What is the service of God for a Christian? Should a Christian serve God? What does it mean to serve God for a Christian? How to serve God as a Christian? These are questions that deserve our attention when we approach the subject of the Christian and the service of God.
Indeed, when we have accepted to become a Christian, it is to take becoming a servant of God. We do not need to be a pastor, or prophet, or evangelist, or apostle, or evangelist: the titles we carry matter little. What is important is to put oneself to the work of God. And every Christian is called to serve God. To serve God means to work for God.
In the sense that we have two types of God’s service, two places to serve God. In other words, speaking of the theme, the Christian and the service of God: what are the forms of Service of God?
The Two Types (Forms) of Service of God
– In community (within the Church): that is, to serve the Church. Contribute to the development of the Church, to the maintenance of the Church, to the organization of the Church. It’s also, To participate in the activities of the Church, to consolidate order, unity, peace, understanding within the Church. To put his gifts, his talents, his qualities, his goods, his availability, and the service of the Church in the spirit of the work of God in general.
In this context, God’s service is exercised under two aspects.
On the one hand, for the propriety of the cult of worship or the assemblies of the Church. In this case, the Christian serves God as an officiant. It is the service of God “in the temple or in the place of prayer.”
On the other hand, for the proper functioning of the mission, objectives, and activities of the Church given the development of the work of God. This is where the ministries, the departments, the church government come in if you can put it that way. It can be local or territorial or international. Here, the Christian works for the Church, but for the glory of the Lord Jesus.
However, we do not need to be responsible for a church to serve the church. From being a member of the Church to leaders, each one to his responsibility and his place in the service of God in the Church. The Christian who really wants to be in the service of God always finds some things to do for God, within the Church.
Personally or Individually
Here the Christian is called to serve God wherever he is, in his surroundings, neighborhood, place of work, among his friends; in his family, his community. Everywhere where there are men, the Christian must, under Christ’s guidance, be transformed as a valid instrument for the Lord: either to evangelize or to show the Other the way and the will of God through our conduct. Also, to reflect the image of Christ considering that we are his ambassadors.
We are called to be the light, the salt among men so that they glorify God of our good works. In a sense, that we are still serving God our gifts, talents, qualities, and others for the cause of God.
Someone could ask me this question one day: “What is the impact on the life of the Christian who puts himself at the service of God? The answer to this very pertinent question is the subject of the following paragraph, always related to the topic: the Christian and the service of God.
Impact in the Life of Christians in the Service of God
To serve God and to exercise our spiritual gifts:
- Allows the perfecting of our spiritual gifts, our skills, our qualities
- Attracts enough divine blessings to our life.
- Contributes to our personal well-being, and to that of the community too.
- Let’s go away from the world and engage fully with the Lord Jesus.
- Allows advancing the work of God in the world.
- Contributes to the development of the Church at all levels.
- The firm, strengthen, support, test and solidify our faith in Jesus.
- Allows having a unique and intimate relationship with the Lord. We become a channel through which the Lord passes to extend His work.
We have just seen how essential it is for the Christian to serve God. We cannot approach the theme of the Christian and the service of God without even trying to answer the question: how to serve God effectively as a Christian?
It is with considerable attention and humility that the preacher Thomson Dablemond invites you to explore some useful tips and teachings to be a good servant of God as a Christian.
How to Become a Good Servant of God?
Here is a list of some tips and teachings to consider:
*** One must serve God with a pure and valiant heart, without interest, for love.
*** The best way to detect one’s qualities, one’s skills, one’s spiritual gifts when one does not know them exactly: It’s about touching everything.
*** God cannot give us a gift, or a skill, or a quality that we cannot put at his service under the pretense that it is above our strength, on the one hand. And on the other side, every spiritual gift or quality, or skill that God has given us is necessarily helpful for the advancement of His work within the Church and within our community, surrounding.
*** We can contribute financially (by tithes, offerings, unique gifts, etc.) – materially (furniture, materials for the maintenance of the temple, etc.). We can thus serve God by our goods, our possessions, our availability…
The essential thing is to contribute to the spiritual, moral, social, financial, and physical development of his Church as a Christian. In the same way, by taking care of the needs of his neighbor, when he has the opportunity. For every good, possession, or occasion that God gives us is destined to serve the Church and our neighbor as well.
In the journey of our article entitled The Christian and the Service of God, we come now to the characteristics of a good servant of God.
Characteristics of a Good Servant of God
The virtues of a good servant of God are:
- He must have one teacher, that is, Jesus Christ (Luke 16:13).
- He must submit to the will of God (Ephesians 6: 5-6).
- He must be faithful (1 Corinthians 4: 1-2).
- He has a good heart for the glory of Christ and zealous (Colossians 3: 23-24, Romans 12:11).
- He always and especially for God and the cause of the work of God.
- He consecrates his life, what he has and what he is for the glory of God.
- He makes his body and his mind: the time of God. In other words, he devotes his life entirely to God and for the glory of God.
Conclusion on the Service of God
What is the fundamental purpose of God’s work? It is with this question that we finish our article whose title is: the Christian and the service of God.
The primary purpose of God’s work, on the one hand, must be to win, bring back, preserve souls for Christ by our service in the work of God. And on the other hand, must be to ensure the union, the development of the Church, while defending the image of God in the eyes of the pagan world (which goes through healing his individual conduct and community). So that in us personally and in the Church of God, the image of God, of Jesus Christ is visible. The culminating point of the goal of the work of God for a Christian is to give glory to God through our adoration and also by our conduct in society!
For more insight, please ponder the following scriptures on the theme: The Christian and the Service of God.
Biblical References: Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-13 / Ephesians 5: 1-2 / Matthew 5: 13-16 / 1 Peter 1: 21 / John 13: 13-16 / Galatians 5: 13 / Ephesians 5: 21 / 2 Corinthians 5: 20 / 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10 / Mark 9: 40 / Matthew 12: 30.