Spiritual Practice:

Serving

Costly Kindness

By serving, we mean choosing to do something for other people with no consideration of receiving anything in return from them. Service is often done in secret, unseen by the spotlight of praise. A biblical servant sees needs and moves towards them at the expense of his or herself.

Imitating Christ

Who is the ultimate paradigm of service? Christ Jesus. In Paul’s call to lay down selfishness and take up servanthood amongst one another, he instructed the Philippians to have the mind of Christ among themselves (Philippians 2:5). His description of Christ’s mindset was his posture of servanthood in the mission of the gospel from beginning to end (Philippians 2:6-11). We serve like Jesus because he first served us. His identity as the God-man is wrapped up in his task as a servant: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

If we are called to serve like Jesus, then who, why, and how do we serve? Like Christ, we serve the Lord first and foremost. Colossians 3:23-24 states: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Second, we serve others out of the grace and gifts God has given us. 1 Peter 4:10-11 reads:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The who and the why show up in these passages. We serve others for their good and God’s glory through the power of Jesus. The combination of the passages above can be summarized this way:

Jesus glorified God by serving us → we serve Jesus by serving others for God’s glory.

Purity and Freedom

Two more important reasons for serving arise in Scripture, biblical purity and biblical freedom. Explaining the greater work of Christ as our ultimate high priest, the author of Hebrews makes clear that Jesus completely purifies us from sin by his sacrifice, and Hebrews offers the reason for giving us a clean conscience: to “purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14). We are cleansed in order to serve.

Lastly, we are set free to serve. Contrary to cultural conceptions of freedom, the Bible does not present freedom as the liberty to do whatever we want. Biblical freedom is being empowered with the liberty to submit to God and willingly use our liberty to serve others: “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

The way of Jesus. The glory of God. The power of a pure conscience. Freedom according to the Bible. This is why we give ourselves to the discipline of service.


How We're Called to Serve

So, how do we serve? Scripture gives us a few adjectives that should be evident in our service. We serve “heartily” (Colossians 3:23-24), fighting evil motives or hypocritical inner postures in our service. We serve with “gladness” (Psalm 100:2), working from real gratitude. Lastly, our service should be costly. Our model, Christ himself, paid an infinite price to serve us. To serve is to sacrifice. As Donald Whitley noted, “Service that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.”

Nobody is lacking in opportunities to serve. We are all serving others each day: kids, parents, neighbors, coworkers, church. The question is, are we serving heartily, joyfully, and sacrificially? Outside of these normal rhythms of service, this month evaluate at least one new opportunity to serve Christ by serving others. Biblical servanthood, like Christ, seeks out and meets needs. How can we leverage our gifts, time, and resources for the good of others?


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