Sharing Faith to Know Every Good Thing

“…and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.” - Philemon 1:6

Fasting is a time of humbling ourselves before the Lord so that we might behold Him in His glory and satisfy our spiritual hunger instead of our physical one.  In the absence of the richness of food, fasting gives us greater understanding of the richness we have in Christ.  In the midst of fasting, perhaps sharing your faith is not the first thing that comes to mind as a means of greater intimacy with Christ, yet Paul includes this discipline as a means of gaining the “full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.”  There are a number of ways that sharing our faith can provide us with a greater understanding of our riches in Christ, just as fasting can do.

First, by sharing our faith we are providing the living water and bread of heaven to a world that has gorged itself on things that do not satisfy.  In His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), Jesus uses the laborious task of satisfying physical thirst to point to a “spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  Jesus redirected the Samaritan woman to find satisfaction in Him rather than in the sexual immorality that had characterized her life to that point.  In the midst of this episode, John interrupts the narrative to provide a surprising connection between fasting and sharing our faith.  After the disciples return to find Jesus speaking with the Samaritan woman, they urged Him to eat.  Jesus responds that His “food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.” The prominent work on Jesus’ mind at this point is the harvest, which He continues to speak about with great urgency.

Second, by sharing our faith we remind ourselves that the Gospel is the only hope we have of salvation and that the act of fasting can do nothing to absolve us of our sins. Acts of intense devotion such as fasting have the tendency to lead us to rely on works rather than faith in our salvation.  When the tax collector and the publican came before the altar it was the publican who spoke of his fasting twice a day, but it was the tax collector who went away justified (Luke 18:12).  By sharing our faith, we are reminded of our own continuing need for grace despite the apparent maturity of our devotion.
Finally, sharing our faith reminds us of the hope that is in us – a hope that calls us to abstain from temporal blessings that we might focus on the eternal hope that we have in Christ. Paul speaks of the triumphal procession that spreads the knowledge of Him everywhere – the fragrance of death to those who are perishing and life to those being saved (2 Corinthians 2).   We are the beneficiaries of this fragrance of life as we share it with others, and we are reminded of our hope even in our present sufferings and ultimately in eternal life.

It is a common practice during fasting to spend the normal mealtime in developing intimacy with Christ rather than in satisfying hunger.  Perhaps skipping lunch to share your faith might also be helpful in understanding the riches we have in Christ.  

Justin Mills