ But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.     There are many today who want to proclaim the gospel, the good news of the kingdom, to declare and walk in the promise, the power and the authority of the kingdom. Jesus Himself said and preached that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but He says: “everyone is forcing his way into it”  We cannot force our way into the kingdom. Along with faithfulness to trust and yield to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, to believe in the greatness and power available to us, we also need faithfulness in our obedience to Him and His word.  We cannot walk in the kingdom without abiding in Him. Light does not abide in darkness, light dispels darkness. 1 John 1:5-7 says: This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.     Our increasing faithfulness to Him is both to trust and obey. “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.”

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for the power of the cross and the blood of Christ which cleanses me from sin. I pray that my faithfulness would indeed increase, my faithfulness both to trust and obey. Abide in me as I abide in You and may Your light dispel any darkness within me so that I may walk in the light and in the fullness of the power and authority of Your kingdom.   Amen.