Slave Behaviour

Which one of you having a slave tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? Instead, will he not tell him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, get ready, and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink'? Does he thank the slave because he did what was commanded? In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded to do, you should say, 'We are good for nothing slaves; we've only done our duty.'" Luke 17:7-10

Oh how far removed we are from these times! Imagine trying to behave like this now, we would have the unions after us. Also, being a mushy female, I would ask the servant to come and sit down and eat. I would not dare tell them to keep working and serve me. How shameful!

We must remember that there are still some places where this behaviour may still exist. However, progressively it has been done away with. I think this is good but then it stops us from realising that the point Jesus was making was: if you only do as you are told, why do you want a medal?

We can expect the Lord to be grateful for the works we do. I think it is important that we also are doing what we have been asked to do and not off on a tangent doing our own thing, this would be even worse. We would then hear, "Begone from Me you who practice lawlessness!"