Let’s take a trip in time back to when we were children. Remember how we could not wait to grow up and be parents so we could tell our children what to do. Then we finish school and start our first job only to discover that our boss tells us to do things we do not like. Our reaction—we plan how someday we will be the boss. As time passes we look forward to those days of retirement, when we have no boss dictating what we have to do. Just face it; we like to be in charge. We do not like others telling us what we have to do.
That brings the rub that we have in being really good Christians. Gordon MacDonald summarized it well when he said: “You can tell whether you are becoming a servant by how you act when people treat you like one.” Ouch!! That stings a little. If we are honest with ourselves, most of the time we do not like it when other people treat us like their servant. Sometimes, this even brings resentment or down right anger into our lives.
We know how we feel, when we are treated like a servant, but exactly what does the Bible tell us in regards to the attitude we should have? Jesus tells us in Matt. 20:25-26: “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your slave.’” Become a servant now!
