Serving is not an easy lesson to learn. But it is a
lesson we must learn if ever we would become like our Master. Jesus did not come
to be served but to serve. He served to the uttermost, just
as He loved to the uttermost. Any service that needed to be done for
another, He did as naturally and as simply as He breathed! He loved people, and
was interested in them and was ready always to be helpful to them. It
never mattered what the service was, whether it was the saving of a soul,
the curing of a grievous sickness, or the giving of a cup of water He did the
least service as graciously and as divinely as the greatest!
The washing of feet was the lowliest service any man
could do for another. It was the work of the lowliest slave. Yet Jesus
without hesitation, did this service for His own disciples. Thus He taught them
that nothing anyone may ever need to have done by another is unfit for the
holiest hands. We begin to be like Christ only when we begin to love
others enough to serve them, regardless of the lowliness of
the particular service.
One day a stranger entered an artist's studio in Milan. The
artist was busy within. He was working on a painting of the head of Christ
and appeared to take no notice of the stranger. At last he broke the
silence, looked at the man and asked, "Sir, does it look like Jesus or
not?"
There is no surer test of the genuineness of Christian
life than in this matter of serving others. In serving others, we should
inquire, "Are we like Jesus or not?" We
are too careful of our dignity. When we see the Son of God
washing His disciples' feet, we should be ashamed ever to ask whether
anything another may need to have done is too menial for us to do. A
king may do the lowliest kindness to the poorest peasant in his realm and
his honor will only be enhanced by it.
[J. R. Miller]
✞✞✞
John 13:4-5 ... He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
1 John 2:6 ... He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Galatians 5:13 ... For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.❤
