Bellarmine counters:
Third, Luke 17[:10]: “When you have done all, say, ‘We are unworthy servants.’ ”
§ 87. (III) Christ completely excludes this deceit about works of supererogation: “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done only what we owed’ ” (Luke 17:10).
Bellarmine counters:
(1) Christ is speaking about the Commandments which apply to us but not about the evangelical counsels. (2) Christ is not calling us unworthy servants but is commanding that we admit we are such out of humility. (3) Whatever a servant is, he belongs to a master; and whatever he does, that accrues to the master’s profit. But it does not follow from this that the master orders him to do anything as if paying off a debt. For what would the situation be if a servant were willing to subtract from the sleep that was granted to him so that he might do something for his master? Will he not be doing more than he is bound to do?
We respond. This entire passage reads as follows: “Will any of you” (Christ says) “who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field: ‘Come at once and recline’? Will he not rather say to him: ‘Prepare supper for me, and gird yourself and serve me till I eat and drink; and afterward you shall eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you, too, when you have done all that is commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have done what we owed’ ” (Luke 17:7–10). In the preceding verses, Christ had required many good works from His followers: that they should be generous to the poor, that they should be contemptuous of pleasures, that they should be careful to avoid offenses, that they should be quick to forgive when they have been offended. Thus it could happen that, if someone had done one or more of these, he could be persuaded that he had now performed his responsibility completely and now wanted to devote himself to rest and not do anything more. Another person could become so pleased with himself in these works that he might extol himself and boast, as if he had earned many things from God because of his obedience. Christ addresses both with this parable of the servant. No earthly master immediately grants rest to a servant who has returned home from his daily chores, but requires new service from him. Even if he does this energetically, the master still does not thank him for that nor even owe him gratitude. In this way all Christians are servants of God by right of creation, preservation, redemption, and sanctification. Therefore they are bound to serve God throughout life until the final hour of death. They should exercise themselves in the works commanded by God. Meanwhile, they state that all these activities were already owed beforehand and that God is by no means obligated to repay them, since they are quite obligated to God in many ways. See Dr. Polycarp Leyser (Harm., ch. 124). Thus the judgment that should be made about the counterarguments of Bellarmine becomes clear.
(1) Christ never claims that we do everything that has been commanded us in the highest degree of perfection in such a way that attention must be given to evangelical counsels. Rather, He says hypothetically: “If you have done all these things which are commanded you” [Matt. 19:17]. Yet in this life we never rise to such perfection that we could boast that we have fulfilled all God’s Commandments. For what need would there be for us to pray daily for the remission of our sins [Matt. 6:12]?
(2) Nor does Christ prescribe a hypocritical humility out of which we are to admit with our lips that we are indeed unprofitable servants while we meanwhile claim that we have merited eternal life with our works. May such hypocrisy be far from pious minds, for the context of this passage clearly refutes this hypocrisy. No thanks are due to the servant who carries out the orders of his master with all his might [Luke 17:9]. So also if we have done all the things that God has commanded us, among which the foremost is surely that we love God with all our heart, and have not merely tried to do them or begun to do them; and also when we have done all the inner as well as all the outward works without omitting so much as one of them, and not when we have done some of them or most of them but all of them without exception—then what should we do? Let us say, “We are unprofitable servants.” That is, let us admit with all our heart and genuinely confess that we are owed no thanks, for whatever we have done God could have legitimately demanded of us, and, in fact, we are already obligated to do it beforehand. God has given us soul, body, abilities. Therefore we ought to use all these along with our strength in the service of God. And since we do not do all the things that are commanded us, and since we do not do what we do at the level of purity and perfection prescribed in the Law, we must acknowledge not only that we are servants but also that we are unprofitable servants, because we cannot stand if God wishes to enter into judgment (Ps. 143:2).
Therefore He could legitimately throw us into eternal torments and outer darkness (Matt. 25:30, where the same expression stands: “unprofitable servant”). Indeed, we are such people, if we are to be considered on the basis of ourselves and of our strengths and merits. But in Christ we have been adopted as sons of God and are appointed as heirs of life [Gal. 4:4–5; Titus 3:6–7].
Council of Milevis (canon 6): “What St. John says is right: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us’ [1 John 1:8] Whoever thinks that this should be taken in such a way as to say that we ought to say that we have sin simply out of humility and not because it is true, let him be anathema.” This should be applied to that Pelagian distortion which Bellarmine embraces. The devout indeed confess not only humbly but also truthfully that before God they are unprofitable servants both because no profit accrues to God from their works and because they are deficient in many works and cannot stand their ground in God’s judgment by means of their own works. Jerome (Letter 66 ad Ctesiph. contra Pelagianos):
When I believe that I have reached the limit of my virtues, then I will have a beginning. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord [Ps. 111:10], which fear is driven out and destroyed by love [1 John 4:18]. This perfection belongs to people only if they know that they are imperfect. “And you,” He says, “when you have done everything, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what was our duty’ ” [Luke 17:10]. If he who has done everything is unprofitable, what should be said about the person who cannot fulfill it? That is why the apostle says that he has received in part and has understood in part and is not yet perfect [1 Cor. 13:9, 12; Phil. 3:12].
If you not only do not say to a servant who has been plowing and feeding the sheep: “Go and rest,” but also demand of him another service and do not thank him for it, so also in your case God does not permit the use of a single work or labor because, while we live, we ought to be working always. Therefore admit that you are a servant, debt-ridden by many duties. Do not count yourself important because you are called a child of God. Grace must be acknowledged, but nature must not be ignored. You should not boast that you have served well, because you were obligated to do these things, etc.
Bede (commentary on Luke 17):
If a person demands from his manservant not a single service but multiple services and still does not thank him, how much more in your case, you who can do nothing without Me? You should consider the rewards for your labors not by the length of time of your service; instead, you should always increase those earlier works with a spontaneous love and submission and with new efforts. Therefore say, “We are unprofitable servants” [Luke 17:10]. Indeed, you are servants, for you have been bought with a price [1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23], but unprofitable servants, because the Lord does not need your good works. But if he who does everything is unprofitable, what should we say about him who cannot do what has been commanded because of weakness or, what is worse, who despises what has been commanded because of his pride, etc.? Thus only the perfection of faith is in people if they know that they have been imperfect in fulfilling all things that have been commanded. As long as they wander away from the Lord, evils which they weep over will be with them. They will always remember the good things that are lacking toward which they strive with the help of His grace.
Bernard (Sermon de tripl. custodia, col. 3566):
This diligence for the works of servanthood creates the beginnings of our behavior while this is still a modest thing. But there is yet already in us a light, unless perchance they think they have a great light to whom the truth says, “When you have done all things that have been commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have only done what was our duty’ ” [Luke 17:10]. But you will say that He advises this to be said out of humility. Certainly out of humility, but would it ever be said against the truth?
(3) There is a difference of obligation between a man’s servant and the Lord’s servant. A man in service to a man does not owe him everything that he is and can accomplish but has certain prescribed limits to his responsibility. But whatever we are, whatever we can be, we owe it all to God, for from Him come all the powers of our soul, all the members of our body, all the beginnings of our good behavior. Bernard (Sermon de verb. Orig.): “Even though someone seems to do for his neighbor more than is his duty, yet he never renders to God all that he owes.” From the light of nature the Philosopher recognizes that one cannot pay back his parents with an equivalent price. All the less can man, God’s creation, do all the works already due Him beforehand.