We Do Our Duty

​We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. (Luke 17:10)

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​So often it can be easy to struggle with the sin of covetousness, especially living in such an affluent nation as the United States.  We look around at the world.  We watch TV.  We are bombarded with commercials everywhere we look that tell us that the American dream is just beyond our fingertips, if we will just reach a little further, try a little harder.  The culture we are immersed in is constantly telling us we deserve more than we have.  No matter how much we have, we deserve more.  But Jesus tells us in Luke 17:7-10, “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and recline at table'?  Will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink'?  Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?  So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'"  If we recognize our own sinfulness, then we should understand that we don’t deserve anything good from God.  We don’t deserve more than we have.  As sinful creatures, the only thing we deserve is hell.  Yet, God who is rich in mercy has chosen to bless us with all the many good things we have in life.  Regardless of the little that may be.  If all we have in this world is Christ, then we have more than we can ever possibly deserve.  And when we seek to live our lives in obedience to God’s word, we must not think God owes us anything or that we have earned his blessing.  “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”