Metered Faith

A measure of faith…Romans 12:3

In a paragraph dedicated to informing the church how the church is to function are two truths: grace and faith are gifts for service. Here is the answer to an often asked question: do you have enough faith? Or, how deep is your faith, etc. The answer is: deep enough to know God has given me enough faith.

Paul uses the same word in the same context, what we call spiritual gifts, in Ephesians 4: but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, verse 7. Paul uses the same word again later in Ephesians 4 to reveal the end-goal of our gift (our faith): till we all come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, verse 13.

Apparently, everyone is given faith. It takes faith to drive on our highways. Life demands we live by faith. This is true in the physical world and in the spiritual realm. And the righteous shall live by faith, the just shall live by his faith, Habakkuk 2:4 (quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38). 

Since everyone has been given faith, everyone has an equal opportunity to come to God in faith. When they do—when they believe—their faith is rewarded with righteousness; the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

So, the answer to the question, “how much faith do you have?” is enough. Enough because our faith was measured out by God Himself. BTW, the Greek word from which we get ‘measured’ is metron, from which we also get the word ‘meter.’ Our faith has been metered out by our gracious God.