Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Yesterday’s post looked at the ultimate long life: Eternity. The challenge is that to keep eternal life we must give up our love for this life in the world. Jesus follows that statement with today’s instruction: The one who serves Jesus will follow Him and be with Him. Always.
This puts me in mind of the story in Matthew 19 about the rich man. Jesus tells him that to be “perfect” he needs to sell everything, give to the poor, and follow him. The rich man goes away sad, and the disciples, knowing that we all have “riches” of some sort, ask; “Who then can be saved?” I love the answer that Jesus gives them:
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Jesus doesn’t leave us alone and say, “If you want to be with me, keep up!” Instead, the Good Shepherd knows his sheep and they know Him. Jesus understands our weakness. Yet like a weight lifter who is always striving to be stronger and pump a few more pounds of weight, there is always more we can do for our Lord.
Let’s Discuss: What are some ways that we can serve our Lord here and now?
Love one another as Christ loves his church, which is the body of believers.
I agree with Robster. Living out the great command to love God and love others is essential (And it fulfills the whole law – Matthew 22: 37 – 40). We can look for ways to do this and put action to our faith. We can use the gifts God has given each of us to build up His church. That will look different for each person. We can also do our part to fulfill the great commission as a response to our love for God and people. We can be praying for those in our sphere of influence who do not know Jesus and look for ways to serve them and share with them. There are many ways to put action to our love for God and people, but it is important that we do act in some way.
Thank you both! You are so right!
One of the ways that we love each other is forgiving the hurts. Sometimes the hurts are intentional, sometimes they are accidental, often they are unknown to the one who caused them. This is an area I lean hard on the Lord for help in. He always answers back, “… and forgive others as you want me to forgive you.” (Paraphrase)
Thank you Rob for your comment, it brings into focus the wide spread of things we do to serve God.