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‘A servant of Jesus Christ.’
Rom_1:1
Service is based on love. Can you help to love Him Who has done all for you?—to love Him dearly? and, loving Him, must you not wish to prove your love? must not your first thought be, ‘What can I do for Him?’
I. Service is a willing surrender of the whole man; and you are at once the most perfectly free and the most absolutely bound. In the strong imagery of Scripture you have ‘given your ear to be bored through with an awl, to fasten you to the post of the door of your Master’s house.’ That is, by a voluntary act—for the love you have to Him—you rivet yourself to the service of Christ and His house the Church, for ever; and from that moment you are, and you feel, and you can say, ‘I am Thy servant.’
II. The next thing which follows this is, that now you are placed in such close communication with your Master, He tells you all His secrets.—And this is the great privilege of the slaves of Jesus. I say slaves—that is the right word—they like to be, and to be called ‘slaves.’ It is God’s own Word, though we have translated it ‘servants.’ And where it is all affection, the lordship cannot be too unrestricted and too bound. But Jesus says to these slaves, ‘Henceforth I call you not slaves, for the slave knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.’ So that we get to know not the commands of God only, but His will.
III. And there is another feature in the ‘service’ which makes it unlike every other.—You serve ‘the King of kings and Lord of lords’; but you serve One Who was once a servant! And He can appreciate a servant’s work. He understands it all.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration‘An eminent Missioner says that he was once holding some special services when a woman came to him at the close of the Sunday morning service and said: “Oh, I would give anything to be in this work actively and actually. I would give anything to have some living part in the work that is going on here next week in winning men and women for Christ; but I don’t know what to do.” The Missioner said: “My sister, are you prepared to give the Master the five loaves and the two fishes you possess?” She said: “I don’t know that I have five loaves and two fishes.” The Missioner replied: “Have you anything that stands out at all in your life? Have you anything that you have used in any way especially?” No, she didn’t think she had. “Well,” said the Missioner, “can you sing?” “Well, yes, I sing at home, and I have sung before now in an entertainment.” “Well, now,” he said, “let us put our hand on that. Will you give the Lord your voice for the next ten days? You shall settle with Him at the end as to what you do then, but will you let the Master have your voice for the next ten days?” “I don’t think I can.” “You can sing at an entertainment—can’t you sing in order to save men?” “I will,” she said; and the Missioner says he shall never forget that Sunday evening he asked her to sing and she sang. She sang a Gospel message with the voice she had, feeling it was a poor, worthless thing, and that night there came out to the after-meeting into the inquiry-room one man who said it was the Gospel that was sung which had reached his heart. And from that day to this (and it is now many years ago) that man has been one of the mightiest workers for God in all England. It was brought about because the woman gave her whole self, in that decision, to the service of the Lord; she did what she could for Christ’s dear sake. It blessed her, and it glorified her service, and made it powerful for the salvation of men.’