Title: The Servant's Soul
soul of the servant
2005-08-10
I. Background of the text
In John 13, Jesus talked about leaving his disciples. When the disciples said that Jesus was leaving them, they began to be troubled in their hearts, and Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled, because you believe in God, and also believe in me” (John 14:1), and the Comforter Holy Spirit comforted them. He foretold that he would come. It was in the course of telling these stories that Jesus referred to “my commandments.”
II. 'My Commandments': New Commandments (13:34)
Until Jesus said these words, the only commandments were the commandments of God. Jesus himself introduced, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, I did not come to abolish it, but to make it perfect” (Matthew 5:17). As if the New Testament commandments exist)?
To understand this, we must first know that there is both a continuity and a discontinuity between the Old Testament and New Testament commandments. There is a continuity in the sense that there is no difference between the Old Testament commandments and the teachings of Jesus (the most important commandment is to love God), and the New Testament commandments, unlike the Old Testament commandments, are what bind us in action to the law. There is a qualitative discontinuity in the sense that it is not. Humans have already broken the covenant of works in Eden and have become desperate beings unable to do good. However, God gave them another covenant of works, the Mosaic Covenant. This is to make humans aware of how incompetent they are in keeping the law and doing good, so that they can look only at God.
However, we have not only the covenant of works but also the covenant of grace. This is a covenant based on God's unilateral grace, not by works as collateral. The covenant of grace was made by God's one-sided grace, and it is kept by grace given by God. This covenant of grace came to us immediately after the fall of man (when it was foretold that the descendants of a woman would break the serpent's head), and it has continued throughout the history of the Old Testament before Jesus Christ came to this earth. (Sacrifice is also part of this covenant of grace) The covenant of works only makes us fear and wary of sin, but does not give us the strength to overcome sin, but the covenant of grace gives us the strength to overcome sin. In the Old Testament, the commandments in the covenant of works, which are the narrow law, and the commandments in the covenant of grace, God's faultless self-revelation, and the covenant of grace, in the broad sense, were together. With this passing away, the commandments in the covenant of grace took on greater importance.
My commandment, the new commandment Jesus spoke of, is summarized as “Love one another, love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). That is, “serve with love” is the commandment of Jesus. This love has its basic root in love for God, and if we have love for God, it will surely flow into our outward life. It is love and service to neighbors.
III. Fulfilling the commandment of service: Faith and love are essential to fulfill the commandment of service.
A. Faith: The reason that faith in God and Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary is that we do not always understand the necessity of emptying ourselves of unjust self-love and loving our neighbors with the heart of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we don't understand why God gives us such great burdens and hardships to live up to our mission. Faith makes it possible to say an amen when not logically persuaded. Faith is the power that enables us to follow the will of the invisible God without being deceived by what we see.
B. Love: In the original meaning, to serve others is to humble yourself and live like his slaves. This quality of service is best revealed in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was humbled as a servant to serve us. Therefore, if we too want to serve others, we must first give up our dreams, our future, and everything we value and empty ourselves. There is no true service unless we thoroughly empty our self-love.
C. Objects and commandments are inseparable: the object of faith is God who gives the commandments and our Lord Jesus Christ. However, there is no separation between our belief in God and our faith in the commandments that God has given us. Therefore, those who have deep trust in God say Amen to all the commandments that God gives them. This is the same with love, so a deep love for God is a love for all that has to do with God. Therefore, our keeping the commandments of Jesus is evidence of our love for Jesus.
IV. soul of the servant
(1) : Beloved by the Father
God bestows wonderful spiritual blessings along with providential blessings on the souls of those who serve. Therefore, those who live in the service of abandoning themselves enjoy the secret operations of God that caresses the soul of the one who serves them at every moment. This is why Jesus said in the text that those who serve will be loved by the Father. We feel the touch of God in our service that penetrates deep into our souls and caresses our hearts. Therefore, the Christian faith is well understood in the life of practice of serving and devoting all the time.
Of course, there are times when we do not receive God's love even when we serve. It is a case of being forced to serve only formalities because of a sense of duty. Only service that comes from the depths of the soul affects the soul of those who serve. Also, we must not forget that God's love poured out on those who serve is not unchanging, but variable. No matter how much you serve, if hardships only overlap with hardships, it must be wrong service. However, it would be wrong to say that we would rather not serve than serve like this. Because God wants him to repent, not to slap him away. Right now, it seems that our body only wants a moment of laziness, but if we follow it, our body will want more and more evil things.
Bear in mind that the soul of an atheist believer cannot be pure. Is there a place for a mission that you cannot but serve with a sad heart? Is there a field of service that melts your heart every time you think about it? Those who forsake their mission prosper because God throws them on high to break them. Seeing those who shed tears to serve the Lord, the Lord sheds tears of love. I hope to serve more and become more loved saints. 2005-08-10