Today, we will start talking about becoming a more effective servant of our Lord. To start this off, we will be talking about the “Attitude of a Servant”. Attitude as the dictionary defines it:
A settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.
All of us were called to be holy and blameless in His sight and to be adopted sons and daughters (Ephesians 1:4-5) of God. In Mark 9:35 it says; “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” This tells us that the way to righteousness is humbling ourselves before the Lord and becoming a servant to other of all.
But what should be the attitude of the servant?
Recognizes his Lord – In verse 13, Jesus mentioned that his disciples are calling him Teacher and Lord and Jesus did not denied it. He even admitted it. The first thing that we can see here is that the disciples first and foremost know their Lord. They know who they are listening to. They have confidence to whom they are getting the teachings, the instructions.
There are many people who claims to be Christians yet they can’t even define or reiterate what they believe. They know the Teacher by name, but does not recognize Him as the real Teacher. For them He is someone who is holy and taught people about righteousness. However, in spiritual terms they haven’t recognized Him for if they did, lives would have been changed and righteousness will indeed be visible.
It’s all but going back to the basic question? Do you know our Lord? Do you know who is our Lord? If you do, then you will make Him Lord of your life, you will believe of the salvation that He gave, of the forgiveness of sins that he paid. And with these, your life will never be the same again.
Submits to his Lord – It’s not the other way around. It is not the Lord submitting to the servant. Jesus himself made it clear in verse 16 “a servant is not greater than his master.” Here we see the picture that our Lord is supposed to have power over us.
As servants, we have to be willing to be under his command, and whatever happens to him, we should also be willing to face as such. If some people will persecute the master, expect that you will also be persecuted by the same people. Nonetheless, we will continue to be bound to our Lord and we should not turn our backs from Him.
Submission is also a practice of humility. When we submit to the Lord, it also say that we are humbling down ourselves to the Lord allowing Him to work in us. We are allowing Him to make the necessary changes in our lives. Doing it in our own does not work at all. It requires 100% submission.
Follow his Lord – Following the Lord is a good attitude of a disciple. It is in fact the essence of being a disciple. If we truly submit, we also follow. We have to follow His words, His commands, and His love. This is what John 15:8-17 says. We ought to love one another.
Here in our passage, the Lord was demonstrating how exactly that we can be a servant. Here we see that washing of the feet is the outcome of loving one another. The Lord is demonstrating to us how to express that love and how bless others by that love.
There are lot of things in the Bible concerning God’s commands. And we ought to abide in it. The fruit of the Spirit has to be visible. Being a mere claimer of being a Christian does not make anyone a Christian, but it is his actions that will testify about it. Even the wicked can seemingly do good things. But behind all that, it is but a rotten lust for power and of flesh. Our actions is the manifestation of w
Conclusion:
Philippians 2:5-8
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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