GodSprings - 20, April, 2018

Whose Servant Am I?

James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
James 1:1

Lee Strobel in his book God’s Outrageous Claims shares the story of Bob Pierce the founder of World Vision which is the International Christian Relief Agency. Bob had advanced leukemia. In one of his visits to a colleague they were walking by a village when they saw a young girl lying on a bamboo mat next to a river. On approaching the girl they came to know that she had cancer and had only a short time to live.

Bob was annoyed and furious and demanded to know why she wasn’t in a hospital. His friend explained that she was from the jungle and wished to spend her last days next to the river where it was cool.  As Bob looked at her, he felt such compassion that he got down on his knees in the mud, took her hand and began stroking it. Although she didn’t understand him, he prayed for her. 

Afterward she looked up and said something. “What did she say?” Bob asked his friend. His friend replied, “She said, ‘If I could only sleep again, if I could only sleep again.’” It seemed that her pain was too great to allow her the relief of rest.

Tears came out from the eyes of Bob. Then he reached into his pocket and took out his own sleeping pills, the ones his doctor had given him because the pain from his leukemia was too great for him to sleep at night.

He handed the bottle to his friend and told him, “You make sure this young lady gets a good night’s sleep as long as these pills last.” Bob was ten days away from where he could get his prescription refilled. That meant ten painful and restless nights for him. Seeing his life Bob’s friend said, “When you decided to be a servant of the Lord and work of Him I never thought it would be such a costly affair.”

James, at the very beginning of this letter identifies himself of being a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. In our modern English we have two terms slave and servant. But the word or concept used here is doulos which means a bondservant – one who has voluntarily sold himself into slavery.

As we go through the whole of the letter of James we see that it conveys the servant-Lord relationship which we who claim to be Christians are to persevere. As we travel and journey we will have to put our servanthood into practice in the midst of suffering, in choosing our relationship with material wealth, and in many other issues.

Gayle D Erwin in his book The Jesus Style states – “To be a bondservant implies absolute obedience to the command of the master, absolute humility and absolute loyalty.” And he further states that “A servant’s job is to do all he can to make life better for others – to free them to be everything they can be. A servant’s first interest is not in himself but others….Servanthood is a loving choice we make to minister to others.”

We need to ask ourselves what brings utmost joy to us. Who have we chosen to serve? Today though we preach about Jesus’ humility and servant mind we love to be the professional or executive servant who first loves to bring joy to oneself and then to others.

In my work place, in my church, in my neighbourhood am I doing things which would bring glory to my Master. If I am a bondservant of God the word of God is law and there is no questioning His commands. It is the word of the man who has no interests of his own, because what s/he does, s/he does for God. His/her own profit and his/her own priorities and preferences do not enter into his/her calculations because loyalty is to Him whom s/he serves.

We surely can if we consider ourselves as bondservant of God and of Lord Jesus Christ. But that journey is going to be painful. It’s a journey of truth. It’s a journey of sacrifice. And at the same time it’s a choice – living according to worldly standards which thinks it’s only the end that matters and not the means or going according to godly standards where we stand and speak out for the truth and our life itself is a witness to the world. But remember choosing Godly standard is a costly affair because our Lord too had to pay a great price which was His life itself.