In Mark 10:43-45 Christ tells his disciples, "Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first, must be slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve…" From those words, we can say that the primary employment of a Child of God is to serve; more than that, to be a servant to all. If you are uncomfortable with the term “serve” or “servant” then another word used for servant or service is “minister.” Erwin, in his book, The Jesus Style, writes: "Servanthood is the loving choice we make to minister to others." Here's the point: from the moment you become a believer, the whole purpose of your life is re-oriented. Your life is now a ministry. Think about it, the whole reason for the First Advent of Christ was to benefit you and me! Jesus Christ came to make life better for all of us; to free us from the bondage of sin and shackles of selfishness, so that we may partake of His matchless gift of grace. He came – not for personal glory – but to transfer His glory into our lives. Yet, oftentimes, we are too much like James and John in Mark 10:35: “Master, we want you to do for us whatever we ask…” Revealing our inherent lust for recognition, power, position, and greatness. At times we even command God (with spiritual sounding phrases) to serve us! We boastfully call ourselves kings and priests with a mental picture of some Medieval monarchy as our model, forgetting that our original model – our King – or Messiah – is Jesus Christ. He wore a crown, not made of gold, but thorns. His robes were of service, humility and suffering. He bore in Himself the needs (spiritual, emotional and physical) of the entire world. Then He invited each of us to participate with Him in redemptive suffering. It became popular theology to declare that the sufferings of Jesus enable us to escape life's difficult experiences. We know He bore our sickness, our emotional turmoil, our material poverty – as well as our sins. We claim that that fact enables us to live free from debt, illness and anxiety. The conclusion results – as a child of God, I am exempt from the common sufferings of humanity. But, on closer consideration it seems that repeatedly we are invited to participate with Him in redemptive suffering. He suffered to minister to man. We are here on this earth to serve – not to be served. How we can best be of service is determined by God. What we must do is view every occurrence in life as either: (1) An opportunity to minister; or (2) Preparation for the next opportunity to minister. Too many of us (out of our dislike of having our ordinary comfortable course of life disturbed) are missing countless opportunities for usefulness. God’s servant wants to benefit the Kingdom of God through service.
