Imitate Me

Over the past few of months I’ve been thinking a lot around the topic of service.

There’s much that can be said around a topic that has deeper depths and wider breadths than we can begin to imagine. But what I have found most fascinating and intriguing about service is that when we look at it through a biblical lens, it becomes inseparable from our identity in Christ. Service and Christ are like salted butter and freshly baked sourdough, you don’t receive one without receiving the other. If Christ is the bread of life, then service has got to be the butter of life. So essentially, excusing this poor example, this ‘bread and butter’ is the mark of being an apprentice of Jesus.

So, because there is so much to say around it and space is limited, I want to unpack two intriguing statements that seem to aptly capture the essence of service from a cultural and biblical perspective. The idea in presenting these statements is to contrast a humanistic view of service and a gospel view of service, and to then better understand our relationship with service in light of the Gospel.

You most probably have come across this quote before, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. I remember when I first came across this statement, I thought there is so much truth in that! It’s challenging yet shows us that service is a vehicle for altruism, and it seemingly captures a biblical view of service.

Now, moving along to the second statement where Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39). Wow! If you’re wondering, the first statement was made by the world renown civil and social activist, Mahatma Gandhi, and it seems like his statement was birthed from Jesus’ words.

However, the more I investigated the biblical view of service the more I noticed there is a significant difference in the centrality of each of the statements which alters the approach, response, and application of each. Can you notice the subtle, yet significant differences? Gandhi’s statement captures the essence of our cultural sentiment toward service so well. His statement centralises itself around the human, it’s a subtle form of humanism that points to the self for freedom, meaning service is a vehicle for one’s self- interest to be elevated above the other. In contrast, Christ’s statement centralises itself around himself (Jesus). It is the explicit Gospel message that freedom is only found  through Christ, not in any other man and certainly not in ourselves. The essence of this message is apprenticeship to Jesus, meaning service is a vehicle in which Jesus is elevated above all and others before ourselves.

Notice a few more of the differences with me...

On one hand you have a person saying that service precedes freedom. On the other hand you have scripture saying that freedom (in Jesus) precedes service.

On one hand you have a person saying that life is about finding yourself. On the other hand you have Jesus saying that fullness of life is only found in himself.

On one hand you have a person saying that service is a means in man’s search for self-actualisation. On the other hand you have Jesus saying that service ends our search of self-actualisation.

On one hand you have a person saying that through service we discover who we are. On the other hand you have Jesus saying that because of your identity in God you have the freedom to freely serve.

The centrality of all of this rests in these three words spoken by Jesus, “for my sake”. The key to finding yourself is through losing your life in service to Jesus. We can further summarise the centrality of this into two words, “IMITATE CHRIST”. We find purpose through imitating Christ, just as Paul imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Our identity becomes clear as we walk in love and service, as Christ loved us and served us.

“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.” (John 12:26)

To be an apprentice of Jesus means to serve as He serves. We serve others because God has served us unconditionally and joyfully. This means we don’t serve others to find ourselves, we serve others because we are already found in Christ. This is the essence, the fragrance of apprenticeship to Jesus: Our identity in being a servant to others comes  from our imitation of the servant of all. As it is impossible to separate Christ from being a servant, therefore the reasonable conclusion would be that service is the place we meet Christ face to face on hands and knees. Where we find Christ we find freedom, peace, and joy. As we look for Christ, we will find Him and with Him there will be pleasures forevermore.

Let’s unpack this a bit further... Essentially, the joy, contentment, identity or meaning people find in service are all good things, however, they are only a reflection of what service points to. We cannot experience any of these things apart from God, because apart from Him there is no such things.

Human history reveals that people earnt their freedom through serving others or paying for their freedom. To this day, our culture communicates to us that our service leads to our freedom, our joy, our contentment, our identity. Without realising it we become slaves to our jobs, our hobbies, our desires, etc. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus has paid the price for our lives, He has given us Himself so that we don’t serve to gain freedom, we serve because we have already found freedom through His extravagant kindness.

The mark of one’s apprenticeship to Jesus can be seen in their ability to choose to imitate Jesus, even at the expense of their human rights and personal freedom. A much wiser man put it like this, “The stamp of the Saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus” (C.S. Lewis). And an even wiser man put it like this, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Apostle Paul, Galatians 5:13).

I love how we can find this same sentiment captured throughout the hymns and worship songs we sing, just as in these words ....

“In his freedom I am free, for the love of Jesus Christ who has resurrected me” (Brooke Ligertwood) or “Oh how strange and divine I can sing “all is mine” yet not I, but through Christ in me” (CityAlight)  

This frames service in light of exaltation of God. It’s a about a prayerful heart that has learnt to confide in Christ saying, “not my will, but yours be done”. Freedom in service is the response to understanding the privilege we have in Christ to freely enter the presence of God. Exaltation of God comes from being known by God, knowing God, and enjoying God. When we serve God, joy finds us and meets us in every circumstance. When we serve God, we are filled with a divine purpose, as He writes us into His story of reconciling humanity to himself. When we enjoy God, we cannot help but lovingly serve others.

God exalts those who serve others, and there’s no better place to see this exemplified than through the person of Jesus as He is the greatest servant of all (Philippians 2:9). I encourage you as you read this to fix your attention on the perspective Jesus holds around service and exaltation, “For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22: 27). Isn’t this just a delicious picture of salted butter spread all over the bread of life?! Yes! Put my name down for what Jesus is having!

What captivates your heart in this life? Is it to recline at the table or to serve at the table? Are we willing to exchange our lives for His, our desires for His desires? Do we trust in Jesus enough to imitate him, the beautiful servant of all? ...so, what should this call us toward?

Firstly, it should create in us a heart of thanksgiving. We get to participate in something so intrinsically connected to Christ’s heart. What a privilege it is that we get to feel His joy, his love, his kindness for others as we imitate Jesus. Joy doesn’t come from ourselves or from what we do, it comes from knowing God.

Secondly, it should call us toward a heart of repentance. This means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into. Asking God to shift our attention from serving out of need or necessity to serving out of the newly found freedom we have in Christ. Additionally, Christ exemplifies that we can serve others through offering forgiveness to those who offend and wrong us. In his book, The Weight of Glory, C.S Lewis pens, “To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”  

Thirdly, it should lead us into practising gospel-humility. Tim Keller remarks that “the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.” Gospel-humility is the outworking of a heart that has been captured by the beautiful servant of all, Jesus... A heart captivated by Christ is a heart concentrated on other