{"id":4299,"date":"2009-04-11T19:42:04","date_gmt":"2009-04-11T23:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/april2009\/?p=86"},"modified":"2009-04-11T19:42:04","modified_gmt":"2009-04-11T23:42:04","slug":"the-determination-to-serve-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2009\/04\/11\/the-determination-to-serve-2\/","title":{"rendered":"THE DETERMINATION TO SERVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
\n minister.<\/p>\n

— Matthew 20:28<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul’s idea of service is the same as Our Lord’s: “I am among you as
\nHe that serveth;” “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have
\nthe idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be a
\ndifferent kind of being from other men. According to Jesus Christ, he
\nis called to be the “door-mat” of other men; their spiritual leader,
\nbut never their superior. “I know how to be abased,” says Paul. This
\nis Paul’s idea of service – “I will spend myself to the last ebb for
\nyou; you may give me praise or give me blame, it will make no
\ndifference.” So long as there is a human being who does not know
\nJesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does. The
\nmainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus
\nChrist. If we are devoted to the cause of humanity, we shall soon be
\ncrushed and broken-hearted, for we shall often meet with more
\ningratitude from men than we would from a dog; but if our motive is
\nlove to God, no ingratitude can hinder us from serving our fellow
\nmen.<\/p>\n

Paul’s realization of how Jesus Christ had dealt with him is the
\nsecret of his determination to serve others. “I was before a
\nperjurer, a blasphemer, an injurious person” – no matter how men may
\ntreat me, they will never treat me with the spite and hatred with
\nwhich I treated Jesus Christ. When we realize that Jesus Christ has
\nserved us to the end of our meanness, our selfishness, and sin,
\nnothing that we meet with from others can exhaust our determination
\nto serve men for His sake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. — Matthew 20:28 Paul’s idea of service is the same as Our Lord’s: “I am among you as He that serveth;” “ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We have the idea that a man called to the ministry is called to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}