SO WATCH YOURSELVES!
Opening Prayer
Almighty God, were it not for the work of your Holy Spirit, I would have no hope in pleasing you. Help me to live in ways that are overflowing with thankfulness and praise.
Read LUKE 17:1–10
Sin, Faith, Duty
17 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister[a] sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
Footnotes
- Luke 17:3 The Greek word for brother or sister (adelphos) refers here to a fellow disciple, whether man or woman.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Would you describe yourself more as a realist or an idealist? Which approach to life do you aspire to? Today, Jesus will speak into both of those realities.Stand in the shoes of the disciples for a moment. Jesus launched a missile in verse 2, then another in verse 6, then yet another in verse 10. All hit their target: how our faith affects our daily lives. He called them to square up to the reality of a fallen world, but then called them to live as though that world is fully in God’s control. Their response in verse 5 was both achingly simple and deeply profound. Faced with the challenge of living as God’s faithful servants, their first awareness was of their own inadequacy. That’s the right place to start! There are no heroic Christians, only faithful ones through whom God does heroic things.
Discipleship demands that we address the reality of temptation and sin in our lives and the lives of those around us. Bad stuff will happen. But (and it’s a big ‘but’) the real issue for us is how we respond: ridiculous levels of genuine forgiveness, outrageous faith in God’s power to intervene, servant-heartedness as we go about living for him. And underneath all is the determination not to be the cause of sin in the lives of others.
Apply
Who do you need to forgive? What mountain have you given up trying to move? What sin are you failing to confront? Where have you fallen into the trap of thinking that God owes you something?
Closing prayer
Lord God, help me to always see myself through your eyes; help me to be quick to repent where I fall short of your vision for me and to lay hold of all that is your will for me.
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