love and service

Ben you have the towel here. Jesus served because he loved. As much as he spoke with the expectation that his disciples would learn to serve, he put an if…! to it. There is always this if… in discipleship. People follow because they choose to, they count the cost. Remember the open door principle? let the people choose. So in John 13:1-17 Jesus is demonstrating what he has always been to his disciples, “I am among you as the one who serves.” “for the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” “Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” John 13:17. He wasn’t conditioning them so that they will have learned to serve before a certain deadline, No. This is where modeling and Demonstrating differ. Whereas modeling has a condition of learning to it, demonstrating has no condition attached to it. The person may choose to or not to learn. He just showed them the path to blessedness and left them to choose it or fail to choose it. Therefore as much as I set an example to be followed through my service, my eyes must not be on the response of the person being served. They may never choose to serve, but I will not have been a failure. Judas didn’t get it: to “lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. But the rest, by God’s grace did get it. They were committed to Jesus till death. They laid down their lives for others. 1 John 3:16-18. They were committed to Jesus to death. Wow, this is what comes after the equals sign if God permits. Therefore just as the chief end of faith is not sight but faith itself (Heb 11:6, that God is who he says he is) so the chief end of service is not being served but service itself. Galatians 5:6, 13; “For neither circumcision nor lack of it means anything but faith that works through love….therefore let your love make you serve one another.”