Service with a Smile (for the Kingdom)

As I talk to a number of non-Christians they are turned off by different aspects our Christianity: our perceived holier-than-thou attitude, our hypocrisy, our intolerance, etc. The world views non-Christians as being intolerant of anyone who doesn’t believe the same things that we believe.

Yet, time and again, non-Christians are amazed at the servant hearts of Christian people. They cannot believe that we would willingly give up our time, our energy, our comfort, to go and work with those who need help. They are amazed when they discover that Christians aren’t out doing service projects because they are made to or because it looks good on a college application, but because we want to. It is our chance to serve God by serving other people. In many ways the world doesn’t get it, but they do respect it!

We all have a tendency to get a little caught up in ourselves. Jesus’ own disciples had this same problem. In Mark 10, the disciples had been discussing who was the most important among them and who would be first in the Kingdom. As Jesus overheard these conversations he spoke to his disciples about the most important things in life, he told them this: “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The goal of the Christian life is not to get ahead or to be self-serving but to be focused on others.

Jesus reminds us that service towards others is service towards God. In his parable of the sheep and the goats, the people are judged based on their service towards those in need. The sheep, those who served those in need, are told that because of their service (even in small ways), they have received an eternal reward, for “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). What an amazing thought: we serve God by serving other people.

We are called to serve other people because Christ came to serve us. If we are his hands and feet, his Body, his ambassadors, and his representatives on earth, than we can do nothing less...