Service

A life of service

We have a God who serves us. This thought should immediately colour the way we think of service. Jesus came, he tells us, not to be served but to serve. We believe God has come to us in human form—yet not to have us exclusively fall down at His feet but to lead by example in a life of serving.

What do we mean when we say that Jesus is our example as a servant? We are going to look at five up-sides of Jesus servanthood.

The purpose of Jesus coming was, and is, so widely misunderstood. Jesus had been with his disciples for three years and taught them so much but still they had not seen his work for what it was. Why? Did he not make himself clear? No, Jesus was perfectly clear. His whole example of life had been to put others first but people see what they want to see. In the end he had to spell it out with words, “I have come not to be served but to serve.” Jesus was the servant king. Serving was not an add on. Not a gesture now and again. Jesus was a servant. If we are to live in his example we too are to be servants.

Jesus was human just as we are human, as well as being God, and he had the choice about the way he lived his life. 

It is in Jesus prayer to His Father God at the close of His earthly life that we get the little phrase which sums us Jesus life choice. “Not my will but your will,” he said in the prayer at the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was human just as we are human, as well as being God, and he had the choice about the way he lived his life. Satan approached him in the desert at the beginning of His ministry and laid out the choices before Him but Jesus chose the life of servanthood that God had sent him to live. Just like Jesus we have to make the choice to live lives of servanthood because the default sinful position is to put ourselves first. Our choice to follow Christ is a choice to follow His example too.

All that we do is to bring glory to God.

All this servanthood was not to make himself feel good as he smiled on his well cared-for flock. Many times, without really knowing it, our motives for serving others is to make us look better, our acts of service are underlined by wrong motive. Jesus motive was always to bring glory to God. This should be our motive too: all that we do is to bring glory to God.

I wonder if you know what it is like for someone to come and help you but they didn’t actually do what you really needed. This has happened to me sometimes and I wonder if I have done the same to others. I think this happens because we are not truly looking at the needs –at what is required at a deeper level than that which is initially evident. Jesus saw into the heart of people and understood their true needs. We would do well to follow in his footsteps. Sometimes God will give us divine understanding of a situation and we will know to say or do something specific. Other times we serve as best we can from our life of faith. Either way God can minister though the service we offer but let us serve in the example of Jesus looking for deeper need than is obvious on the surface.

Being a servant in the vein of Jesus does not mean that we work ourselves into an early grave.

Being a servant in the vein of Jesus does not mean that we work ourselves into an early grave. We are to bring glory to God remember, and to run ourselves down is not glorifying to God. Those who are emotionally and physically burnt out from working for God have mis-heard His call and/or are running about to other people’s agendas (I know it is hard when people put unrealistic expectations and demands on you). If you know others in this situation you need to tenderly help them; if you are in this situation yourself please seek godly rest. I know my own husband in ministry is mis-understood about taking his day of rest and great pressure is put on him to keep working because there is always work to do. But we must all remember that Jesus didn’t work all day everyday. He socialised with people. He spent time with only his close friends sometimes. He withdrew altogether after particularly demanding periods of ministry. To serve others is not to diminish yourself. Godly rest is a part of serving.

The Christian way of service, in the pattern of Jesus, is unusual.

The phrase ‘up-side-up’ is something that my youngest son says when normally people would say ‘right-way-up’. He is not wrong, but it catches my attention to notice more closely what he is saying because it is unusual. The Christian way of service, in the pattern of Jesus, is unusual. It will stand out and catch people’s attention in the world. Today I ask you to think closely about the call of Jesus on your life to be a servant to others.

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This article © Linda Faber 2006-2009.