“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, [that is, to gratify your own personal and selfish desire] but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

So the way not to indulge our fleshly nature, not to yield to selfishness, not to become shut up in that prison of self, is: to look outward to others. Through love, serve one another. I believe that’s one of the key words that the Holy Spirit is emphasizing to God’s people today, learning to serve through love, to serve one another. So many people today will talk about serving the Lord but they never serve their fellow believers. I don’t know how much you can really serve the Lord if you’re not willing to serve your fellow believers, because the Lord comes to us in the members of His body. And our attitude to the members is really our attitude to the Lord Himself.

In this connection of being willing to serve others, I want to take an example from the apostle Paul, something he wrote to the Corinthian Christians. You need to bear in mind that Paul by background was a very strict, observant, orthodox Jew. He had the qualifications to be a rabbi. He was Pharisee. He had a kind of righteousness which separated itself from other people, regarded other people as on a lower level, and kept himself to himself, and despised others. But when he came to know Jesus, the most wonderful change took place in that nature of Paul. This is what he writes to the Corinthians. Bear in mind those Corinthians were basically the scum of the earth. Paul, in his epistle, says that some of them had been homosexuals, some had been prostitutes, some had been drunkards, some had been revilers, they were just not the best kind of people. Corinth was one of the major seaports of the ancient world, and so often in seaports, that’s the kind of people that you tend to meet.

Now listen to this astonishing statement, 2 Corinthians 4:5. Paul says:

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.”

Isn’t that an amazing statement? There’s this proud Pharisee saying, “We’re your slaves for the sake of Jesus.” To those people! Notice the three steps. First, dethrone self, “not ourselves.” Second, enthrone Christ, “Christ Jesus as Lord.” Third, serve others, “we are your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.” Let me say those three steps again. Dethrone self, enthrone Christ, serve others. By love, serve others. That’s the message, escape from self-centeredness.

Now I want to point out to you in closing this message that serving is a skill we have to acquire. It doesn’t just happen, it isn’t ours by nature. To take an example of a waiter: a waiter is a man who, in a sense, is called to serve. But a waiter needs to be trained. There is much in the training of a waiter. I can’t go into it but I have a friend who used to be a waiter, and he explained to me once all that’s involved in being a good waiter. And I saw a marvelous example of the training to serve. So serving doesn’t just happen; it’s a skill we have to acquire. We have to study others to find out what produces a positive and not a negative response. We’re to study others to provoke them to love and good deeds, not to the opposite. So this requires practice, it requires training, it requires discipline.

It

Twelve Steps to a Good Year

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