When I think about what serving like Jesus looks like, I’m reminded of Jesus washing His disciple’s feet (John 13:1-17) and the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37). From these passages, 3 characteristics of God that stand out to me are love, compassion, and humility. I read a book about Servant Leadership and I loved how it related love to serving. Love is defined as, “intentionally caring or helping another person by doing something regardless of our feelings.” Compassion is defined as a “sympathetic concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others”, and humility as a “modest or low view of one’s own importance”. These three things are essential to serving like Jesus. Without them, we can’t effectively serve.
Jesus is one of the greatest servants of all time. In Matthew 20:28, He said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others”. As we continue to read through the Gospels, we see Jesus constantly serving those He encountered and constantly serving His Disciples. In John 13:14-15, Jesus washes the feet of His disciples at the last supper. After He finished washing their feet, He told them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set an example that you should do as I have done”. The King of Kings, the SAVIOR of the world, humbled Himself and washed the dirty feet of his disciples. What an honor for Jesus to do that!
From that simple act of humility from their leader, they learned what it means to truly serve and love as He does! The Apostle Paul said, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love (Galatians 5:13).
Another great example of serving like Jesus is found in Luke 10 when Jesus tells His disciples the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this parable, a man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jerico and was attacked by robbers and left for dead. A priest and a Levite saw the man and walked right past him, but the Samaritan had compassion and stopped to help him. Out of love, he made sure that the man was well taken care of. Jesus told His disciples the greatest commandment was to love Him and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). I wonder how this simple act of kindness impacted the man’s life. I bet he was so grateful and choose to do the same for someone else in need.
Just like the Good Samaritan realized, serving others and serving God is one of the most important principles of the Christian faith. God expects us to serve Him and those around us wholeheartedly.
Being in full-time ministry is teaching me what it means to truly be a servant of God. It is not always an easy task to serve others, but when we do, it pleases God and we glorify Him through our serving. Sometimes the people and places He calls us to serve can be stretching and challenging, but thankfully we don’t have to serve in our own strength, the Lord is with us every step of the way.
Every act of service we do for the Lord is not in vain, He will reward us for our obedience and faithfulness to Him. When we serve like Jesus we will impact the lives of those we serve and help change the world.
Given the current state of our world and specifically our country I wonder how different our world would be if we, especially believers, served like Jesus. If we truly loved one another as He commanded us to do? If we had compassion for one another? If we humbled ourselves and put the needs of others before our own? I like to think that it’s not too late for us to do all of these things. God has called us as believers to be His hands and feet to the whole world! We’ve been entrusted with such a beautiful task and have the opportunity to partner with our Heavenly Father to make a difference in the World.
Today I encourage you to serve like Jesus. Simply choose to love, have compassion, and walk in humility. The next time you see someone in need, stop and help them. Bless someone with an act of kindness. Make a difference in the world by serving God and others.