Serving the Lord
by Steven Harper
If we are genuinely interested in what pleases the Lord, we should consider everything we do and say, and whether it is, in fact, pleasing to Him, according to what He has revealed in the Scriptures. One of the most obvious aspects of our lives as disciples is our worship assembly and Bible study, but I need to ask myself the question:
“Why do I do what I do?”
Service
It should be a given that when we are considering our service to the Lord, serving Him is actually the reason! We should not find that distasteful, for within the Scriptures, a Christian is called “a servant of the Lord” (II Timothy 2:24); Paul even described himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ” (Romans 1:1), indicating his perception that he had a debt to pay. So, service should most definitely be one of the reasons we serve the Lord!
Love
This, too, should be a given, for Jesus tells us the greatest command is that I “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). And especially when we are talking about my worship — which, by definition, is “the reverent love shown to God” — love must be the reason I serve the Lord. And it is the case, as John wrote, “We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). At the very least, my service to God and my worship and my Bible study — and whatever I do in His service — must be because of love.
His Worthiness
It should go without saying [but I’m going to say it] that we should serve the Lord, worship Him, and diligently study His word because He is worth it. This is the God who “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16), who had a plan by which He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began” (II Timothy 1:8-9) and who “foreordained” Christ to be Savior “before the foundation of the world” (I Peter 1:20). His wisdom, His love, His grace, and His continuing long-suffering toward us clearly shows He is worthy of everything we can do for Him, and it is with this knowledge we read Paul’s plea that we “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” and we would have to agree that such would be called “reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
Again, why do I serve the Lord? It cannot be to please my parents or any other human being; it cannot be strictly for the potential reward of heaven, and I cannot be doing what I do for any positive benefits others may offer me. I should be serving the Lord because I desire to be His servant, because I love Him with all my heart, soul, and mind, and because He is unequivocally worth it.
