Being a Servant of Christ Jesus

We have often heard the phrases "servant of God", "serving God" and such. And often these kinds of attributes are reserved for those who we often refer to as the clergy - whose "job" it is to serve God. The rest of us enjoy and celebrate the grace the mercy of God who died for us and gave his life so that we might be accepted and adopted into the family of God. Celebrate - we should do.

Our identity in relation to God is that we are his children. But what is our identity in relation to the way we live our lives in this world. Yes, we are children. But are we children who are merely recipients but not givers like our Saviour? Is there an added dimension to our identity as Children of God that we must consider carefully and respond to?

In Romans 1:1, Paul calls himself first a servant of Christ Jesus. The word servant here carries the idea of being a slave but not one who is in bonded labour - by some kind of coercion. But a bond-servant - One who has willingly offered himself as a permanent slave to his master. It is a provision made for in the Law (Exodus 21:5,6) for slaves who so appreciate and are connected to the master, his family and work that they can willingly offer themselves as bond-servants to them.

So Paul in effect is saying, "I have received grace from God, I have received his mercy and I hear his call to partner with what he is doing in the world today, so I freely offer myself as his Servant for life". Now, we know that Paul played many other roles in life - he was an apostle, a worker who earned his daily bread by working with leather, he was a mentor to many young and upcoming people who desired to serve God, he was an advisor o many of the churches he was overseeing - but beyond all this there was an identity that he carried that influenced everything he did - He was a servant of Christ.

Servants don't work to be in the limelight - their focus is on the master and what he needs. Servants are usually in the corners not distracted but fully engaged and focused on what the master needs at any given moment. This is how Jesus put it

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” Luke 17:7-10

Servants put the needs of the master above theirs. This is not relegated to one day of the week when we go to church. But this is a lifestyle we carry.

As disciples of Christ, serving God is not an option but the only adequate response to all that he has done for us. Remember, each of us were created for a purpose. And the Cross of Christ was just the first step in unlocking that purpose in our lives. There's nothing we need to do to earn our salvation before God. Once we are saved, we recognize that this salvation is not some mystical ethereal experience but it is one that affects every part of our being. That's why Paul said

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

This week, think about this - Are you a servant of God? Have you willingly offered your life to serve him? If not, why the wait? Is there something holding you back? Talk to God about it because the best kind of service to God is one that is done as a response to who he is and what he is doing inside of us and not one that is done out mere obligation. May our service to God be an overflow this week of his love, his grace, mercy and the call we feel to be part of what he is doing in our city.