The other night, around the campfire, I was talking with some friends about how it seems that “faithful church attendance” isn’t what it once used to be. “Being at meeting” seems so optional nowadays . . . or, as we discussed, as a backlash of perhaps a somewhat legalistic attitude towards “going to church”, the “freedom” Christians find today to fit “gathering with the saints” in and around their schedule has perhaps gone too far. Now, it’s not like I went to bed last night determined to journal on that conversation, but it’s something I read in Luke this morning that brought the conversation back to mind . . . a pretty interesting exchange between Jesus and His disciples.

Luke 17 starts off with Jesus “raising the bar” on the disciples, “If your brother sins against you, call him on it. But if he repents forgive him. And, if in that day, he sins against you seven more times and seven more times asks for forgiveness, then, guess what . . . forgive him again and again.” (Luke 17:1-4 kinda’). Kind of radical teaching, huh? The disciples thought so. Their response? “Increase our faith!” (17:5) They got that this wasn’t something that was going to come easily . . . or naturally. They’d need an extra measure of faith. Check out Jesus’ response.

He then proceeds to ask them a question (again loosely translated), “After the servant has done the master’s bidding for the day, what does the master do? Does he say, ‘Good enough! Sit down, take a load off your feet, let me fix you something to eat?’ Nope. Instead he says, ‘It’s time to fix my meal, please do so, then you can knock off for the night.'” Jesus then concludes it this way, “Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.'” (17:6-10).

Jesus says it’s not about more faith . . . in fact, all you need is the faith of a mustard seed. Instead it’s about doing what the Master asks. It’s about responding in obedience. It’s about a sense of duty . . . those aren’t my words, but the Savior’s.

I know we need to beware of adding our good works to the gospel . . . of defining Christianity in terms of do’s and don’ts . . . but we also need to step up to what Jesus asks us to do . . . we need to do what is our duty to do.

The teaching in this passage isn’t so much about the “object of faith” and “exercising the measure of faith we have” as much as it is about hearing the voice of the Master and responding to it. If Jesus says, “Forgive, forgive, and forgive again” then we should do it. And, to our conversation last night, if the Scriptures say “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25) then we should do it. It’s not about asking for a less stressful week . . . or more time to decompress . . . or the need to sleep in . . . or only going when “our heart is in it” . . . or whatever . . . it’s about a sense of duty . . . a recognition that He is Lord and we are His disciples . . . that when He says, “Do it!” then we do it.

I know there’s “balance” and I’m not advocating a legalistic view of church attendance . . . or keeping count of the number of times we forgive . . . or anything else. But as I read and re-read this interaction between Jesus and His own, it just seems appropriate and Scriptural for those who claim to follow and serve Him to respond to Him out of a sense of duty . . . duty in response to His wonderful love toward us . . . duty as an expression of our love for Him . . . duty because He is Lord . . . duty because He is worthy . . . duty for His glory alone . . . amen!