01 September 2009 Devotion for Today "Bondservants " Philippians 1:1-2

01 September 2009 Devotion for Today "Bondservants " Philippians 1:1-2

" 1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:1-2)

Today we begin a new month with a new book and a new look at Scripture as we explore Paul's letter to the church at Philippi. The Apostle Paul begins on the outset with a description of himself and his colleague Timothy; using a term that would be a stumbling block to some and virtually misunderstood by the rest: "bondservants." In other translations, this word is rendered simply "servants," while others, like the Holman Christian Study Bible, translates this word as "slaves." Slavery conjures up all kinds of images for Americans, particularly in the South where I live. Its a part of our history that our elders don't like to talk much about. It conjures up images of cruelty and deprivation, along with that the trauma of separation of families and forced menial labor with no compensation. No one living today has any memory of slavery- except for the elderly whose grandparents may have shared the memories they had of that system. No one that I know has servants in the classical sense of having someone living in their home to help take care of household chores. Americans living in other countries, particularly Asia, talk about how cheaply someone can be hired to come into your home to cook and clean for them. A slave or a servant also assumes something else- a master. Very few people in our culture fit, or would even desire, this term.

Slavery and servanthood are foreign concepts to our culture today, but they were very much a part of the life and culture in the time that Paul lived. A guest preacher spoke to us the other night to tell us that "a servant is one who exists to do the will of another." Paul saw himself as one who did this; totally sold out to do the will of his Master, Jesus Christ. To do the will of another means complete and total obedience- voluntarily giving up his or her rights so that this will may be performed, whether convenient or not.

Herein lies one of the pitfalls of the expression of American Christianity in the early part of the 21st century. We live in a culture driven by convenience, but not service. One of the worst mortal sins that anyone can perpetrate, so we think, is to demand the imposition of our time or our money upon another. We talk about serving Christ, but we serve out of our convenience, not obedience. We will get involved and we will help, and perhaps even lend a hand- but few will put themselves out for an extended length of time. We will try to serve until it gets difficult or makes demands upon our time and families, and then we will look around for those we think has more time or fewer demands upon their schedules and make them feel guilty if they don't do it. Churches and other organizations find it more and more difficult to find those once cheerful people willing to be even involved in God's work, let alone finding those with servant's hearts. Sometimes we will find the dedicated person only to discover that they have been serving out of an attitude of pride and sense of satisfaction- but not because they are doing it for Christ. How ever they are motivated, we are fearful of making that person accountable as a servant lest they quit and leave us with all the work.

Perhaps we need to go back to Scripture and instill in ourselves as Christians the concept of being a servant. For one thing, being a servant means working hard. A servant performs thankless tasks- Christ appreciates them and will reward us one day for our efforts, but those around us may neither know nor care about what we are doing in our roles as servants. Right now, it may not be very fun to be a servant when we see others around us living with no obligations upon them. Nevertheless, we are called to be servants- to do the will of our Master. This is a role that we do not learn easily. It takes the grace of our Lord to help us to extinguish our pride and our schedule and make it subservient to Him.

As we begin this new month, and this new day, may we dedicate it in a manner that we would strive to please our Master as His servants. May we one day hear from Him as He rewards us, "Well done!"

Have a blessed day.

Prayer: Master, I admit to you that I have not been a very good servant. When I say this I mean that while I don't go around looking for ways to sin at the same I have not been very obedient in my attitude. My attitude has been all wrong. I desire to serve you out of obedience, and not convenience. I also desire to serve You with excellence today, and to do everything I do today as if I were doing it for You and for no one else. By Your grace I will do this today, as Your obedient servant. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.