Unworthy Servants

How many masters do you serve? Think about that seriously for a moment. How many different things have control over you in your life? Do you schedule your time around a certain activity or television show? Does your life revolve around your work? Do you do things a certain way to please someone in your life? Are you a slave to money? Is money the motivator for how hard you work? Are you a slave to possessions? Do you always have to have the top-of-the-line, next best thing? Is it something less tangible: are you a slave to your lust? To your anger? To your anxiety? Honestly, how many masters do you serve?

“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)

Does money control you at all? Does it have control over your emotions? Stress level? Joy? God should be our primary source of joy. Since God is always with us, we always have the joy of the Lord. In Nehemiah 8:10, we are reminded that “…the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Is anything stealing your love away from God? If we are serving some other thing or desire, then we are despising God.

“For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.” (Galatians 5:17)

Are you a slave to your sinful desires? Are you a slave to the desires of the flesh? The desires of the flesh are in direct opposition to the desires of the Spirit. We can only be a slave to one Master, either the Spirit which is from God and part of the Trinity or our sinful desires. It can’t be both. We need to follow Jesus’ example of this:

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” (Mark 10:45)

While our King was on earth, He demonstrated a servant lifestyle. We are indeed meant to serve, created to serve our Creator, and Jesus modeled that life for us. So are we living this servant lifestyle? How well are we serving God and God alone? We cannot serve two masters. Is God the only master you serve in your life?

“In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’” (Luke 17:10)

We are simply doing our duty. Jesus told us what we should say when we obey Him. “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.” That statement reflects the attitude we should have toward serving our Almighty God. Do you consider yourself an unworthy servant? When you live in obedience to Christ do you see it as doing your duty? The greatest act Jesus modeled as a servant is when He asked His heavenly Father to have the cup of the cross pass from Him but also said, “Your will and not mine be done.” Jesus was a servant to the will of His Father, dying on the cross for our sins. If Jesus can serve in such a manner, how much more should we strive to do what God asks of us? God will never ask us to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, so everything else pales in comparison. Live your life for only one Master and when you obey Christ do it with this attitude: “We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.”

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.