You are Called to Serve

Church Family:
Late one steamy summer night back in 1997, I found myself taken to a sugar cane and rice plantation in upper Uttar Pradesh, India. My buddy and I were told by a high-caste (the caste system is a birth-based social and hierarchy order) Brahmin to get into his vehicle to be guests at his son’s wedding. He smiled, so we followed his directions. Having survived the two-hour trip into the night, we arrived at the plantation along with hundreds of high-caste people. Immediately, as we walked to the torch lights that lit acres of land for this event, we saw bonded servitude—slavery—in full effect. The low-caste Dalits were considered bonded servants, working off a debt that they owed their master. However, the debt owed is often manipulated so that repayment becomes impossible, trapping the Dalit in a cycle of forced work. They had no freedoms and seemingly no way out. As the night went on and the Brahmins drank more alcohol, they became more abusive to the Dalits, to the point of one Dalit almost losing his life over not playing a drum fast enough. The wedding lasted all night with us arriving home at sunrise, with complete freedom, while the Dalits continued in bonded servitude, working off a debt they could never pay.

How about you? Do you serve God like a Dalit serving a Brahmin, from a heart of bonded servitude? Do you serve Jesus joylessly trudging along thinking that you have a debt that you must pay Him? This is called a debtor’s ethic.

If you think you must serve Jesus to pay off the debt of His lavish grace that He poured into your life then you become a slave to condemnation, paying a debt that you can never pay. It is impossible to pay off Jesus Christ with servitude because every step of obedience you take is totally dependent on more of His grace given. Therefore, every step of obedience that you take to work off that debt makes you go deeper into spiritual debt (2 Cor. 9:8).

Jesus Christ has set you wholly and finally free from the condemnation of bonded servitude, working off a debt that you can never repay (1 Pet. 2:16; 1 Cor. 9:19). Jesus Christ does not call you to serve Him as though He needs anything (Acts 17:24-25). And yet, in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:35–48, you are commanded to be a faithful, alert, wise servant of God in Christ.

So, how are we to fulfill our calling to joyfully serve Christ while at the same time knowing He personally has not come to be served by us? How does this work? Here it is, we have to get this, being a servant of Christ is embracing the truth that Christ has given you unique gifts to be used, not to directly turn around and serve Him, but to serve other people with them. God pours gifts into your life to be poured into the lives of others. This is your calling as a servant of Christ, managing what God has entrusted to you for the benefit of others for the glory of God. This command must interrupt your life with servanthood.

Jesus ends His parable in Luke 12:45–48, telling us that while our servant deeds unto others do not determine salvation, they absolutely demonstrate our salvation, and they will be made known at the judgment seat of Christ. Each of us as servants of Christ will be judged concerning how faithful we have been individually in serving others corporately (2 Cor. 5:10-11). This judgment will not be unto condemnation, but for God’s greater glory and our reward according to how we have served Christ by serving others.

Let Jesus’ call to servanthood awaken you to the opportunities to joyfully serve others around you with the unique gifts that God has given you for His glory.

See you Sunday, serving together: Steve