Service: The place, not the action

Service: work done by one person or group that benefits another.

Service: A place in which we must live in love, to love.

If this word service is defined as something that benefits another, then why do we consider how our act of service is going to affect or even benefit us? We do don’t we? On a conscious level we would ask ourselves the financial cost, emotional strain, time commitment or a variety of other things. If the cost is too great in our own minds, the act of service is then tossed out of our minds. Or, sometimes we subconsciously consider our own agenda first and act out in selfish ways. In other words, maybe we can get past the financial cost, the time commitment and all of that, but what if someone personally hurts us? It’s not easy to get past that is it? What if someone deeply wounds us by a word said or a betrayal felt… can we still serve them? Or what if their wrong and you can even prove it, can we still serve them? Take the other side of this too… you know the less severe. The side where we will serve someone if we feel they “deserve” it, but if not we won’t do it. The result is the same isn’t it? That result being the absence of serving our brothers and sisters.

1 Peter 4 would tell us to use our gifts to serve one another and that this would make us good stewards of God’s grace. Galatians 5 calls us to serve one another in love. Romans 12 tells us to let love be genuine. So, we are called to serve one another (1 Peter 4) but not only that, but to do so in love (Galatians 5) and to serve one another with a genuine love (Romans 12) and this is done through God’s grace (1 Peter 4, and yes I know it’s referring specifically to the giftsJ).

Another translation of the verse in Romans says let love be without hypocrisy. So do I genuinely serve others in love? Do I love others genuinely by serving them? Is my love laced with hypocrisy? Do I serve those who I need to gain some “brownie points” with, or do I serve everyone? Do I live in love?

To serve is to live in a place where we can let our love towards people be genuine. To serve is to love God more than I love the people around me. To serve is to love God more than I love my own life. To serve is to know that I am to be hidden in Him. To serve is to live in His grace. To serve is to painfully move past myself. To serve is to love. To serve is to live in love. Service: A place in which we must live in love, to love. Do you live in love?