Offences and Servants

Luke 17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
Luke 17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
Luke 17:4 And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Luke 17:5 And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
Luke 17:7 But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
Luke 17:8 And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
Luke 17:9 Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
Luke 17:10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
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17:1-4... It seems that this section is not concerned about us sinning, it's more about when someone else sins against us, which, because we live in a world of fallen people, is likely. Thus, Jesus is telling us how we are to love others...the same way that God loves us - who forgives us when we come to Him and repent.

Since a key word here seems to be "offences"....we should define it, should we not? It seems that in this section "to offend" is the same as "to try to cause to sin"...Strong's concordance says that it means "to trip up, or entice to sin."

17:1 -- Offences will come...that is, there will always be someone who will try to deceive the weaker brethren. And woe unto him that offends...it is wrong to lead people into sin, and thus God will punish people who do it.

17:2 -- It would be better for one to die a horrible death, than to lead a little one astray.

17:3-4 -- John Wesley writes "If he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day return, saying, I repent - That is, if he give sufficient proof that he does really repent, after having sinned ever so often, receive him just as if he had never sinned against thee."....so these two verses aren't concerned with us sinning, but with us forgiving those who sin against us


17:5 -- The apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith, so we know that that is what Jesus is talking about in verses 6 through 10...He is responding to the disciples' petition.

17:6 -- "If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed..." that is, if you have even a little faith, you have it all, for you can do anything (anything that glorifies God) if you have even a tiniest bit of honest faith.

17:7-8 -- A servant is bound to serve his master, and the master need not thank the servant, for the servant's pay is equal to the service he renders - the servant serves, and does merely his duty - what glory is there in doing nothing more than you are told?

17:9 -- Therefore, does the master need to thank the servant? Nope.

17:10 -- So, Jesus says, we are like the servant (God is our master)...if we do what God has said (that is, keep the law), what glory can we claim for ourselves? We have none - all we have done is what we were supposed to - we haven't done anything extra that God should be indebted to us. So in this way, we say "we are but unprofitable servants...we have no merit to our credit, we have only done our duty."

Note that Jesus never says that cannot do our duty, instead, He says the opposite - not only are we bound to do our duty, we can do it, and then say "yes, we have done our duty". So why are we "unprofitable" servants? Because we have robbed our master - while we were in sin, all our time and talents that should have been used in our master's service, we have used in the service of His enemy - this is nothing less than robbery! So even though we render obedience now, we have no way of repaying our debt (this is why we need a saviour). Thus, salvation comes, not by the works of the law (doing our duty), but by faith in Jesus Christ, for he has made it possible for God to forgive us (Galatians 2:16).

Does this passage teach that we will continue in sin? God forbid! Rather, it tells us that we can (and strongly implies that we will) keep His commandments...but we are not justified by our own works, but by faith in Christ, remember, it was faith that the apostles were wondering about - so Jesus lays out how even if we keep the law (which we can), we still can only be saved by faith.