Serving God

The call of all Christians is well known. We are called to serve God. Easy. Short. Not in question. Or ... is it? No, no, not really in question. The command to serve God is everywhere. But I suspect that we can get a little confused about what that means, and the confusion can be quite large.

If you read through the book of Job, you will come across this startling statement:

"Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or profit if you make your ways perfect?" (Job 22:3).

The topic? Pleasing God. And Eliphaz here is pointing out the obvious -- God is already perfect. He does not need our help to be pleased. It is only our confusion that makes the statement startling. You see, we think in terms of "pleasing God" as if God has some sort of lack in satisfaction that we need to fill. Of course, when I say it you see the problem, but we don't typically think about it clearly enough and miss it.

We are commanded to serve God. Clearly Jesus said, "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only" (Luke 4:8). We know that "No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money" (Luke 16:13). Clearly that tells us we are to serve God and not money. Yes, we are to serve God. But Jesus also said something very interesting: "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt 20:28). Think about that. Jesus, God Incarnate, came ... to serve. Now that is startling.

It is my suspicion that, if you chase down all the rabbit trails, you'll keep coming to the same place. We are commanded, for instance, to "pray without ceasing". Prayer is a request for help from God, and unceasing prayer is a constant expression of need. It is ... a service request. "Dear God, could you please help me out here?" Or how about this? We are told that we are to be "casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). God is expected to take care of our worries. We are, in fact, supposed to worry about nothing because we're giving those things to God. Then there's Jesus's command, "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matt 5:16). Now think about that. If I do good works, why would the Father get the glory?

I'm building an alternative perspective here. If we are to pray and to rest in God and to count on God, who is it that is doing the serving? Is it us, or is it God? The answer, of course, is "Yes". "Oh, thanks, Stan, that's clear as mud." No, think about it. We are commanded to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" and then told why: "It is God who is at work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure." Are we to serve God? Yes! How are we to do that? How are we able to do that? The only way we can possibly do that is if God is working in us to give us the willingness and ability to do it.

It seems to me, when the whole story is examined, that, while we are indeed commanded to serve God, we will find that we serve a God who serves. Like Jesus washing the feet of His disciples, God works in us to clean us up, to enable our service, to obey, to worship. He gets the glory (Matt 5:16) because our good works are because of His work in us. While we are serving God, then, it turns out that we have a serving God. (Now ... try to find something like that in some other religion.)