God never stops sustaining the universe we inhabit. He never gets tired of giving. And He never gets tired of answering your prayers.
On one day, you might pray that it will not rain so your local Church picnic isn’t ruined, and on the next, you might pray that it will rain so that your garden will grow. God hears both prayers with equal interest and no fatigue—and He answers!
God is, in fact, the greatest servant of all time. Scripture reveals that this particular attribute of God—being a servant—can make you great as well.
In Matthew 20, when the mother of James and John came to Christ and sought more preeminence for her sons, Jesus responded that only God the Father can give positions of authority in His Kingdom (Matthew 20:20-21). God the Father is the greatest giver of all.
Verse 24: “And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren.” Not only were the two seeking preeminence, but the other 10 were upset that they were. All 12 were somewhat competitive as unconverted young men.
Christ put things in perspective for them. He said, “Whoever wants to be the great man among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all” (verse 26-27; Moffatt). This is all it takes to be great! How simple that is.
It should not come as a surprise that God is infinitely concerned with serving. And since He is, we should be too. Let’s learn more about this great attribute of God. If we implement it ourselves, we can become more like Him.
The Two Great Commandments
1. What is one word that sums up God? 1 John 4:8.
Most people think of love as being a feeling or an emotion—something you fall into. But God’s love—what God is—is quite different from the popular definition of love.
In The Missing Dimension in Sex, Mr. Armstrong wrote, “If I had to define love in four words, I would say, ‘Love is an unselfish outgoing concern’ for the good and welfare of the one loved. Love is primarily on the giving, serving, sharing side of the fence—not on the getting, taking, factional, striving side. It is not selfish.”
There is a strong correlation between love and service. God’s love is about serving others! In order to become more like God, then, we must serve as He does.
2. What is love, more specifically? 1 John 5:3.
The love of God is keeping His commandments. It is an action. God’s law is broken down into Ten Commandments, and those Ten Commandments can be summed up by two great commandments. If these two great commandments entirely sum up God’s law, we can be sure that they deal with love.
3.What is the first great commandment that sums up God’s law? Matthew 22:36-38; Mark 12:29-30. Does loving God properly mean that we must put Him first above all things? Luke 14:26; Matthew 6:33; Exodus 20:3.
To “hate” in Luke 14:26 means to “love less by comparison.” If we do not love God more than our best friends, siblings and even our parents, then we are not fulfilling the first and great commandment!
If we are to become more like God, who is constantly serving us, then we must serve Him first and foremost in our daily lives.
4. What is the second great commandment that sums up God’s law of love? Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31.
Whereas we love God more than ourselves, we love the people around us as ourselves—or as much as we love ourselves. As human beings, we naturally tend to want to serve the self. We go shopping for ourselves; we play the sports that we have fun playing; we find hobbies that we enjoy. All of these things are perfectly fine—but if we do all of these things for ourselves, God’s law of love says we should be serving other people just as much.
Serving Fulfills God’s Law
1. Does love fulfill God’s law? Romans 13:8, 10.
Remember, love is an action. Therefore, when God says to love those around us as much as we love ourselves, He means that there are specific actions we can take to show our care and concern for those around us. One of the ways we can show love to those around us is by serving them!
God loves everyone, and He gives us His law so that we can learn to love everyone as well. Serving can help us become more like God because it is a way that we show love toward Him and our fellow man. In other words, serving is a way that we can fulfill God’s law of love!
2.If you serve God’s brethren, who are you actually serving? Matthew 25:34-40.
If we serve God’s brethren in the pcg, God tells us that we are serving Him directly. This gets back to the two great commandments—love toward God and love toward neighbor. We are supposed to love God above all else—but within the category of loving God also falls loving God’s people. Therefore, we are to love God’s people—the brethren we see at services each week—more than ourselves. We are to love them like we love God! And if we do, we will automatically put their needs before our own. We will automatically serve them. And if we serve them, then God says we are also serving Him!
Therefore, we can show love toward God by showing love toward God’s brethren. We can fulfill the law by serving! Service represents God’s way of life: love.
Be a Profitable Servant
1. When we serve God, does He expect us to give Him our best? Acts 5:1-10.
Here is a case where Ananias and Sapphira were giving a lot to the apostles, but they kept back part of what they made while professing that they brought the whole amount. The land was theirs. There was no obligation placed upon them to sell it. And even after they sold it, the money was theirs. They didn’t have to give it as an offering. The problem was that they had volunteered to give it all to the apostles—and then they didn’t. It wasn’t that they didn’t give enough. They just weren’t being honest with what they gave. They didn’t give God everything they had promised—they didn’t give God their best. And God took their lives for it!
Serving goes a lot further than just fulfilling a certain list of requirements.
2. Are we supposed to serve everyone, or just people who we like or who will give us something in return? Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:30.
To truly fulfill God’s law, serving must be unconditional. Remember, God is love—His every thought is consumed by serving and giving to others. If we are going to be more like God, we must be willing to serve anyone and everyone.
3. What kind of sacrifice, or service, does God want? Romans 12:1.
In the context of the Bible, we often associate the word “sacrifice” with the ancient Israelites, who offered up a lot of dead animals as sacrifices to God. This scripture, however, talks about a living sacrifice. It means that God expects us to dedicate our lives to serving Him and His Work so completely that it is like we are sacrificing our lives for Him—just like those animals were sacrificed to Him in ancient Israel. But instead of dying like those animals did, we are to live each day as a sacrifice. We are to do anything and everything we can to serve God!
4. Does serving God—being a living sacrifice—go beyond doing just what is expected of us? Luke 17:10.
Profit is a business term that, according to ahdictionary.com, means: “Financial gain … usually calculated as income in excess of costs or as the final value of an asset in excess of its initial value.” Profit is the amount of money you make above and beyond the expenses and taxes that your product also incurs. It is the extra part left over—the amount that is completely earned.
Thus, when God is asking for us to be profitable servants and to give ourselves as a living sacrifice, He’s asking us to serve above and beyond what we would normally do! If we do, it means that we are better obeying God, and we are becoming more like Him!
5. Will God ultimately bless us for being profitable servants? Proverbs 11:24-25; Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35.
Although it may seem counterintuitive to our natural minds, serving will actually make us happier—God promises to bless us if we focus on giving and serving rather than getting and being served ourselves.
God is perfect—He serves and loves perfectly. Our goal is to become more like God (Matthew 5:48). A good tool for developing godly character is serving. Implement this tool where you can in your life, and you can be more like God.