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.

Health...Harmony...Happiness...No...Holiness. Holiness of Heart.

"We are to live in holiness, a strict inward conformity to the mind of Christ -- and righteousness, a full outward conformity to the precepts of the Gospel.
This is to be done before God, under the continual influence and support of His grace, and with a constant evidence of His presence and approbation."

"True happiness is found in hearing the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, and keeping them in a holy heart, and practicing them in an unblameable life."

--Adam Clarke

"A Christian is one who continually obeys the commandments of Christ. Wholehearted obedience is to be regarded as the proper sign of genuine, personal faith: 'Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.' [Matt. 7:19-21]. The Christian comes out and separates himself from whatever is impure and unholy in the conduct and habits of the world. The Christian brings forth the fruit of righteousness to the praise and the glory of Christ -- virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. All these are to be in him and abound. He sets his affections of things above, not on things on the earth. He makes public confession of his love and attachment to Christ, and dedicates his all -- spirit, soul, body, talents, and opportunity -- to the diffusion of the cause and glory of the Redeemer in the world."

--R. W. Wooten
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These are just some thoughts that continue to help me keep my focus on Jesus Christ, my Lord, my Saviour, and my only Hope and Rock of salvation.

Faith...

"Socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging."

God, no! If my faith can be described this way, what is it worth? If this is true, faith is nothing more than a personal thing, with as much real importance as my collection of Hot Wheels. If Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, and He has commanded us to go into ALL THE WORLD and tell everyone so, I have absolutely NO business whatsoever living by a faith that is merely privately engaging.


"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?"

How to Overcome Sin [Part 2 of 2]

[By Charles G. Finney, originally published in the Independent of New York in 1874]

All such efforts to overcome sin are utterly futile, and as unscriptural as they are futile. The Bible expressly teaches us that sin is overcome by faith in Christ. "He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." "He is the way, the truth, and the life." Christians are said to "purify their hearts by faith" --(Acts xv, 9). And in Acts xxvi, 18 it is affirmed that the saints are sanctified by faith in Christ. In Romans ix, 31,32 it is affirmed that the Jews attained not to righteousness "because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." The doctrine of the Bible is that Christ saves His people from sin through faith; that Christ's Spirit is received by faith to dwell in the heart. It is faith that works by love. Love is wrought and sustained by faith. By faith Christians "overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil." It is by faith that they "quench the fiery darts of the wicked." It is by faith that they "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and put off the old man, with his deeds." It is by faith that we fight "the good fight," and not by resolution. It is by faith that we "stand," by resolution we fall. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. It is by faith that the flesh is kept under and carnal desires subdued. The fact is that it is simply by faith that we receive the Spirit of Christ to work in us, to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. He sheds abroad his own love in our hearts, and thereby enkindles ours. Every victory over sin is by faith in Christ; and whenever the mind is diverted from Christ, by resolving and fighting against sin, whether we are aware of it or not, we are acting in our own strength, rejecting the help of Christ, and are under a specious delusion. Nothing but the life and energy of the Spirit of Christ within us can save us from sin, and trust is the uniform and universal condition of the working of this saving energy within us. How long shall this fact be at least practically overlooked by the teachers of religion? How deeply rooted in the heart of man is self-righteousness and self-dependence? So deeply that one of the hardest lessons for the human heart to learn is to renounce self-dependence and trust wholly in Christ. When we open the door by implicit trust he enters in and takes up his abode with us and in us. By shedding abroad his love he quickens our whole souls into sympathy with himself, and in this way, and in this way alone, he purifies our hearts through faith. He sustains our will in the attitude of devotion. He quickens and regulates our affections, desires, appetites and passions, and becomes our sanctification. Very much of the teaching that we hear in prayer and conference meetings, from the pulpit and the press, is so misleading as to render the hearing or reading of such instruction almost too painful to be endured. Such instruction is calculated to beget delusion, discouragement, and a practical rejection of Christ as he is presented in the Gospel.

Alas! for the blindness that "leads to bewilder" the soul that is longing after deliverance from the power of sin. I have sometimes listened to legal teaching upon this subject until I felt as if I should scream. It is astonishing sometimes to hear Christian men object to the teaching which I have here inculcated that it leaves us in a passive state, to be saved without our own activity. What darkness is involved in this objection! The Bible teaches that by trusting in Christ we receive an inward influence that stimulates and directs our activity; that by faith we receive his purifying influence into the very center of our being; that through and by his truth revealed directly to the soul he quickens our whole inward being into the attitude of a loving obedience; and this is the way and the only practicable way to overcome sin. But someone may say: "Does not the Apostle exhort as follows: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure[']"? "And is not this an exhortation to do what in this article you condemn?" By no means. In the 12th verse of the 2d chapter of Philippians Paul says: "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." There is no exhortation to work by force of resolution, but through and by the inworking of God. Paul had taught them, while he was present with them; but now, in his absence, he exhorts them to work out their own salvation, not by resolution, but by the inward operation of God. This is precisely the doctrine of this article. Paul had too often taught the Church that Christ in the heart is our sanctification, and that this influence is to be received by faith, to be guilty, in this passage of teaching that our sanctification is to be wrought out by resolution and efforts to suppress sinful and form holy habits. This passage of Scripture happily recognizes both the Divine and human agency in the work of sanctification. God works in us, to will and to do; and we, accepting by faith his inworking, will and do according to his good pleasure. Faith itself is an active and not a passive state. A passive holiness is impossible and absurd. Let no one say that when we exhort people to trust wholly in Christ we teach that anyone should be or can be passive in receiving and co-operating with the Divine influence within. This influence is moral, and not physical. It is persuasion, and not force. It influences the free will, and consequently does this by truth, and not by force. Oh! that it could be understood that the whole of spiritual life that is in any man is received direct from the Spirit of Christ by faith, as the branch receives its life from the vine. Away with this religion of resolutions! It is a snare of death. Away with this effort to make the life holy while the heart has not in it the love of God. Oh! that men would learn to look directly at Christ through the Gospel, and so close in with him by an act of loving trust as to involve a universal sympathy with his state of mind. This and this alone is sanctification.

The Gospel

Every person on earth needs forgiveness for having disobeyed God (Romans 3:23). We cannot be saved from sin by trying to do better, for we have no way of making up for our own past misdeeds.


Therefore, part one in the way of salvation is: Repent from your sins.

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19)


However, step one alone cannot save us, for without God's involvement, it is merely works. Thus, repentance must be combined with faith in God, for those who wish to be pleasing to God must "believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6)


Part two then is: Believe on Jesus Christ.

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." (Acts 16:31)


Now, what do repentance from sin and faith in Christ look like in your life? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" (James 2:26). This involves the next two parts...


Confess Jesus as your Master:

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart the God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)

and...

Live the obedient life:

"Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

"Whosoever says he knows God but does not obey Him is a liar." (1 John 2:4)


Too many people stop at part two and think that they have all the salvation they need - faith without works - this dead faith, however is not the salvation that Scripture speaks of. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil; if the people that He has saved continue in sin, what victory is there, since Satan's works are still being done? If you are truly saved, you will bear fruit - good fruit - just as a tree is known by the fruit it bears, a believer in Christ is known by whom he obeys (1 John 3:10).