Luke 17

Faithful service

1 Jesus said to his disciples, " Things that cause people to trip and fall into sin must happen, but how terrible it is for the person through whom they happen.

2 It would be better for them to be thrown into a lake with a large stone hung around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to trip and fall into sin.

3 Watch yourselves! If your brother or sister sins, warn them to stop. If they change their hearts and lives, forgive them.

4 Even if someone sins against you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times and says, ‘I am changing my ways,' you must forgive that person."

5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

6 The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

7 " Would any of you say to your servant, who had just come in from the field after plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come! Sit down for dinner'?

8 Wouldn't you say instead, ‘Fix my dinner. Put on the clothes of a table servant and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that, you can eat and drink'?

9 You won't thank the servant because the servant did what you asked, will you?

10 In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.'"

Jesus heals a Samaritan

11 On the way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee.

12 As he entered a village, ten men with skin diseases approached him. Keeping their distance from him,

13 they raised their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, show us mercy!"

14 When Jesus saw them, he said, " Go, show yourselves to the priests." As they left, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice.

16 He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus replied, " Weren't ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

18 No one returned to praise God except this foreigner?"

19 Then Jesus said to him, " Get up and go. Your faith has healed you."

The kingdom is coming

20 Pharisees asked Jesus when God's kingdom was coming. He replied, " God's kingdom isn't coming with signs that are easily noticed.

21 Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!' or ‘There it is!' Don't you see? God's kingdom is already among you."

22 Then Jesus said to the disciples, “The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Human One, and you won't see it.

23 People will say to you, ‘Look there!' or ‘Look here!' Don't leave or go chasing after them.

24 The Human One will appear on his day in the same way that a flash of lightning lights up the sky from one end to the other.

25 However, first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

26 " As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be during the days of the Human One.

27 People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 Likewise in the days of Lot, people were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, and building.

29 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

30 That's the way it will be on the day the Human One is revealed.

31 On that day, those on the roof, whose possessions are in the house, shouldn't come down to grab them. Likewise, those in the field shouldn't turn back.

32 Remember Lot's wife!

33 Whoever tries to preserve their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life will preserve it.

34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in the same bed: one will be taken and the other left.

35 Two women will be grinding grain together: one will be taken and the other left."

37 The disciples asked, "Where, Lord?" Jesus said, " The vultures gather wherever there's a dead body."

Luke 17 Commentary

Chapter 17

To avoid offences, To pray for increase of faith, Humility taught.11-19. Ten lepers cleansed. (1-10) Christ's kingdom. (20-37)

Verses 1-10 It is no abatement of their guilt by whom an offence comes, nor will it lessen their punishment that offences will come. Faith in God's pardoning mercy, will enable us to get over the greatest difficulties in the way of forgiving our brethren. As with God nothing is impossible, so all things are possible to him that can believe. Our Lord showed his disciples their need of deep humility. The Lord has such a property in every creature, as no man can have in another; he cannot be in debt to them for their services, nor do they deserve any return from him.

Verses 11-19 A sense of our spiritual leprosy should make us very humble whenever we draw near to Christ. It is enough to refer ourselves to the compassions of Christ, for they fail not. We may look for God to meet us with mercy, when we are found in the way of obedience. Only one of those who were healed returned to give thanks. It becomes us, like him, to be very humble in thanksgivings, as well as in prayers. Christ noticed the one who thus distinguished himself, he was a Samaritan. The others only got the outward cure, he alone got the spiritual blessing.

Verses 20-37 The kingdom of God was among the Jews, or rather within some of them. It was a spiritual kingdom, set up in the heart by the power of Divine grace. Observe how it had been with sinners formerly, and in what state the judgments of God, which they had been warned of, found them. Here is shown what a dreadful surprise this destruction will be to the secure and sensual. Thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. When Christ came to destroy the Jewish nation by the Roman armies, that nation was found in such a state of false security as is here spoken of. In like manner, when Jesus Christ shall come to judge the world, sinners will be found altogether regardless; for in like manner the sinners of every age go on securely in their evil ways, and remember not their latter end. But wherever the wicked are, who are marked for eternal ruin, they shall be found by the judgments of God.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or Son of Man
• [b]. Or Son of Man
• [c]. Or Son of Man
• [d]. Or Son of Man
• [e]. Critical editions of the Gk New Testament do not include 17:36 Two will be in a field: one will be taken and the other left.