The Greatest Among You… Serve (#029)

When I read the scriptures, specifically the epistles, I notice that many of them begin with something like “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ.”

Or, “Peter, a bond servant of Jesus Christ.”

In that culture, if you were a slave and you had fulfilled your time of service to fulfill a debt or other obligation, you would be set free. The master would actually give you a letter to release you from serving him.

But a lot of times in that process, the servants (slaves) would have fallen in love with their master to such a degree that, even though they were set free, they wanted to stay and serve their master. If they made a choice they would become a bond servant.

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Now, notice this…

It wasn't mandatory, it was a willful act. In effect, they were saying, "I want to give my life to serve you.”

When they did this, they placed their ear to a post at the master’s house. They drove a nail in, pierced their ear, and added a ring.

So, when you saw someone with that mark on their ear, or that ring, you knew they were a bond servant.

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Now, they served from a place gratitude, as well as love and respect. They didn’t serve because of a legal agreement, but from of a bond of love. Because of this, the master took full responsibility for their life— to make sure they always had everything they needed.

I believe that's a beautiful picture of what it means to be a leader in the Kingdom of God. It means we have so fallen in love with Jesus, our Master, that not out of obligation but out of a pure heart overwhelmed with gratitude for what He's done in our life and continues to do, we commit our lives to Him.

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Kent & Beverly talk about this willingness to “serve as a lifestyle” in this episode of the Freedom Podcast.

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This talk is based on chapter 1 of The Theology of Leadership, in which Kent writes about the “The Attitude of Leadership.”

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