Today I want to talk about the type of faith that is pitiable. If you don’t understand what I mean by the word, “pitiable”, I mean it’s so pathetic looking that you feel sorry for it. I’m not talking about faith that so desparately longs for God to rescue in dire situations. I’m not even talking about faith that continues to hope against all odds, despite knowing the outcome. I want to say that a pitiable faith is something far worse than believing in something or someone when it seems impausible. In fact, a pitiable faith is a faith that does not dare to stretch further than what can be seen and touched tangibly. That is pitiable because that type of “faith” relies on short term goals and has no long term expectations. See, the most pathetic type of faith, is a faith that expects selfishly in the now and present without any long term view of faith.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:19 ESV)

Though Paul would not deny that in the spiritual sense Christians enjoy a better present life than non-Christians, this verse emphasizes the greatness of what God has promised for the life to come. A pitiable faith would never consider the next life. A new life that is promised in faith, so as to empower us through times when our faith grows weary and thin in this life, is roboust and does not fade. We may look pitiable clinging to our faith in times when our faith seems to wane, but in reality our hope of salvation is so glorious that if we were still in our sins and lost, we would have experienced the greatest and cruelest of all deceptions– a truly pitiable faith with no hope for something better. Faith should not be pitiable. Faith should not be something limited to just things in this life and hope for temporal things here and now. Faith should look forward to hope in and beyond our lives and stretch into the eternity promised through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Just as Jesus, in faith, gave his life for faithless people; we too need to live in a faith that may look pitiable, but in fact, resonates stronger and brighter because it sees and reaches beyond what can be seen and touched. Our faith is so much more than this life.