Unprofitable Servants

Unprofitable Servants April 30, 2010​

(offered by Doug Blair of Waterloo ON, 2020)

(Taken from The Gospel of Luke by G. Campbell Morgan and comments on Luke 17)

He knew that if men have faith as a grain of mustard seed, that if they have

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the faith which can remove mountains, there is a danger of pride.

Therefore He said:

"When ye shall have done all the things that are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants.�

This He introduced by a parable of contrast. He said:

"Whom is there of you, having a servant -and the word is doulos, it is a

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slave-" having a slave plowing or keeping sheep, that will say unto him, when he is come in from the field, Come straightway and sit down to meat," and I will wait on you.

Won't he rather say, Get ready for me, and when I have eaten, then you may eat?

"Doth he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded?�

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With that little parable in mind, let us go back for a moment in Luke's Gospel. In chapter twelve, we read,

"Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. Blessed are those servants.� that is the same word, douloi. “Blessed are those slaves, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them

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sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them."

There He was speaking of Himself, and He declared that when His servants' days' work is over, He will make them sit down, and He will wait on them.

Here He said, Can you conceive a situation like that? Is that the ordinary thing? It was a parable in contrast. He was showing them the ways of the world. He had already told them what He would do with them. ​He was warning them against pride in spiritual power.​ He had just said, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you will see mighty things done.

Now He said in effect: Don't forget

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when you see the mighty things done, because you have faith that is a living faith, you are not to take any credit for the things you have done. You are to be delivered from pride even in the hour of spiritual victory, for even at the best, we are unprofitable servants, and we have only done our duty. The marvel is that presently He will do for us what earthly lords never do for their slaves. But it will be wholly of grace, nothing we have a right to claim, nothing which ought to give us for one moment the lifted chin, or an air of braggadocio, or the strut of pride. I wonder if we believe that. Service that looks for reward is selfish. Yet how often we talk of the rewards that are coming. To serve for reward is not

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Christian, but anti-Christian. He emptied Himself. He served for "the joy that was set before Him.� Yes, but what was the joy? The joy of lifting other people, and blessing them.

Note:​ A friend once said to me that there are 3 basic rules to the interpretation of scripture: Context, Context, Context. This is so apparent in a review of the above commentator's work. He never forgets "the before and after" as he takes on these key passages.

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Campbell Morgan

Churches Challenged

Unprofitable Posted on ​September 30, 2019

God does not need me. He is the only all sufficient One. But He invites me to partner in some of His ventures. He expects obedience to the task and constant searching of His motives.

In Luke chapter 17 Jesus spoke of a household where the Master was not intent upon congratulating or stroking a servant for a job well done. There would always be another one assigned upon its heels. The servants were always expected to say that they were unprofitable and simply doing what was asked of them.

But the Master was training partners for fuller participation and understanding in the Kingdom. This was always the posture in Jesus’ earth walk of 33 years and He never complained or expected that he was entitled to pause and gloat over accomplishments.

Or hear bundles of fawning praise.

This nasty concept has caused many a ripple of discord in church assemblies. The “territory” and worthiness of a servant in his/her area of ministry. The deserved “upper seat”.

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Admittedly it is a hard temptation to beat down.

The Mission is in Searching Out Him Posted on ​April 11, 2015

I have just read a portion of an old topical teaching by Oswald Chambers, entitled ​So Send I You​. The theme is effective missions and witnessing as contained in lectures to students in Chambers’ Bible College, before he went to British troops in Egypt during World War One. He died of an illness contracted there.

He suggested that the mis-guided missionary craze was to improve, civilize, heal and educate. This was secondary, and robbing evangelistic effort of the power to be God-directed in one man or a few who would make a quality decision to approach ever more intimately the person of Jesus Christ. The means of communion are there (Bible, prayer, meditation, sanctified discourse, the elements of the Supper, irreplaceable leading of the Holy Spirit).

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The Christian worker “steeped” in Christ merely did the simple, obvious and available work, but with tremendous Godly power and precision. He made himself available. God said gently “here” or “over to that person” or “not yet”. He did the service wherever he was to be found; not, as humourously stated, wherever he was not found.

Remember how Jesus said “the fields are white unto harvest; therefore pray ye the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth workers.”

But oh no, we North Americans must always be planning, programming, doing and being seen to be doing. Pity. The Power just went somewhere else.

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