What does it mean to be a servant? Having grown up in church, I always thought serving was helping with church events and being a part of a ministry. It made sense based on how involved I was at church and how much I helped (granted, sometimes I was volun-told into helping) with VBS, Sunday school, junior church, trunk-or-treats and egg hunts, running slides during worship, going with the youth group to serve through odd jobs, even a communion meditation on youth Sunday. I was all over the place at church, in part because my dad was the youth pastor for most of my life (though switched to “adult” pastor when I was in high school). I never really knew anything other than serving through church.
Don’t get me wrong; this wasn’t a bad thing. It just led me to believe that if you’re not serving through church, then you’re not serving. However, that's clearly not what the Bible says.
Jesus taught throughout his ministry that we should be servants of God and our lifestyles should reflect that. We ought to give to the needy (Matthew 6) and to love God and love people (Matthew 22). When we help the hungry or thirsty, strangers or those who need clothes, the sick or prisoners, we are serving Him! In Matthew 25, Jesus explains that if you do these things for others, you are being a servant of Him, but if you don't do these things for others, then you aren't effectively serving Him. While helping with various church ministries are excellent ways of serving your fellow believers, servanthood expands far beyond the walls of the building. Matthew 20 says Jesus came to serve, not to be served (even though that's what He deserves), and we are called to follow His example.
We are all servants of something or someone whether we realize it or not. We can either choose to serve God or sin. Romans 6 uses the term "slaves" instead of servants, but the concept was pretty much the same 2,000 years ago. We either serve, or are slaves to, our sinful nature by doing what God tells us not to, or we serve God by obeying His commands and devoting our lives to Him. There really isn't any in-between. I wrote recently on the lukewarm nature of many Christians who aren't living overly sinful lives, but who aren't serving God either. These people must be considered part of the "slaves to sin" category because they aren't living for God or serving others, but are instead living for themselves and their own sense of self-righteousness, not true righteousness that comes through serving God. During Jesus' ministry, the religious leaders were clear examples of this since they always acted on behalf of increasing their social status (by trying to sit at the best seats at the table or proclaiming unnecessarily long prayers in the streets). Today, these are people who come to church and want to seem important without actually doing what's most important: helping people.
Lately I've seen clear examples of this among fellow believers. There's a big difference between someone asking how you or your family is doing (which my family's had a burdensome couple years) because they genuinely care (by not pushing you to talk about it or by praying for you without asking for details that are painful to talk about) or because they are a busy-body who wants to gossip about it (which is evident by how they react to you telling them anything). The first is an example of someone showing love to another person, the second is someone who is actually hurting the other person whether they meant to or not. The first is a servant of others, the second living in sin (yes, gossip is a sin, see Romans 1:29-30 and 2 Cor. 12: 20). This is obviously just one example from my life, but you can also see who (even in your own church) is living in sin by the way they treat others and live their lives. Are they serving others and trying to help them and meet their needs? Or are they more focused on what they want from you? Also, I want you to ask yourself: which one of these am I? Then point out specific examples in your own life of how you've been living and see which one of these categories your actions fall into. It'll give you a pretty good idea of whether you're a servant of God or of sin.
Here's a few questions you can ask yourself if you don't know where to start looking for these examples of serving:
-How did I treat my cashier? Did I encourage them or ask them about their day? Or did I yell at them or talk about them behind their back?
-What did I do in my spare time? Did I make time to reach out to other people around me? Or did I spend my time doing whatever I wanted to do? (This can also help you determine your priorities and spot anything you may have made more important than God in your life, aka idols.)
-What am I involved in at church? Do I regularly serve the youth, congregation, or community through ministries? Or do I just show up and then go home? (Because while it's not the only way to serve, it's a good place to start too.)
-How did I react to other drivers on the road? Was I patient with them? Or did I flip them off and yell at them?
-How have I treated my friends or coworkers? Was I building them up and helping them when they need it? Or did I joke about worldly things with them and talk about them behind their backs?
-How did I treat my family? Did I help my parents with chores or my kids with homework, and do so without complaining? Or did I disrespect my parents or yell at my kids and complain about them?
In case you couldn't tell (you probably could, but I'm just being extra clear here), the first examples listed are ways you could serve others around you, and the second are signs you're serving sin and the world instead.
These are just a few examples of what areas of your life you can start being a servant in. We're called to be a servant all the time as it is, but I know everyone has to start somewhere. Colossians 3 tells us to focus on what's godly, not worldly, and that starts with the little things we do throughout the day, such as driving to work or waiting for the slowest cashier you've ever met to finish checking out what you're buying. In everything we do, we are either serving God or sin, and we're called to serve God and will be rewarded in heaven for doing so (or be repaid for your sin if you choose to serve sin instead). In Mark 10, Jesus teaches that those who want to be great in the kingdom of God must be lowly servants. We don't live as servants for the instant gratification or earthly rewards, we do it for God and will receive our reward in the next life (in which we will spend eternity with God!).
I want to challenge you now. I want you to pick one area of your life this week and be intentional about using that time or activity to serve God. Maybe it's just serving others by how you treat them in the store, or during your commute, or at lunchtime, or even at home when it's just you and your family. There's lots of little things we can do to start being a servant, so start by picking one and start using it to serve God and others. Then, pick another area, and another, until your life is devoted to serving.
Let's start being the servants God wants us to be.
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