Note 2 at Lk. 17:5: It is very interesting to note that the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith after He spoke of forgiveness. They had observed all of the wonderful miracles of Jesus and yet that had never inspired them to ask for greater faith. Truly, walking in love and forgiveness with each other takes as much faith as any miracle we will ever believe for.

Note 3 at Lk. 17:5: There are many scriptures that speak of varying degrees of faith (Mt. 6:30; 8:10,26; 14:31; 16:8; 2 Cor. 10:15). However, the scriptures also speak of Jesus increasing in wisdom (Lk. 2:52) which is certainly referring to His physical intellect drawing more and more on the perfect wisdom of God which was already in Him at birth. It is in this way also that we increase in faith.

At salvation, the believer is given the supernatural faith of God. We had to use the very faith of God (not human faith) to believe the gospel (Eph. 2:8). That faith came to us through hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), and once we are born again, it becomes an abiding fruit of the Spirit within us (Gal. 5:22-23).

Every believer is given the same measure of faith at salvation (Rom. 12:3 with 2 Pet. 1:1 and Gal. 2:20) but not all believers use what God has given them. Therefore, it is correct to speak of growing in faith and having great faith or little faith, but it is important to understand that this is speaking of how much faith we use or manifest--not how much faith we were given. All believers were given "the" same measure of faith.

There is a special ministry gift of faith that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:9 but that is different than the individual faith of every believer. Not everyone has this ministry of faith.

As explained in note 3 at Matthew 17:20, p. 211, Jesus' example of the grain of mustard seed in the next verse underscores the truth that our faith is sufficient if we would just use it without the hindrance of unbelief. He then continues on into the parable of the servant serving his master (vv.7-10) to illustrate that our faith is not the problem but rather our use of it. We are using it to serve ourselves instead of our master which is God (see note 4 at Lk. 17:7, below).