Servants Do the Work of the Master
Some people accuse Christians of being so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good! That should never be the case, because servants of God do the work of the Master. And our God would never be content with us just standing around gazing at Him but doing no good in this world.
Think of it: Jesus himself didn’t sit around and talk about God all day. Sure, he did do that a lot. But then he got up, and he did the work of God, which was to serve the people.
He said “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Mark 10:42–45 NIV)
For Jesus, the ultimate way of serving God, was to serve God’s people in this world! And it’s the same for us. We are “saved to serve”, as the saying goes. We’re saved by God, to serve Him by doing his work in the world.
Service to Humanity
John Wesley once famously wrote that “The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness”. In other words, if we are so focused on our own spirituality that we start neglecting people, we are not really holy at all. If we try to serve God without serving people, we are not really serving God at all.
Have you heard the name Harriet Tubman? She was born into slavery in the 1820s and had a terrible abusive upbringing. But as an adult she felt as strong call from God to serve her people. She began to travel by night, rescuing slaves, and guiding them to freedom. She had a network of secret roads and alleyways she would travel, many disguises she would wear, so that she could move about in secret and get to those who were oppressed to free them. She eventually became known as “Moses”! Because her life’s mission was setting God’s people free from slavery. Years later when she died, the words “Servant of God” were put on her tombstone.
Rightly so! Because a servant of God is one who does the work of God in caring for his people, setting them free and showing them the love of Christ.
Outward-Focused Servanthood
My great fear for my church is that we become an inward-focused church. That we become so interested in our own little thing that we’re doing here on a Sunday, that nobody outside of that gate even knows about us. How can we be serving God, if we don’t show the love and grace of God to people outside of our walls?
I ask myself often: if we had to close our doors as a church, would our community around us suffer for it? Or would they not really even notice?
When people outside of our churches look at us, what do they see? Self-absorbed, self-interested, careless, people? Or servants? People who serve the Master by being his hands and feet in this world?
Be a servant of God, not just by worshipping Him with songs of praise, and reading your Bible and praying, but by serving His people with love and compassion every day.
