Skip to content

Commentaries
English
Luke
  
7"And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?8But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’?9Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.10So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was out duty to do.’"


Our striving for faith and struggle for preaching entail great exertion and pains. They also require our complete dedication. Then you are like the plowman who turns up the earth, and the shepherd who tends his herd. Likewise the servants of the Lord must preach his kingdom, keeping in mind that they are unprofitable and unsuccessful, but their Lord is the fountain of power whom they serve as servants of his love. Their work on earth is not limited to time and hours, but their service is giving thanks for Golgotha. Their Lord does not have to thank them for their services, and present to them a precious reward, for their service is thanksgiving and worshiping for the grace, which they have received freely. The best of them confess without hypocrisy that all their services are nothing, and that they themselves are unprofitable servants, for their Lord is the only Savior, and they are but his followers. Faithful servants are qualified to say this word of humility if they completed accurately all their service commanded by the Lord. Yet we who did less than we are commanded to do are less than unprofitable servants. It is necessary for us servants of the Lord to be completely broken every day lest we find some worthiness in ourselves other than the right of serving as the privilege of the grace, which forgave us our sins after we had confessed them.

Prayer
O Lord, you are the Holy and Perfect One in love and truth. Your judgment is just, and my faith is little. Thank you for your love is working in my heart. I cry out to you and ask you to establish the preparedness for forgiveness, the spirit of peace, and the brokenness of humility in thousands of our brothers. Please fill us with your love. Amen.
Question
How did Jesus shake his followers that they might confess they were unprofitable servants?