Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Faith on Earth?

Luke 18:8
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, will He find faith on earth?

The verse seems disjointed at the first but this is how it works out in my mind…
Chapter eighteen, verses one through the first half of verse eight have the stated purpose "that men ought always to pray and not to faint." With that purpose in mind the Lord said that his elect ought to cry out day and night and He would avenge them speedily.

It is impossible that the phrase about finding faith on earth is not associated. And it is both an encouragement to pray as well as an indictment against our lack of prayer.

Barnes Notes has this commentary,
"The danger is not that “God” will be unfaithful - he will surely be true to his promises; but the danger is that his elect - his afflicted people - will be discouraged; will not persevere in prayer; will not continue to have confidence in him; and will, under heavy trials, sink into despondency. The sole meaning of this phrase, therefore, is, that “there is more danger that his people would grow weary, than that God would be found unfaithful and fail to avenge his elect.” For this cause Christ spoke the parable, and by the “design” of the parable this passage is to be interpreted."

• Likely none of us invest the time and effort into prayer that we should, electing to expend our resources on activity that yields more immediate and visible result and
• Likely our choice to be active in things other than prayer is a major reason that, when Jesus comes again Christianity will be largely apostate.

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