Luke 17:7

This verse is part of a parable Jesus tells his disciples about humility and the nature of service. Jesus poses a rhetorical question that would have been immediately obvious to his first-century audience: a landowner would never invite a servant in from the fields and say, "Come rest — you've earned it." The servant's job was to keep serving, preparing the master's meal before their own. Jesus uses this socially understood reality not to endorse exploitation, but to expose something subtler — the hidden expectation that faithfulness earns special treatment. He's asking his followers to examine whether they serve God expecting a reward, or simply because it is what faithful people do.

God, I confess that I often serve with one eye on the return. Loosen my grip on the scoreboard I keep in secret. Teach me what it looks like to give freely — not because I've stopped expecting goodness from you, but because I trust you enough not to need to track it. Amen.

There's a quiet scoreboard most of us keep without realizing it. A difficult conversation you didn't run from, a stretch of faithfulness when nothing seemed to go right, a sacrifice no one noticed — and somewhere in the back of your mind, there's an expectation that God will eventually balance the ledger. That the obedience will cash out into comfort, recognition, or at least peace. Jesus's question here isn't cruel — it's clarifying. He's exposing the transaction hiding inside much of our service. The servant in the parable doesn't stop being valuable or cared for — the power dynamic Jesus is describing isn't the point. The posture is. Ask yourself honestly: when faithfulness goes unrewarded for long stretches, does your commitment hold? When God doesn't come through the way you expected after you did the right thing, what happens to your willingness to keep going? That's the real question Jesus is sitting with you in.