# Luke 17:7-10



## Semper Fidelis (Aug 16, 2011)

How do you understand this parable:

[bible]Luke 17:7-10[/bible]

Some see this as noting that we should not view our labor as anything more than unprofitable work but others see this as contradicting Christ's Words about how He will "serve the servants" in Luke 12:37. Is Christ, in other words, teaching His disciples not to think of God as a stingy master the way as would be typical in the world's thinking?

Hendriksen writes:



> Wrong interpretations of this parable have led to various difficulties. Questions such as the following have been asked:
> a. Does not Jesus contradict himself when he says that no master would ever tell his servant, when he comes in from the field, to recline at table, with the implication that he, the master, would wait on him; while in 12:37 Jesus promises to do that very thing?
> b. Why would servants, who have done everything they had been ordered to do, be called unprofitable?
> c. What moved Luke, immediately after reporting this parable, to go all the way back to the beginning of the journey he is describing, and thus picture Jesus as traveling “along the border between Samaria and Galilee”? See 17:11.
> ...


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## MW (Aug 16, 2011)

It appears to teach a number of lessons, but all tied up in the general principle that man owes God service without reward though God is pleased to bestow reward as an encouragement to service. From that principle comes, (1) a rejection of works of supererogation. As Augustine says, They must therefore have low thoughts of the Law’s perfection, who have such high thoughts of their own graces. The prayer, "Lord, Increase our faith," precedes. (2) A sense of deep gratitude for the blessing of the Lord which maketh rich and addeth no sorrow to it. The account of the ten lepers follows. And (3) service is a privilege. God does not need it. He gives man the opportunity to serve His Highness in order that man may be elevated to a station that is higher than he is naturally worth.


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## Prufrock (Aug 16, 2011)

Rich, I'll leave more thorough exploration of the passage to those more able, but I might note as a summary statement that I find this to be Christ's statement of that which the WCF expresses in 7.1.

*Edit*
All I wished to say by that was just said in the previous comment.


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## KMK (Aug 16, 2011)

Arnot interprets this parable in light of what precedes it starting from verse 1.

1) Take heed of your offenses toward others.
2) Take heed how you handle those who offend you.
3) The disciples realize how impossible that task is and ask for an increase of faith.
4) Jesus agrees that faith is the key and faith can and will do these and even greater things.
5) But take heed that the power of faith does not tempt to pride seeing that faith is not your own.

In this, Arnot would not see any conflict with 12:37.


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## Iconoclast (Aug 17, 2011)

OT.Israel was to be God's servant;
[QUOTE22And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD,* Israel is my son, even my firstborn*: 

23And I say unto thee, Let my son go, *that he may serve me*: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. 
][/QUOTE]

Jesus comes as The Servant of The Lord.....and us In Him.



> 67And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,
> 
> 68Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
> 
> ...



Because we have been called to serve God,instead of self and sin...to good works that God has ordained for us Eph 2:10...
We are spoken of as unprofitable servants. Sin debt paid for, service debt due.

1I call upon you, therefore, brethren, through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice -- living, sanctified, acceptable to God -- your intelligent service; 

2and be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for your proving what [is] the will of God -- the good, and acceptable, and perfect. 

We offer joyful service....yet it is only by Divine enablement that we are able to do so
16have ye not known that to whom ye present yourselves servants for obedience, servants ye are to him to whom ye obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 

*17and thanks to God*, that ye were servants of the sin, and -- were obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which ye were delivered up; 

18and having been freed from the sin, ye became servants to the righteousness.


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## Peairtach (Aug 17, 2011)

I tend to take it that some of the parables are expressing _different facets _ of the truth, thus there is no contradiction.

This parable is teaching that since our duty before God is to live a perfectly holy life from conception to death, we can never boast before God of even the best of our dirty and smelly good works, carried out even after conversion.

Even if we lived a spotless life from cradle to grave we would only be doing our duty before God. 

Here we have another exposition of the CoW for our benefit, but not to be confusingly called "a Republication of the CoW".

Other parables teach that our good works during our period of sanctification from regeneration until death, will be graciously accepted in Christ and particularly rewarded.

Another parable - that of the Labourers - teaches that in another sense everyone's reward will be the same i.e. happiness, the Heavenly Kingdom and Christ.


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## Mushroom (Aug 17, 2011)

Being far from qualified to expound on the accuracy of Hendriksen's interpretation, I will leave that to sounder minds, but the mention of a slavish spirit sparks an interest. While I can't infer that from the text to be present with the servant, as I examine my own heart I can't deny that it is there in some measure. May the Lord deliver me and grant repentance from any form of a slavish spirit towards Him in serving and obeying Him.


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