For self-esteem or selfless subservience
It seems the way the gospel gets preached these days should be re-evaluated. In my studies I often see recurring themes that are increasingly being ignored, both in how the gospel is presented to non-believers, and reaffirmed to believers. Quite often in the scriptures the apostles greeted people as a "…a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ."(James1: 1 for example). It seems this is fast becoming a forgotten understanding. Christianity is and has fast been perverted into a social club for everyone to feel good about, to become healthy and wealthy as is taught by prosperity gospel preachers, and into pseudo country clubs where 90% of the honest ministry is done by less than 10% of the congregations. Folks, with all my love for Christ and His body, it's time we get back to some basics.
As listed above, James called himself a bondservant of God and Jesus Christ. That word in Greek is Strong's #1401, "doulos", which means, "to be in a state of subserviency, to be a slave". It's a verb, meaning that a better rendition might be "James, bondslaving for the Lord." James is ascribing to the view that being a Christian means you then become a self-ascribed slave to God. This Greek word has a sense of duty and oughtness attached, it literally is formed with the intentions of indicating being tied with ropes to, or bound by. James is saying, "I am bound as if by ropes, to the duty of actively working Gods will out at His command. I am Gods slave, and willingly so."
James is only one of many who are seen in this light in scripture. The following is a list of others who saw themselves thus, and/or were seen thus…
These people were all joined in this common thought of self-proclaimed duty and servitude to the Lord. The real clincher in all of this is where they got it from, the Lord Himself! Matt 20:28 says Jesus didn't come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Next time He comes to the earth He will rule with an iron scepter, but last time He came, He was obedient to the father to the point of death. Luke 20 and Mark 12 both contain parables to this fact. He is the son that the wicked vinedressers cast out and killed, thinking that they could then take over.
The best passage that I find attesting to this concept of being bondservants is in Phil 2:2-11;
"…fulfill my joy by being like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in all lowliness of mind let each esteem others better then himself. Let each of you look out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Jesus came to earth as a slave to God, of His own free will, and obeyed even to the point where it killed Him. Even though He was God from the beginning, He humbled Himself and came to serve us. That in itself should be humbling. If we truly believed that, we would act quite a bit differently, seeing how unworthy we all are of that. Jesus, the creator of the universe (Col 1:15-16), temporarily stripped Himself of His honour and came to serve us. What does that say for us then? Phil 2:2 says we are to be like minded as Christians, and then verse 5 tells us what that mind should be, the very mind of service Christ had.
In anticipation to the response some might give, it is true that John 1:12 calls us Gods children. Rom 8:17 calls us co-heirs with Christ. My problem with this is that this gives an incomplete picture. The verse more fully reads we are coheirs if we suffer with Him first, than we will also be glorified. There is a common thread we see here between this and the Phil passage. After Christ's service for mankind, mainly His death on the cross, made necessary because of the filthiness of sin, than He was resurrected and exalted. First comes service and suffering, than comes reward and exaltation. It's true we are His children, but that comes before the co-heir part. Gal 4:1-7 ties this all up like this, as long as an heir is still a child, he is no better than a slave. The child must first come to maturity before he can receive his inheritance. We, as children by faith in the resurrected Jesus, do not reach maturity until we are wed to Him as His bride. This will occur when perfection comes. 1 Cor 13:9-12 develops this theme. When perfection comes, than the corrupt will be changed into incorruption, in the twinkling of an eye (1 Cor 15:50-54). Ultimately, Jesus said in Matt 10:24, "no servant is greater than his master. It is enough that a servant be like his master." This is paralleled in Mark 10:35-45, and John 15:20. If our master came to serve, and the examples we're left with by the apostles, who came to serve all men to win some, than why are we all about having better self esteem today? As a servant of the Most High, there is no longer any self to esteem! The old has passed away and we are become new (2 Cor 5: 17-18). We are to come as living sacrifices, transforming and conforming to his image (Rom 12:1-8), having the mind of Christ unitedly (Phil2: 5/ 1 Cor 2:16), to will and do for His good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13), not our own.
Can "self-esteem" come to us as a Christian! Yes. But the way it happens is not as one would expect if following the worlds cues. Luke 14: 6-10 and 17: 6-14 clue us in on this topic. We are to come sitting at the humble seat, and then God who directs the wedding supper may come and give us a better seat. We come to Him in humility saying we are unprofitable servants, not in false humility for we truly are, and that we have done what was our duty to do. This duty comes from within when we realize we are not worthless, but unworthy of His sacrifice. The culminating verse for this comes in 14: 11; "…For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." We must first serve until we reach maturity, and then just as Christ was exalted after He completed His service, we like wise will be honored as we complete ours. If God decides to honor us while we are here in this life, that is a bonus which may or may not occur. Only God can do so without causing pride, just as only He can humble us without us feeling worthless. As we obey, he might send others to say "well done", or "keep persevering". That is not what we are to seek though. Our confidence should be in the one who never changes (Heb13: 8), so that our confidence will never suffer a wavering foundation. His sacrifice is what gives us boldness and confidence to approach God (Heb 4: 14-15), and nothing else.
We are all set apart to be self-proclaimed slaves for the will of our Father. We aren't Christian so we can feel good about ourselves, but so that we can work. Luke records that account of Jesus as one of that which "Jesus both began to do and to teach."(Acts 1:1-2). Jesus continued this until the day He was taken up. There is no retirement in Christianity. It's my opinion I readily admit, but it really irks me when pastors today go into retirement. That is a blatant marriage of the world's ideology with Christianity. They need to at least be training up the next generations of church leadership with their years of wisdom and knowledge of scriptures. If we want to retire from earthly work, than go ahead, but if we're to be like Jesus, (which is what "Christian" means), we never cease from the works leading others to repentance and exhortation. This is our reasonable service to God.If it was good enough for Jesus to come as a servant than why are we so much better today that Christianity is being changed to serve us? Scriptures clearly teach that His earthly ministry was at first to come and to serve. We are to be no different.
In light of this understanding, here are a few more parables from the word of God which may make more sense now, as they did for me;
Grace and Peace, as you serve our Lord
Arron Bergeron