In his recent post, “Stop Calling Faithfulness a Sacrifice,” Stephen Kneale offers a counter-argument to a common attitude toward living the Christian life. Jesus tells His disciples in Luke 17:10 that, having obeyed God’s commands, we are still “unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.” As David writes in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit . . . and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise.”
We are not sacrificing anything for God when we are faithful. . . . Whatever it is that Jesus is calling us to, whatever commands of his that means we will be faithful in our circumstances, it is not a sacrifice to do them. These are the means of living life to the full. And God should know because, as the author of life, he is the one who best knows how to get the most out of it!
