Luke 17:10

We are unprofitable servants. That is, “we deserve no special commendation.” The master has received his due from them, but nothing more worth mentioning. He has not profited by their service to the extent that he should feel obliged to show them special honor. They have their wages, and that is all they should expect. He is under no particular obligation to them. In other words, Jesus had a right to expect much of His disciples, and God has a right to expect much of us today. When we have done our best for Him we do not thereby place Him under any particular obligation to us. We have done no more than, by right, we should do. Paul reflects the spirit of true service when he remarks that all he has endured and suffered for Christ’s sake is “nothing to glory of’ (1 Cor. 9:16). His service was motivated by a profound sense of obligation to his Master. In preaching the gospel he was discharging a weighty obligation — “woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (1 Cor. 9:16).