31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity — Day 22
March 13th, 2008 Posted in 31 Days toward Spiritual Maturity, Growth
SERVING WITH CHRIST — Serving Like Christ
What was Jesus like? I suppose that question could be answered in many ways, but there’s one description of Jesus that ranks at the top. Let’s allow Jesus to tell us in His own words how He saw Himself: “But I am among you as one who serves.” (Luke 22:27). He said that He was a servant.
The previous level of the road to maturity involved BECOMING LIKE CHRIST. One of the key ways of becoming like Him takes us to the next level of the road toward spiritual maturity: we’re supposed to be servants, like He was.
Serving others is the key to success in the business world. “Service is our business” is the spoken or unspoken motto of many companies. Any business that provides bad service won’t be in business for long, and this is especially true of those companies called “service industries.” When we decide to follow Christ, we buy into His “company” called the Kingdom of God. It’s the ultimate service industry!
As important as serving is in order to be a success in business, and in life in general, it still isn’t a very attractive way for most people to live. People often want to exert power, to be in charge of other people. As followers of Jesus, we’re not supposed to give in to this tendency. Jesus said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25)
No one in the history of humanity has had greater influence than Jesus. A significant factor in His incomparable influence is that He came to Earth to serve. If we want to be people of influence, we must be servants like He was.
Dave
