What Does It Truly Mean To Serve?

    I think we all understand how important it is to serve within our Christianity. I mean, at least that's what Jesus did, obviously we should too. But I think the question we first need to ask is, why did Jesus serve? Was it because He knew it was the right thing to do? No! He did it simply out of His love.

Is this the common reason why we have served in the passed? Does it matter? I believe it does because, seriously, what good is anything if it is not out of love? That was Jesus' biggest commandment. (Mat 22:37-40) But why do we serve? Do we serve because it is the “right” thing to do, or simply because we love?

It fascinates me to hear of all the different ways we, the body of Christ, serve others. This can be as small as raising a church fund to as huge as a family moving to Africa dedicated to missions work. Why "do" any of these things? Is it because choosing Africa over an Xbox filled summer is the “right” thing to do? Or maybe making a pie for the your poor neighbor is the “right” thing to do? … Or is it simply because we love? If you think about it, it doesn't take a spiritual Christian to “do the right thing”, anyone can do that. but it does take a relationship with Christ to actually love people. No really, think about it, I mean really love them!

I think there has been a huge gap missing within spiritual growth in the church due to this single issue. Every church in America and across the globe can “do the right thing”. But is it really the right thing if love is not the source of our service? Business in the churches will function properly, college students can still barely manage a 2 week missions trip, and we can all talk to strangers about Jesus. But if there is no love in any of these actions, despite their “functionality”, is it not all for nothing?

Okay, so now that I have given my own definition for what it means to “serve”, let me share the meat of my discussion. The only way to serve as Jesus did is to first and foremost “learn how to love”. Learn how to love?... say what?... You can't just “learn” how to love!
This is true. Love is the fruit of the the Holy Spirit shining through our life. The only way the Holy Spirit can shine is by us first knowing Christ. In our flesh, we do not have the compacity to love, which can only come from the Spirit. If the Spirit is within, He will serve through us. Serving "enough" should never be a concern if we already love. If we love, we should have no problem serving. It will come natural.

So yea, to keep it simple... We simply must first know Christ so that He can further love through us and furthermore... “serve”. So if we are doing the serving, it isn't service. If Christ is serving through us in love, bingo.

This is only my opinion. Thanks for reading.