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Monthly Archives: July 2008
Slave Esteem
ByBelieving It Is Better To Give Than To Receive
The gospel of self-esteem is proudly preached at the high schools of Orange Country. Students are encouraged to look inside, find the good and follow their hearts. The way to greatness, they are told, is in being yourself.
Jesus had something radically different to say. He said the way to greatness wasn’t in regarding yourself highly, but esteeming yourself as a slave.
Matthew 10:26-28
Have No Fear
26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (ESV)
- 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.
Jesus says that to be first, we must become slaves. I’m trying to think how this line would come across at high school graduation ceremonies in Orange County. Students are incessantly told that everything they need is within them and to spend their life pursuing their own dreams. Instead, Jesus commands a life of servitude.
As Christians, the challenge for us is who are we going to believe: the popular worldly wisdom or the paradoxical truth of Jesus. While it is easy to say Jesus is right, do our lives show a servant’s heart? Do we wake up in the morning thinking about what we want to do that day or how we can help others? Do we walk into a room looking for what we are going to get or what we are going to give? We show that we understand Jesus when we do what he says.
Towards the end of the book of Acts, there is a quote from our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a quote from any of the gospel books. In fact, I don’t even know when Jesus said it. But as the apostle Paul is talking to the leaders of the church in Ephesus, he quotes Jesus as saying:
35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” (ESV) -
Acts 20:35
Jesus was living proof of this.
Philippians 2:6-7
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. (ESV)
says that even though Jesus was by nature God he took on the nature of a slave. He served us by dying on the cross for our sin. Because of this God has now exalted him to the highest place and given him the name above all names. Someday every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let us follow his example and become slaves ourselves. Let all of us esteem service as the more blessed way to live.
Take a moment right now to think about how you can serve someone today!
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