Luke 17:1 - Meaning and Application

We are taught here, first, that causing others to stumble is a great sin, and one we must all avoid and watch against (Luke 17:1, Luke 17:2). We should expect offenses, since human nature is stubborn and sinful. God also has wise purposes, and he can carry out his work even through those offenses, bringing good out of evil. It is almost impossible that offenses will not come, so we must be prepared for them. But woe to the one through whom they come, for his judgment will be severe (Luke 17:2).

This warning reaches several kinds of people. It includes persecutors, who hurt even the least of Christ’s little ones in word or deed and discourage them from serving Christ. It includes deceivers, who twist Christ’s truth and his commands, troubling the minds of his disciples. It also includes those who claim the Christian name but live in a shameful way, weakening the bonds of God’s people and saddening their hearts. The fact that offenses are hard to avoid does not lessen their guilt, and it will not reduce their punishment.

Second, we are taught that forgiving offenses is a great duty, and one every believer must take seriously (Luke 17:3). “Take heed to yourselves” may point either backward or forward. It may mean, “Be careful not to offend one of these little ones,” especially for ministers, who must avoid saying or doing anything that would discourage weak Christians. Or it may mean, “Be careful when your brother wrongs you,” because anger can make you speak foolishly and rush into revenge (Proverbs 24:29). Watch what you say in that moment, so you do not speak wrongly.

If you are able to rebuke him, then do so. Do not bury the hurt, but speak plainly about it. Tell him his fault and show him where he has treated you unfairly. It may be that you will discover, and you should be ready to discover, that you misunderstood him and that the wrong was only an oversight, not a planned injury. Then you should be willing to ask his pardon for your misunderstanding, as in Joshua 22:30-31.

If he repents, you must forgive him and be fully reconciled to him. Forget the injury and do not keep bringing it up. Do not use it later to shame him. If he does not repent, you are not required to act as though nothing happened, but you must not hold hatred or plan revenge. If his sin is serious and affects the Christian community, he should be gently and seriously rebuked. Then, when he repents, he should be restored to friendship and fellowship again. This is what the apostle calls forgiveness (2 Corinthians 2:7).

You must be ready to do this again each time he repeats the offense (Luke 17:4). Even if he wrongs you seven times in a day, and seven times says that he is sorry and promises not to do it again, you must keep forgiving him. To err is human. Christians should be forgiving people, eager to make the best of others and make life easier for those around them. They should be quick to soften faults rather than make them worse, and they should show that they have forgiven others as clearly as others show that they have been offended.

Third, we all need stronger faith, because as faith grows, every other grace grows with it. The more clearly we believe Christ’s teaching and the more fully we trust Christ’s grace, the better it will go with us in every way. The disciples came to Jesus and asked for this increase in faith (Luke 17:5). Even the apostles, though they were the chief ministers in Christ’s kingdom, admitted that their faith was weak and needed Christ’s help to grow. They said, “Lord, increase our faith,” meaning, “Make what is lacking in us complete.”

They asked for more clear sight in faith, stronger desires, firmer trust, fuller devotion, and deeper joy. We should earnestly desire the same thing, and we should pray for it. Some think they prayed this because Jesus had just pressed on them the duty of forgiving injuries. They were saying, in effect, “Lord, increase our faith, or we will never be able to practice such a hard duty.” Faith in God’s mercy to forgive us will help us overcome the greatest barriers to forgiving our brother. Others think they said it after failing in some miracle and being rebuked by Christ for their weak faith, as in Matthew 17:16 and following. Since he had corrected them, they now turned to him for grace to improve.

Christ assured them of the great power of true faith (Luke 17:6). If they had faith like a mustard seed, very small, they could do things far beyond what they were then doing. Nothing would be too hard for them that was fit to be done for God’s glory and for confirming the message they preached, even something as impossible as moving a tree from the earth into the sea. See Matthew 17:20. As nothing is impossible with God, so all things are possible to the one who believes.

Fourth, whatever we do in Christ’s service, we must stay humble and never imagine that we have earned favor from him or put him in our debt. Even the apostles, who did much more for Christ than others, must not think that they have made him their debtor. We are all God’s servants, and his apostles and ministers are servants in a special way. As servants, we are bound to do all we can for his honor. Our whole strength and our whole time belong to him, for we are not our own and do not belong to ourselves, but to our Master.

As God’s servants, we should fill our time with duty. He has given us many kinds of work to do, and when one task ends, another should begin. A servant who has been plowing or feeding cattle in the field still has work to do when he comes home at night, because he must wait at table (Luke 17:7-8). In the same way, when we have been faithful in everyday Christian conduct, that does not excuse us from prayer and devotion. When we have been working for God, we still must keep waiting on God, and waiting on him continually.

Our main concern here should be to do our duty in our place and leave it to our Master to give us comfort from it when and how he thinks best. No servant expects his master to say, “Come and sit down to eat,” before the day’s work is done. It is enough to be careful to finish the work well, and the reward will come in due time. We must let Christ be served before we seek our own comfort. The doubting Christian may say he cannot give Christ the glory of his love as he should, because he has not yet felt that love’s comfort. But that is backward. Let Christ first receive the honor of it through our praise, and then we will share in the comfort of that love, which is itself a feast.

When Christ’s servants wait on him, they must gird themselves, that is, free themselves from anything that ties them up or distracts them. They must set their minds closely on the work and be ready to go on and finish it. In the image here, once we have made ready what Christ should eat, we must then gird ourselves and attend him. This is what is expected of servants, and Christ could require it from us. Yet he does not press himself that way on us. He was among his disciples as one who served. He did not come, like many masters, to keep his distance and be waited on, but to serve, as shown when he washed his disciples’ feet.

Christ’s servants do not even earn his thanks for anything they do for him. “Does he thank that servant?” Does he count himself as owing that servant anything? No, certainly not. None of our good works can earn anything from God. We look for God’s favor, not because our service has made him our debtor, but because he has promised it and has made himself a debtor to his own honor. We may plead those promises with him, but we cannot claim payment on the ground of merit, as if we had earned it by our works.

Whatever we do for Christ, even if it is more than some others do, is still only our duty. Even if we did everything commanded of us, and sadly we fall short in many things, there would still be no such thing as extra merit, or supererogation, meaning service beyond what God requires. It is all included in the first and great commandment, to love God with all our heart and soul, which asks for our very best and all that we are.

The best servants of Christ, even when they have done the best service, must still humbly say that they are unprofitable servants. They are not like those worthless servants who bury their talents and will be cast into outer darkness, but in relation to Christ, and to any gain he gets from their service, they are still unprofitable. Our goodness does not reach up to God, and if we are righteous, he is not made better by it (Psalm 16:2; Job 22:2; Job 35:7). God cannot gain anything from our service, and so our service cannot make him our debtor. He has no need of us, and our works cannot add anything to his perfection. So it is right for us to call ourselves unprofitable servants. Yet we should call his service profitable, because God is happy without us, but we are lost without him.