The Priority of Service

 “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.””

(‭John 4:34 ESV‬)

Satisfying our basic needs is fundamental to life. The drive to satisfy these needs is instinctual. If these needs are not satisfied, after all, we cannot survive.

What I’m referring to, of course, is our need for nourishment. What I’m referring to is our need to have our thirst satisfied. And what I’m referring to is the need for shelter and warm clothing. 

There are other needs we could discuss, but you get the point. We have certain needs that are fundamental for life. And, unless these needs are met, our life will not be long in this world.

This is what makes the statement of Jesus, seen above, so curious. Jesus had been sitting by a well, while his disciples went into town to buy food. And, as they returned, they found him talking to a Samaritan woman.

As the woman left that she might tell the townspeople about Jesus, his disciples urged him to eat. Jesus, then, responded as we see in verse 34. He told them that his food was to do the will of him who had sent him and to accomplish his work.

As we read this, it’s clear to whom Jesus is referring. He’s referring to God the Father. His food, then, was to do the will of the Father and to accomplish his work.

Jesus was explaining to his disciples, in this way, that doing the will of the Father was needful to him. Accomplishing the work of the Father was necessary for life. Like physical hunger, which has to be satisfied if we’re to survive, this was absolutely essential.

You and I don’t think of our service of God in the same way. While we may think of it as something that’s good to do, we don’t view it as essential. And while we may think of it as important, we don’t think of it as necessary.

It’s for this reason that doing the work of God and accomplishing his will falls lower on our priority list. We feel that we must first ensure that our needs are satisfied. And only then will we consider using our time, energy, and money to serve the Lord.

We certainly don’t earn life or salvation by doing the will of the Father. And we can in no way become deserving of these blessings. They are provided only by the death and resurrection of Jesus and received by faith in him.

This, however, is our purpose. It’s why we’re here. God has made us to be his own that we might accomplish his work. 

As we read in Ephesians 2, starting in verse 8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Constant Trust

 "…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."

‭‭(Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭23‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

The gospel offers to us the assurance of salvation. It assures us of our salvation, which was obtained for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And it assures of our salvation, which is received by faith in him.

We have a tendency, however, to believe that our salvation cannot be lost. We have a tendency to believe that we remain saved, regardless of our faith and life. As long as we’ve said the prayer, been baptized at the font, or answered an altar call, we believe that we will always remain saved.

Even if we no longer trust in Christ, we believe that our salvation is sure. Even if we no longer believe in him, we believe our salvation is certain. And even if we live only to satisfy our sinful appetites, we believe that we remain saved. 

This mindset, however, is not consistent with the gospel. It’s not consistent with the gospel which tells us that it’s by faith we’re saved. Nor is it consistent with the gospel which tells us that we have been saved from sin.

We see this, in the above passage, as Paul discusses the salvation of God. We were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he says. But, in Jesus, God has reconciled all things to himself, making peace by the blood of the cross.

We learn, here, that God is the source of our salvation. It is dependent not upon us, but upon him. And it was provided to us not by our activity, but his own.

This is true of us, we are reconciled, Paul says, if indeed we continue in the faith. It’s true of us if we continue in faith, stable and steadfast. And it’s true of us if we do not shift from the hope of the gospel we’ve heard. 

The faith by which we are saved, you see, is not a one-time event. It’s a constant throughout our life in this world. And it’s by this faith that we receive the promised blessings of God.

Apart from faith in Christ, there is no certainty. Apart from faith in Christ, there is no hope. And apart from faith in Christ, there is no salvation.

Delivered & Redeemed

 "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

(‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

As we visit with others, and as we search our own heart, we find a belief that is held in common. We generally think of ourselves as good people. And we think of ourselves as a deserving people.

Although we realize our weakness and imperfection, we believe that we’re, by nature, righteous. We believe that our intentions are generally good. And we believe we’re, for this reason, deserving of God's blessings.

We believe that we enter into the world in this state. We believe we enter this world in a state of innocence. We believe we begin this life as children of light. And we believe that, by nature, we are children of God.

This, however, is not the case. And we see this as we look at the passage above. Paul, in this passage, tells us that we were of the domain of darkness.

This, you see, is the state into which we were born. We were born in sin. We were born in a state of condemnation. We entered this world desiring not the things of God, but the pleasures of the flesh. And we naturally pursue not righteousness, but the satisfaction of our cravings and lusts.

As Paul makes plain, it’s from this that God has saved us. He delivered us from the domain of darkness. And he transferred us to the kingdom of his Son.

In Jesus, Paul says, we have redemption. In him we have the forgiveness of sins. And these blessings are found nowhere else. 

This is the work of God, from first to last. Our character and deeds play no role in it whatsoever. It is an undeserved blessing lavished upon us by God.

We, then, must look only to Christ for the salvation that he alone can provide. We must trust only in the salvation he provided for us by his death on the cross and his resurrection from the grave. And we must in no way seek to take even the smallest credit for the blessings we’ve received.

The Exception to the Norm

 “And the Lord said to Moses, “The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them.”

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭27‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There is often a way that we tend to do things. There is often an established order that is the basis of this tendency. There is, in fact, often a rule that informs it.

However, that being said, there is often an exception to that rule. There is often an exception to that established order. And there is always an exception to the norm.

We, however, tend to dismiss these exceptions. We pretend that they don’t exist. And we do so in an effort to protect or preserve the established order.

But how do we discern God's will in such cases? How do we determine what we’re to do? We receive some guidance as we look at an example in Numbers 27.

In this chapter, inheritance rights were the issue. And, typically, it was the sons of a man who received the inheritance. But we encounter, in this passage, the daughters of a man who had no son.

They came to Moses asking why his name should be taken away from his clan. They asked why it should be taken, simply because he had no son. And they asked to be given a possession among their father’s brothers.

As we look more broadly at the Old Testament, we see that God was concerned for the individual. He was concerned for the name of the individual. We find that he did not want a man’s name blotted out of Israel. Even in exceptional circumstances, like this one, he wanted the man’s name to be preserved.

This was also the basis of God's commands when a man died, leaving no children. His brother was to marry his widow. And the first son was to succeed to the name of his deceased brother. 

Although there was an established order, there would be exceptions to the rule. There would be situations that didn’t fit the rule or the practice. But this was addressed by God's concern that a man’s name should not be blotted out of Israel.

When we, then, encounter exceptions to the norm, this is a good place for us to start. As we pray about the situation, we should look for the underlying principle behind the rule. And this will typically lead us to the answer.