Rejoice In Serving Others
The idea of serving others is almost a "foreign" idea in today's world when most say: "What's in this for ME?" or "The world OWES me, so pay up!"
However, Jesus' teachings did NOT promote either of these ideas.
"Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve' " (Matthew 4:10 ).
When we serve others in a manner pleasing to God, we are also serving God.
If we are serving others in order to receive the praise of men, then we are NOT serving God, we are serving self or the world, which is serving Satan. Jesus teaches we cannot serve two masters.
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24).
Jesus, not only taught others to serve, but He Himself served others.
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
In Hebrews 12:28, we are taught to "...serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear."
Jesus understood this principle and tried to help Martha understand it as she complained to Jesus that her sister Mary had left her to serve alone (Luke 10:40-42). Martha was "distracted with much serving..." She was cumbered, drawn away, over-occupied; she was too busy about the matter and "worried and troubled about many things." Can one rejoice in serving while in such a frame of mind as this? Certainly not! Jesus then taught Martha a very important lesson. Jesus was NOT teaching that serving others is not needed.
Only when we remember to FIRST "choose that good part, which will not be taken away" can we truly rejoice in serving God and others, and "...through love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13).
