God’s Servanthood and Personal Peace and Well-Being Gained

We often think of servanthood and serving others (attending to other people’s wants and needs) as demeaning and exploitative. That in becoming a servant you lose yourself, your freedom and independence, and thereby undermine your personal peace and well-being. And, of course, when servanthood is set-up via social and economic systems that are hierarchical and oppressive as they mostly have been through human history – with those in power ‘lording over’ those who have little or no power – then servanthood does become precisely these devilish things.

However, the world that Christ invites us into (the ‘Kingdom of God’ as it is called in the Bible – and see Luke 17:21) is not hierarchical and oppressive but is nevertheless based on the principle of servanthood. But why and how can this be, given the above oppressive pattern imbedded in history?

The ‘Kingdom of God’ starts with God, as creator and ruler of the universe, becoming our servant! In other words, God turns the world’s hierarchy upside down, as it is our God who sets the supreme example of servanthood even though (or perhaps because) he is also the all-powerful creator of the universe. It is from this starting point that we must first allow God to attend to our wants and needs as a God who loves us and cares for us, and as result wants to become our servant, for us to then be empowered to serve others in love. Once we engage in this divine pattern that radically disrupts the human patterns of hierarchy and exploitation, we discover that accepting God’s and Christ’s servanthood in our lives is the true route to personal peace and well-being, as it allows us to then look outward toward others secure in the knowledge that God and Christ is always attending to our wants and needs in the first place (and see John 13:1-17).

I also know that I cannot duck the process of accepting God’s and Christ’s servanthood in my life first as a basis for my serving others next – although my weaknesses, selfishness, and pride will often try to duck. Therefore, I must keep on accepting this divine pattern (which has to be learnt and re-leant), believing and declaring that, far from losing myself, it allows me to find myself, as I love others freely and independently, as God and Christ loves me. And, if I keep engaging in this process, I can then personally receive, and experience God’s peace and well-being grow within me as God’s radically different Kingdom (Luke 17:21).