Parable of the Master and Servant Parable of the Master and Servant The Parable of the Master and Servant is a parable told by Jesus in the New Testament, found only in Luke's Gospel (). The parable teaches that when somebody "has done what God expects, he or she is only doing his or her duty." The parable reads as follows: This parable suggests that "even the best of God's servants are still unworthy because they have only done their duty and no more." Nobody, "no matter how virtuous or hardworking, can ever put God in his or her debt." William Barclay relates the parable to
Parable of the Good Samaritan wounded man. In his view, the help received from a hated Samaritan is like the kingdom of God received as grace from an unexpected source. John Calvin was not impressed by Origen's allegorical reading: Francis Schaeffer suggested: "Christians are not to love their believing brothers to the exclusion of their non-believing fellowmen. That is ugly. We are to have the example of the good Samaritan consciously in mind at all times." Other modern theologians have taken similar positions. For example, G. B. Caird wrote: The meaning of the parable for Calvin was, instead, that "compassion, which an enemy showed to