Jesus' words seem harsh and politically incorrect, but He's talking about you.
Luke 17:7-10 (NIV)
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he 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 Will 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.’ ”
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 24: The Sanctification of Sinners (Part 2)
Our good works,
proceeding from the good root of faith,
are good and acceptable to God,
since they are all sanctified by his grace.
Yet they do not count toward our justification—
for by faith in Christ we are justified,
even before we do good works.
Otherwise they could not be good,
any more than the fruit of a tree could be good
if the tree is not good in the first place.
So then, we do good works,
but nor for merit—
for what would we merit?
Rather, we are indebted to God for the good works we do,
and not he to us,
since it is he who “works in us both to will and do
according to his good pleasure”
thus keeping in mind what is written:
“When you have done all that is commanded you,
then you shall say, ‘We are unworthy servants;
we have done what it was our duty to do.’“
Yet we do not wish to deny
that God rewards good works—
but it is by his grace
that he crowns his gifts.
Moreover,
although we do good works
we do not base our salvation on them;
for we cannot do any work
that is not defiled by our flesh
and also worthy of punishment.
And even if we could point to one,
memory of a single sin is enough
for God to reject that work.
So we would always be in doubt,
tossed back and forth
without any certainty,
and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly
if they did not rest on the merit
of the suffering and death of our Savior.
Summary
Maybe you winced a bit at Jesus' words here. It seems harsh to us that someone would order an employee who's been working hard all day long to first make him supper and wash all the dishes before being done for the day. Even worse, Jesus scoffs at the idea that the servant would have expected gratitude from his boss for simply doing the job he was told to do.
Yet in Jesus' day, this example wouldn't have been as shocking to those who heard it; there was a very fixed line between servants and masters that rarely got crossed. There were two distinct classes of people: those who gave the orders, and those who took them.
Understand that Jesus' here isn't commenting on the morality of this social structure, and the fact that Jesus uses this example doesn't give rationale for treating employees so crassly or give credence or validity to slavery.
Jesus was simply using a commonly accepted and recognized social dynamic to make a bigger spiritual point: that those who've been given orders ought to have no expectation of gratitude for simply doing what they were told and expected to do. Jesus isn't commenting on slavery here; He's talking about you and your relationship to God.
Dig Deeper
Jesus was reiterating words from the Old Testament when He explained God's expectation for man in the Sermon on the Mount:
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt. 5:48, Leviticus 19:2, Deuteronomy 18:13).
Yet for some reason, we all expect some grand reward from heaven each time we do something that seems extra good to us. Jesus is reminding us here that holiness and perfection are God's constant expectation. He's not impressed when you perform some sort of extra-good deed every now and then when He designed you to constantly do good.
This is why you ought to be so grateful that you've been given this perfect righteousness you so badly need. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." But then don't forget verse 10: "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
You've been saved by grace for sure, and in one sense, through Christ you've fulfilled the 'day's work' your Master expects of you. The ironic thing is that now that "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" (Rom. 6:18). So live in a way that reflects this spiritual dynamic by living in a way dedicated to doing good.
Yet even though you're simply doing what you've been commanded to do when you do good, "God promises to reward them in this life and the next" (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 24).
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who expects us to be holy, as He is holy;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that since you've been freed from sin, you will live as a slave to righteousness;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 1 Corinthians 2
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