The chapter opens with instruction which follows from what we have already seen. The Jewish system was judged. It was to be left entirely behind. Present favor and earthly prosperity were no tests of God's estimate. That which is unseen will entirely reverse the actual condition of things. Lazarus quits the world for Abraham's bosom, the rich man is afterward tormented in bell; but from both the infinite moment of the word of God is seen for every soul.
Here the Lord lets the disciples know the certainty of stumblingblocks in such a world as this, and the awful doom of those who cause them. “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea,” says the Lord about any one so offending others. Hence we have to take heed to ourselves, as His disciples; and while guarding against being stumbled by others, we have to cherish the grace of God which is as essential to Christianity as the law was to the Jews as their rule. “Take heed to yourselves; if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.” It supposes that there is an evil course and current in the world, which may affect every one's brother; but grace is never intended to weaken the moral reprobation of what is evil. “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.”
Repentance is a great word, altogether contrary to the bent of human will. Man may make efforts, but will never repent. Only grace gives real repentance, which, when used in its proper sense, means simply and invariably the judgment of self. Now this man will never bend to. Amends he may offer, he may endeavor to do good, and repair the evil; but to own self thoroughly wrong without qualification, reserve, or endeavoring to throw the blame on others, is never the nature of man but the result of the working of divine grace, and true therefore of every soul that is truly renewed. It is impossible for a sinner to be brought to God without repentance. Faith no doubt is the spring of all; it alone gives power by the revelation of grace in the person and work of Christ; but repentance is the invariable consequence or concomitant. And so it is in particular cases, as here in trespass, as, “If he repent, forgive him.” This was more especially needful to urge on a Jew, accustomed as he was to severity. And further, grace would hinder one from being wearied any more by ill doing in others, than in well doing on our part. “If he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying I repent, thou shalt forgive him.” It is seven times as showing the failure complete and in a day too as adding to the trial. To men's mind this would indicate the hopelessness of any good in forgiveness. But it is so that God deals with us: He is unwearied in His grace. If it were not so, it would be all over with us not only when in our sins but even as believers.
Nevertheless the apostles, (for so it is expressed here for our instruction, “the apostles) said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.” They felt that such a demand was entirely beyond them. “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” Thus faith works what is impossible to man, to nature; and this too, wherever there is a grain of reality, be it ever so small. For whether faith be little or strong, if real, it brings in God; and God is the same God, in answer to little faith as to great. There may be a great difference as regards the result for sensible enjoyment; but God answers in His grace the feeblest exercise of faith in Him. “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamore tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea [all entire contrariety to the course of nature], and it should obey you.” We must always hold, as believers, the superiority of God to all circumstances.
At the same time, we have a place of duty here; and the Lord reminds us therefore, not only of the power of faith above every obstacle, but of the tone of conduct that becomes us in doing our duties, or rather when we have done them. “But which of you, having a” servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? and will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trove not.” Grace in no way weakens the duty that we owe. There are certain proprieties which we must never give up, and of which the Lord here reminds His apostles. The master in such a case does not thank the servant; it is but his obligation, the discharge of the service he undertakes, what he cannot therefore forget or omit without wrong. “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which it was our duty to do.”
People are sometimes apt to think that the proper owning of our unprofitable service is when we do not the things commanded; so at least they speak. But the Lord teaches us to feel that we are but unprofitable servants when we have done all the things that are commanded. Not to do our duty is a real wrong to the Master; but when we have done all, it becomes us to say, “We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.” All we are commanded is short of that which Christ deserves; and we have to do with the Christ of God. When we have done that which was our duty to do, is love satisfied? It would go farther. Christ loved to obey, ever doing what was enjoined, and hence suffered to the utmost in grace to us and to the glory of God. So love is the fulfilling of the law; and in it we are now called to walk as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. We are indeed unprofitable servants; yet how rich is the place into which grace brings us even now!