Serving God

 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’”

(Matthew 25:40 ESV)

As Christians, we know that we’re called to serve the Lord. But we often over-spiritualize this. We make it into something that's ethereal. We make it into something almost intangible or immaterial.

Serving God, to us, can be made primarily, or even fully, about spiritual disciplines. We can make it about prayer. We can make it about Scripture reading. And we can make it about worship. We can make it exclusively about practices that enable our personal relationship with Christ, as we like to think of it.

And please don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to say. These practices are, indeed, important. In fact, they’re essential. If we aren’t devoted to prayer, Scripture, and worship, something is wrong when it comes to our life of faith.

However, that being said, serving God is about so much more. And it’s simpler than we often make it out to be. It may seem, in a sense, to be far more mundane.

We see this in Matthew 25 as Jesus describes the final judgment. We’re told that when he comes in his glory, he’ll sit on his throne and separate the people from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And as we read this description, the basis of this separation, the basis of this judgment, is our actions. It’s our service.

We do have to be careful with this. We have to be careful with this because Jesus is in no way suggesting that we’re saved by our works. Our works, rather, reflect our faith in the Lord or our lack of it.

But he commends those on his right, he commends the sheep, because they had served him. And as they question how they’d done so, he answers with the words above. He tells them that as they did it to one of the least of these, his brothers, they’d done it to him.

As he condemns those on his left, we see something similar. He condemns them because they’d failed to serve him. And when they questioned how they’d failed, he told them that as they did not do to one of the least of these, they had not done it to him.

The simple point I’m trying to make is this: We serve the Lord as we serve our neighbor. And as we fail to serve our neighbor, we fail to serve the Lord.

Our service of God, then, includes many things. It means serving our spouse and children by preparing them a meal. It means serving our children by bathing them or changing their diapers. It means serving our family by cleaning the toilets and the showers. 

It means serving in the church. It means teaching Sunday School, serving as an usher during worship, or shoveling snow not only at home, but at church. 

It means serving our community. It means donating food to the food bank. It means helping our elderly neighbor with their lawn. And it means visiting those who are in the hospital or the nursing home.

None of this is exciting. And none of it seems spiritual in the least. But it is the very real way in which we serve the Lord.