From first to last our discipleship rests on faith, and our experience of following Christ will ebb and flow depending on the extent to which we have, by the Spirit, cultivated our capacity to trust Him. Jesus often chastised those of little-faith in the Gospels (Matt.6:30; 8:25-26; 14:31-32 etc.). Bunyan seeks to help us understand why!
If we are weak in faith we are ill-prepared for the trials and difficulties of discipleship, and for the battles and temptations that lie between us and holiness. For such, their faith is genuine (unlike Turn-away, so I Jn.2:19) but they are not ‘trained’ in exercising their faith, and it remains weak. Bunyan is treading a fine line here. We are saved not by the strength or quality of our faith, but by the One who is the object of our faith. But the other side of the coin is that as our faith grows and develops we are more able to hear and put into practise what He teaches. Many of His commands require our commitment to certain corollary beliefs. Our not worrying depends on our faith in God’s goodness and provision… our ability to turn the other cheek depends on our faith in His justice and judgement… our ability to love our enemies depends in part on our faith in His love for us. His weakness of faith has meant his inability to walk faithfully after Christ’s teaching and example. He has veered to close to the world, and lingering near Broad-Way Gate, Little-faith fell asleep in Dead-Man’s Lane. And it is at this dangerous intersection with the world that Little-faith - who is travelling alone - lies vulnerable to attack.
The ‘three sturdy rogues’, Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt, are all internal. Little-faith has a faint heart, which is unable to trust the Lord fully. He is thus unable to obey His teaching and is assaulted by an overwhelming sense of Guilt. Although they are not able to rob Little-faith of his certificate or jewels (his salvation, I think, and the riches of Christ, or perhaps the ‘deposit’ of the Spirit, so Eph.1:13-14), they do make off with his ‘spending-money’. There are aspects of his experience of discipleship that are beyond Little-faith because he will not ‘train himself to distinguish between good and evil’. Neither will he submit to the Fatherly discipline that ‘produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’ Heb.5:14 & 12:11). He has lost his spiritual comfort, his assurance and peace of mind. But with what he is left he will complete his journey.
This is the paradox Bunyan is trying to capture. Whilst the robbery did not threaten the final outcome of the journey, it did impact the experience of the journey itself. Little-faith pressed on, but he cuts a sorry figure, travelling hungry, and harassed and hindered by his own pain and grief. One passing comment that reveals Bunyan’s experience as a pastor: ‘I was told that he scattered almost all the rest of the way with nothing but doleful and bitter complaints; telling also to all…where he was robbed and how; how he was wounded, and that he hardly escaped with his life’. This has become the defining moment of Little-faith’s whole pilgrimage, and it is all he can talk about with anyone who will listen. He can’t be taken past it, and he will not allow ‘that relief which could from thence be administered to him’. He has become defined by his failure, rather than by his faith in Christ, who can forgive and restore. He refuses even wait to be helped by Great-grace. In a strange way he becomes comfortable with his victim-hood, and resents anyone who would deny him of it.
Is it any wonder Christian’s patience runs thin..?
Questions to ponder:
How do you train your faith, cultivating it so that it is strong enough to bear the weight of holiness?
