Five times in the Word Jesus chided His disciples by describing them as “those with little faith.” The reasons that He said this to them can be categorized as three emotions- doubt, fear, and human reason. In this dissertation I will not discuss how these three human emotions lead to doubt. Rather, I would like to point out what Jesus said about the disciples. He said that they were “those of little faith.”
In Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6, Jesus said to the disciples that if they had faith the size of a mustard seed that they could basically do anything. It is therefore my assessment that each time Jesus called the disciples “those of little faith” that He was reminding them that they each had mustard seed size faith and since they did, they could accomplish anything. This is why He was correcting them. They doubted and they had enough faith to manifest whatever it was they were in doubt about.
God does not speak arbitrarily and thus it would not make sense for Him to ask the disciples why they doubted if He meant it rhetorically since He knew the reason they doubted would be that they had little faith!
This was snot rhetoric out of the mouth of Jesus… it was encouragement. He was reminding them who they were. He could have said: “Why did you doubt oh you of mustard seed sized faith”?
The Bible will define itself and so it is imperative that we utilize it as our ultimate resource for what the Word of God means and how we should apply it to our lives. The Lord says to you, as He said to them- you are those of little faith- and that is all you need!
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