Duty

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

DUTY

Luke 17:7-10

7 "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8 Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" 

NIV

This seems strange to be placed here as it does not appear to be in the context with anything Jesus said before or after this. Why he said it here, or if he did not, but Luke inserted here is a little odd, nevertheless the lesson is worth consideration. Perhaps the disciple were getting a little anxious about Jesus setting up his kingdom, as we know from other scriptures, they may not have gotten the whole of the truth just yet, as he had not died, rose from the grave and ascended yet. But the point Jesus was making is that in all reality Jesus did not come to serve his servants rewards, and in fact they were unprofitable servants to boot. This is the lesson. We are all unworthy, or unprofitable to serve God. Any of our actions, our good deeds do not add one smidgen of glory to God. Although he tells us we are his glory, we do not add to his glory, as we are actually unworthy to do so. If we think we are special in any way, we may be sadly mistaken. We are unworthy servants and anything we do for the kingdom of God is because it has been our duty to do so. Once again we have become man centered instead of God centered when we think of ourselves having a relationship with the almighty creator of everything. It is he who has a relationship with his creation, he is the master and we are the servants who should be serving him, rather than thinking about what kind of reward we are worthy of receiving because we are his creation. Sure, God will give us a blessing, all kinds of spiritual blessings, he gave us the Spirit who first of all convicted us of our need for Jesus, and then he continues to lead us into all the truths of God. Really, what more do we need? As far as any reward, we will receive eternal life, but before we get that, we need to serve our master, not that serving him brings that eternal life, for only faith in Christ will do that, but as we are now his servants we should be doing our duty and waiting on his table serving him, serving the kingdom, doing our duty, whatever that looks like. It may be different for each and every one of us. We all cannot be a pastor, or a missionary, or a teacher, or a janitor in the church, or a board member, if any of those are actually serving the kingdom rather than serving man. What does serving the kingdom look like? We know that it is Gods will that all mankind be saved. So then would are duty be to bring the good news to whoever we come in contact with? Would that be a worthy service? Maybe all service counts as long as we understand we are his servants and whatever we do stills does not bring anything to his majestic glory. Nothing we can do, no matter how great it is can add anything to the glory of God. He is God and we are his unprofitable servants, period, but we are still to do our duty, that is all, it is our duty.