Rēad to Read …Again
Daily Reading: Luke 17-18
Luke 17:10
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Will you allow a businessman to explain this verse? Profit is that which is made on a product after all the cost of production, marketing, distribution, and all overhead expenses are deducted. If a person were to make custom Bible covers, the profit on that product would be that which remains after the costs of the leather, thread, dye, tools, labor, shop costs (electricity, insurance on the shop, tools, etc.) and any other overhead expenses are paid. If the Bible cover sold for $100.00 and the costs allocated to the production of that Bible cover were $60.00, the profit on that product would be $40.00.
The Lord God is pictured in this story as the master of the servant, (Luke 17:7-10), and those who are saved are His servants. This according to I Corinthians 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. Every saved person can serve the Lord God, but can never, ever, come close to repaying Him that which He paid for them. God paid His Son, the Son paid His life; His perfect, sinless, Holy life. A life that it may be said would never have died because death is the price of sin, but He never sinned.
There is nothing a saved servant of the Lord could ever do to cover the cost of their salvation, much less exceed it. So, they are deemed unprofitable. They never profit the Lord, for His cost for their salvation is far greater than anything they could pay or earn. His cost for their eternal life, cost of production, if you will, could never even break even, much less be more than He paid. God does not save individuals to profit from them.
Therefore, no matter the amount of time, or value of our service to Him, we are altogether unprofitable in terms of Him receiving more than He paid. Serve Him faithfully, yes, profit Him, no.
Consider for example the teaching earlier in Luke 17. The Lord told His followers to forgive a brother who trespasses against them seven times a day. Wow! Someone may wonder “How can the Lord ask this of us?” Well, think about it like this. If a person is saved 20 years old and lives to the age of 80, they will live 21,900 days as a Christian. If they only sin once a day for those days, they will sin 21,900 times. The Lord will forgive all those, plus all the sins committed before salvation. That’s amazing! So, forgiving someone seven times is piddly compared to His forgiveness towards His servants. Consider forgiveness as a part of the cost of salvation. We can never, ever, forgive others as much as He forgives us. There is no profit for Him in this area. In this we are unprofitable.
A problem arises, when and if any saved individual begins to think that when the Lord saved them that He received someone who would profit Him. We can do much for Him, and should, but in all that we do we can never cover the cost that He paid. After all, He who should ever have lived died, so that we who should ever have died could live.
At least this is the way a businessperson could interpret this teaching.
Dr. William T. Howe
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