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<2023.05> You Have Been Faithful in a Very Little

You Have Been Faithful 
in a Very Little
Special Lecture, California
September 14th, 2008
The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’  Luke 19:16-17
What Is Meant by a Very Little
When I open my Bible to put my thoughts in order before God, I wonder if, in all the time that has been given to me, I have ever had the faith the Bible talks about when it says, “Love . . . believes all things” (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-7). I am not talking about the faith that came to me when God saved my spirit through Jesus. I am talking about the faith that is needed when I have had to face the many matters that I have encountered in my life after my spirit was saved. Among them there is not only a matter for the spirit, but also on many occasions a matter related to the flesh.
But then as I was reading the Bible I came across a passage that really struck me.
The first came before him, saying, “Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.” And he said to him, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.”  Luke 19:16-17
 When we are studying the Bible, on the basis of the words, “for the ear tests words as the palate tastes food” (Job 34:3), we analyse the words one by one, and accept what they are saying. We study the Bible making every effort to distinguish clearly the words that are addressed to Gentiles, those addressed to Jews, those addressed to the church, those that were give to the many people who lived in Old Testament times, and those that have been given to people of later generations.
Jesus spoke these words in Luke chapter 19 after he had entered the house of a man by the name of Zacchaeus and was addressing a crowd of people who thought that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. At that time, He told the parable of the minas in which “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return” (verse 12). A similar story is to be found in the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25. But the parable of the talents is slightly different from the parable of the minas. At the end of the parable in Matthew’s Gospel, the King said, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (verse 40), and, “as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (verse 45). 
Luke’s Gospel is directly related to Christians living in the age of the church, and in this parable Jesus said, “Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities” (19:17). This is what will happen when all the Christians come to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. By Christians, I mean the people who have been born again through the words of the Bible during the age of the church since the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down; in other words, not the people who lived in Old Testament times, or the people who will live during the time of the tribulation, but those Christians who have experienced being born again during the age of the church, the age of word of grace. 
In what way do we believe the words, “Because you have been faithful in a very little”? Don’t you just only read it and then continue to the next verse? It is good for us to consider this verse deeply.
The Bible was completed about two thousand years ago. The process of recording the Bible took place over a period of about 1,500 years, beginning about 3,500 years ago. The Old Testament begins with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). It then tells us about the sin of Adam and Eve, and we have the prophecy about the Seed of the woman; various nations appeared in the world in the process of preparing for the birth of the Seed of the woman;  and God chose one of these nations in particular. In order to choose that one nation, God called one man, and that man was Abraham. Then the book of the Acts of the Apostles ends with the apostle Paul going to Rome to stand before Caesar and remaining there. This is the content from a historical point of view.
Through the writings of the many prophets in Old Testament times and the book of Revelation, we become curious about the events that will happen in the future and the many events that will occur during the tribulation. We discuss these events together, and try to imagine what it will be like. This is how we study and become familiar with the Bible. The Bible covers a vast period of time, including both past and future from the time in which we are now living, so it is very difficult for us to find passages in the Bible of which we can say with certainty, “These words are talking about events that are to happen precisely in the time in which we are living.” Nevertheless, if we read the Bible very carefully, we can see that people living in each age have had the same thoughts and experienced the same confusion that we ourselves have.
Even though the Israelites in Old Testament times knew the content of the Scriptures, they listened to the words of false prophets and persecuted the prophets who were proclaiming God’s word, rejecting the words they proclaimed. It was not that they did not have the words of the Scriptures; the Bible was being recorded at that time. Even so, this nation rejected God’s word, and kept acting contrary to God’s plan. We read about all of this in the Bible.
This is probably similar to the attitude to the Bible that many people will have at the time of the tribulation. In the Bible, we read about those who will be clothed in white at the time of the tribulation and of the 144,000 people from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. When the time actually comes for the tribulation, I wonder how many people will accept this as being what is written in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and think, “That is the age in which I am now living.”
In that case, what about the point in time in which we are now living? The Bible is the living Word of God, but the question is, how should we understand the words in Luke chapter 19 in our present age? In verse 17 it says, “Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” Does it say, “because you are faithful in a very little,” or “because you have been faithful in a very little”? It says clearly, “because you have been faithful in a very little.” We need to think of this as a matter that is related to us who are living at the present time. Even though we actually read verses like this with our own eyes, there are not many people who think about what God is communicating through the Bible when He talks of “a very little.” This is a problem.
Since the Bible says, “as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40), and, “seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13), we think this means we need to humbly offer a glass of water to someone, or be faithful in something even though it may be bothersome to us, or that we need to do the work that has been entrusted to us. All of this is definitely good.
But let’s think for a moment. What is it that will please God? What kind of life does a Christian need to live to give God endless joy? There are many times when we focus on one task at the expense of another. We close the door to our hearts thinking that the other task is not our work and someone else will do it. It is not, of course, a good idea to meddle in a task with which someone else has been entrusted, but while we are living our lives in the midst of fellowship, we need to be acutely aware, as we read the Bible, of just exactly what is meant by “a very little.”
What is actually meant by “a very little”? Is it a matter of expressing your humility? It is, of course, better not to reveal your humility than to reveal it. And by far the best kind of humility stems from a sincere heart. 
If you read the Bible carefully, you will find that there are various passages in which “a very little” is defined. When the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter
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