In the last "Do What?" teaching of Jesus, we saw Jesus illustrate the extent of forgiveness that His followers are to extend to their brothers. Soon after this teaching, Jesus proved His point by making ultimate forgiveness of sin possible through his suffering and death on the cross. Jesus was a man of integrity. He lived by His words because His words came from His Father.
The next teaching that caught my eye as I read through Luke 17 was Jesus’s instructions on faith and humility (Luke 17:5-10). When the disciples asked the Lord to “increase our faith,” Jesus responded with one of the most well-known statements in the Bible: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (17:5). Perhaps the disciples generally understood this teaching; after all, Jesus’s emphasis on faith spanned the entire period of His ministry. Jesus simply once again reminded the disciples of the necessity of faith in doing the work of God.
What comes next, however, is what I see as the “Do What?” statement in this passage. Jesus talks of how a slave responds to his master. After doing the master’s will, Jesus said, a slave should simply say “We are good-for-nothing slaves; we’ve only done our duty” (Luke 17:10). The main issue at hand is the slave's response to the completion of a task. Rather than demanding thankfulness or reward, a slave rests in the assurance that he has done his lord’s will.
If a follower of Christ acts in faith and a achieves a great goal or accomplishes grand task (such as commanding a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea), the natural human response would be to expect recognition and thanks from all those who benefited from the work. However, Jesus immediately checked that response at the door. The point, Jesus said, is to respond to the father’s will in the same way that a good slave responds to the master’s will: simple obedience and humble submission.
Does this mean that we are in fact good-for-nothing or that no thanks or recognition should follow faithful service? Absolutely not. To claim such would contradict the Bible’s clear teaching on God’s love for His children. Instead, Jesus highlighted that we as God’s people are not to bring or seek glory for our own names, that we should not manufacture our own recognition. The acts we do, we do in faith and in devotion to the Lord. Humble faith is a keystone of Christian service. To increase in faith, we act in faith and humility.
Today’s Prayer Place: Lee Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106. Continue to pray for our neighbors and the children on this street. In about three weeks, a mission team will come and do a kid's camp for us.
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