“So you also, when you have done all that you are commanded, say we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty.”
– Luke 17:10
I remember a particular moment in my life when God used Luke 17:10 in a specific way to speak to my heart, I have actually written a book along these lines that’s coming out next month called Something Needs To Change that takes readers on a journey that I’ve been on into the mountains of the Himalayas, where God has opened my eyes to urgent spiritual and physical need in ways that have rocked my life, my faith, my perspective on the future, on the church.
Part of me would love to take multitudes of people with me into those mountains, that’s just obviously not physically possible so this book is an attempt to bring that kind of journey to people and so it’s kind of shaped as an eight day journey, and without giving away everything in this Something Needs To Change book, there comes a point where as I was reading through the Book of Luke, after seeing urgent spiritual and physical need day after day after day after day, and wondering, “God, what do you want me to do,” wrestling through whether or not God wanted me to move into those mountains. What needed to change in my life?
Luke 17:10 Reminds Us to Humble Ourselves Before God
The posture of our lives should be one of realizing we are unworthy servants. May we humbly before our God be faithful to labor and toil in the duty God has graciously assigned us.
I remember reading Luke 17:10 and it just brought me to my knees. Like physically I read it and fell on my face. So you also, when you have done all that you are commanded, say we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. I just remember falling on my face and saying, “God, that’s it. I just want to do my duty. What have you commanded me to do? How are you calling me to put your commands into practice in my life? I don’t want to get to the end of my life and look back and not have done what you commanded me to do. I
Luke 17:10 Reminds Us of God’s Grace
am an unworthy servant. I have no explanation for why I have not lived in poverty like I’ve seen in those mountains. I have no explanation for why I’ve heard the gospel when so many in these mountains have never heard the gospel. Like I had nothing to do with where I was born, I had nothing to do with the conditions in which I have been raised when it comes to physical provision, when it comes to gospel saturation, all of that is evidence of God’s grace in my life, I am an unworthy servant and I just want to do my duty.
I think Luke 17:10 is the posture of the Christian life, summed up in a verse. The posture of our lives on a day by day by day basis. To fall on our face, maybe physically, or at least figuratively, and to say before God on a daily basis, I am an unworthy servant, and today I am reporting for duty. I want to do whatever you call me to do. All that you command me to do.
This Verse Leads Us to Thank God For His Grace
So God, I pray that in a fresh way today. I pray that on behalf of others who are listening right now. We say to you, we are unworthy servants. Unworthy, so unworthy of the grace you’ve poured out on us. God, I don’t deserve, we don’t deserve any of the grace that you’ve given to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jesus for saving us from our sins. Thank you for new life, thank you for the confidence we have, eternal life, thank you we don’t have to fear death, thank you that we know where we will be in eternity because of your grace.
We deserve to be in hell forever and you have promised us heaven and inheritance in your kingdom. We are unworthy of that and we are your servants. You are our Lord. You are our master and we are so glad. We’re so glad to be your servants. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
We are so thankful that we are not lord of our lives. You are good, you are wise, you are powerful, you are loving, you are merciful, we gladly submit to as Lord and we say to you today, help us to do all that you command us to do. Help us to walk in your commandments and your statutes and your rules and your testimonies.
This Verse Leads Us to Ask God For Help
God, help us to obey your word today, and help us to do all that you’re calling us to do to put your word into practice in every one of our lives. God, help us to make your love known in a world of urgent need right around us, far from us. Help us to exalt your name in our lives.
God, we want to do our duty. Please oh God, may it be said of me, may it be said of others who are listening, when we stand before you, we look back at our lives, by your grace, oh God, may you say that we have done our duty. By your grace that we have done the duty you entrusted to us. We have obeyed the commands and followed the call that you have given in our lives. God, please may it be so. We pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
