Lk 17:7-10 If you had a slave who had been out in the fields working all day, would you invite him to dine with you at day’s end? Of course not. You would instruct him to prepare your meal, make himself presentable, and serve you at table until you are satisfied. Only then would you dismiss him to his own dinner. Neither would you give him thanks or praise for doing as his job. You, then, when you have done what is commanded of you, think not that you merit the praise of heaven. There is no merit in your obedience. You have only done as you ought.
Thematic Relevance:
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Jesus is our Master. |
Doctrinal Relevance:
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Observance and obedience of God’s commands is of no merit toward salvation. Observance and obedience of God’s commands is our job, our expected duty. We are slaves to King Jesus. |
Moral Relevance:
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Here is the antidote to the attitude that thinks, “I deserve better.” Here is the antidote to the prosperity nonsense. You have earned nothing. There is no point in clamoring after recognition or payment for doing what heaven instructs you to do. You, who have been purchased out of your slavery to sin have been made a slave to the King of Righteousness. You are required to heed His instruction and to do so as it is heeded in heaven: without question and without delay. |
Doxology: |
Praise God that He provides us with this cure for pride. Yes, we are sons of the household. Yes, we are friends to the King of kings. But, we are slaves, totally submitted to the will of God. We are slaves most willing, but we are slaves. We work not for reward, but for joy. We seek to please God because He is worthy to be pleased. And, He is pleased when we find our joy in Him. |
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It is quite tempting to take this passage as an opportunity to harp on the errors of the whole prosperity gospel. Truly, that false movement deserves to be decried and disproved at every opportunity. However, in these times of study, I must needs recall that the purpose is to address the mote in my own eye, not the sins of the world at large. So, I will focus instead on such errors as I am inclined to suffer from in my own pursuits. Here, I find this to be one of the strongest correctives I have yet read, although it is hardly a lone voice in Scripture, as we shall see.
So, then, let me begin with the ending, the key verse of this passage. Here, the instruction is to consider that, “we are unworthy slaves.” One could push that harder, and declare, “we are worthless slaves”, for that is how the word really translates. But, there is another aspect of the term that I think deserves attention. Let us say it this way, “We have no merit.” What we have done is undeserving of reward, undeserving even of comment. We have but done our duty, no more no less.
That’s all well and good, you might say. I, too, am a Protestant, and understand that we don’t attain to salvation based on our works and efforts. I, too, subscribe heartily to the truth that it is solely by God’s grace that I am saved. And yet. In spite of knowing this, there is that constant pressure in me. It is not so much a pressure to earn my salvation, for I know that’s not right. Yet, there is great pressure to be recognized, to be rewarded. That’s the real issue. However much we may understand that it’s all by God’s power and none by our own, we find it impossible to live as if we believed it. I use the ‘we’ here, because I find it utterly unbelievable that I am alone in suffering from this nonsense.
It’s the ever-present issue of pride. That’s the thing that has to be beat down over and over and over again. However much I understand that my works have no merit, I still want them to be treated as if they were of great merit. I’m still put out if there’s no recognition. I’m still inclined to view things as if God, or at least this particular local bit of His kingdom, couldn’t possibly do without me. I’m still inclined to think that the whole thing would fall apart if not for me, that I am the sole bastion against heinous error.
What was Pastor saying about Elijah a few weeks back? Oh, God! Nobody cares but me. Nobody remembers You but me. I’m all alone in trying to do as You would have it done. Everybody else is chasing idols, but not me. And all the while, I’m so caught up in myself (cleverly disguised as concern for God’s domain) that I don’t recognize the thousands of others who are in the same place I am. I don’t see the thousands of others doing their own thankless tasks, and doubtless facing the same mental battles because they have been thankless.
But friend! Why are you looking for thanks if you know your doings have no merit? Is that why you do them? Are you still expecting pay? Are you still counting on the praise and respect of your fellow believer? Why? They are of no more worth than your deeds. They are not here to praise you. They are here to praise God! And, you have not been placed here in order to garner honor to yourself, but to honor God. If, then, I am to keep laboring, let it be a labor for my God and king, and let all thought of reward be cast from me, whether I am inclined to think of that reward in terms of recognition from man, or whether I am inclined to think of that reward in terms of a life of greater ease. No! That’s not what it’s about.
Do I seek honor? Well, consider this: I am a slave. Let me not seek to make that position sound loftier than it is. Forget softening it to being a bond-servant. No! I am a slave. I must needs recall myself to my true state. I am given wholly to another’s will. That is what it means to be a slave. Now, this hardly deprives me of cause for joy. You see, in earlier years, I was a slave to sin, as Paul so forcefully reminds me. I was no more in control of my actions then than I am now. As a slave to sin, I was given wholly to sin’s will, or to the will of sin’s author. But, One came and paid the price of my release from that hard master. No, He did not purchase my freedom, turning me out to make my own way. But, He purchased me into slavery to Himself. I am now His.
Oh! But what a difference there is in this new servitude! Never mind that my Master is He who has said, “My burden is light, My yoke is easy” (Mt 11:29). This is true, but it is of less value to me than to realize that even in this position of slavery, I am in a position of true honor, for I am attendant to the king, and not just any king, but the very King of kings! Oh, I am hardly alone in this honor, not by a far cry. But, I am honored yet, that He finds reason to entrust any small task to me. Merit? I think not! No, for it is He Who so works within me as to shape my will to His own, and He who so works within me as to empower me to do the tasks He sets me (Php 2:13). If there is any good in what I do or who I am, it is because He is present and for no other reason.
Now, then, let me confess here and now that I am not immune to crying foul. I am not immune to occasionally shaking my fist at heaven and crying out that things aren’t fair. What a vile bit of nonsense that is! What a terrible lie. No! God is Just! Things are indeed fair, and however uncomfortable current events may make me, however bowed down I may be as my God addressed the body of sinful pride that seemingly permeates my being, it is but discipline – loving discipline. I continue under the assurance that my God, my Lord, my Master: He is working all things to my good (Ro 8:28). He is yet shaping me to be a better man than I am.
As a bit of an aside, I have to say that hearing Pastor touch on both of these last two verses yesterday was of great worth to me. If there are two verses that I might claim as ‘life verses’, these two would doubtless be the ones. They are the keys to Christian security: He is working, and He works all things for good. What else could I possibly want? With this already settled to my account, what further payment could I ask? No! My soul, think not that you merit the praise of heaven! Let it never be!
No, as much as my thoughts may lead me to act in ways that deny this truth, the truth remains: I deserve nothing. As often as I may cry out against the disciplines of the moment, the injustices (as I see it) of this life, it is untrue to say that I deserve better. It is inappropriate for me to turn to God and ask where my reward is, why I haven’t been paid for my services. This is really just one more aspect of that whole struggle that Paul lays bare in Romans 7. I know I ought not to act in this way. I know that the things I do ought to be done for the simple pleasure of pleasing God. And yet, the desire for recognition and remuneration rises in me to spoil the effort. But, the truth is that I do seek to please God, and I do seek to please Him in gratitude for what I know He has already procured for me. My reward is so great already that I have no need to seek for more.
Would I prefer to see this present life passed in the absence of troubles, of illness, of anger? Of course I would. Would I be thrilled to see an end to wars and factionalisms and politics in this life? Absolutely! But, I’m not holding my breath. In this life, you will have persecutions. In this life, there will be injustices, sorrows, all the ills of a sin-sick world. But, rejoice! For Jesus has overcome this world, this life! Rejoice! For these trials, as unbearable as they may seem in the moment, are but light and momentary affairs when measured against the eternal weight of glory that awaits!
Listen! That culminating verse is such a powerful antidote to pride, to complaining, to so many of the errors we are prone to. But, if I may, let me put in terms more in keeping with our own experience. “Don’t be a reward seeker. When you have done as instructed, you have only done what you should. You have only done your job. Don’t hunger after praise and recognition.” Understand that the praise and recognition that we so often do hunger for is just another form of reward. It’s no different than seeking to be paid for our efforts. It’s the hungry lust of the flesh rising up to despoil the good work we seek to do.
Oh my! We serve this One who says, “Come and eat for no cost, come buy your wine and milk, you who have no money” (Isa 55:1-2). “Delight yourself in abundance.” But, that abundance is not the showy riches that are such an enticement to us. That abundance is Life, the everlasting covenant between you and your God. That abundance is the assurance of eternity in His presence, in the brightness of His joy.
This provides me with the opportunity to look once more at that other, more archaic aspect of what Jesus chooses for illustration here. “We are but slaves, worthless slaves.” This is the mindset He invites us to adopt. Now, there is a great deal of humility expressed in that declaration, as well there should be. There is a complete abnegation of the will. There is in that statement a declaration that we are such as must heed His every command without question and without delay – as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). Instant in obedience. Is there anybody willing to make that claim? I know that I cannot. And yet, to even rank as a worthless slave would take that much. To even say, “we have done what we ought to have done” would take that much.
But, there is more! You see, while there is that humiliation of absolute servitude, there is yet a certain magnificence granted us. For, we are not slaves to just anybody. We are the committed slaves of the King, of the King of all kings. If there can be such a concept as an honored slave, that is where have been placed. We are in the honored, trusted position of the King’s service. No, there is no merit in that, for we are but doing the job set us. But, there is honor. There is, even in this itself, a reward given. But, that reward is given not because of something we did to earn it. Rather, it is given as a bonus, if you will, a freely added payment from our Lord and Master, given not for services rendered, but for the shear pleasure He takes in blessing us.
Listen! You servants of the King: think not that this means you have achieved. Think not that this means you rate in some fashion. No, but heed the recurring remonstrations of Scripture. If you are righteous, can you point to what it is He has gained by you? What is it that you have done in yourself that is to His profit (Job 35:7)? Indeed, who can claim to have been first in giving to God so that God is now indebted to him (Ro 11:35)? The clear and resounding answer to this is, nobody. None can honestly and accurately make that claim, though many will boast of it anyway. Nothing I have done is of any particular value to He in Whom I have my being, for it is all Him working in me. There is nothing I can give to Him that He did not put into my hand in the first place. The best I can do is to return to Him what is already His by right. And shall I boast of that? Shall I point to this and say, “See how honest I am in my dealings with Him?” No. I have only done what I ought to have done.
The wonderful thing about this is that it is enough. I have done as I ought to have done. I have done it imperfectly, and only by His mighty right arm doing the deed in me, yet I have done it, and it is enough. It is enough because for all my imperfections, He so works with me as to correct every deficiency in my effort. It is enough because I have long since received the one thing most needful and most marvelous. I have received that absolute assurance that it is finished, this work in me, because He who began it is utterly faithful to complete it. He who called me out of my darkness is the very Light unfailing. He has justified me. It is finished. He has glorified me. It is finished. He has washed clean every filthy stain, and though I still deal with the inner battles of this present life, I know that victory is already mine, and nothing, neither death nor life, neither angel nor demon; absolutely, positively nothing can separate me from His love (Ro 8:38-39). No, nor is there any power in heaven or earth that can snatch me from my Jesus’ hand, for none can snatch me from out of my Father’s hand (Jn 10:28-29).
Let me stop, then, on that marvelous note, and simply resolve once more, as best I may, to be fully and utterly satisfied in that simple reality, that my reward is already far in excess of anything I could even think to ask for.
