Jan. 18

Read 1 Timothy 3

 ^8-13The same goes for those who want to be servants in the church: serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it. They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things. Let them prove themselves first. If they show they can do it, take them on. No exceptions are to be made for women—same qualifications: serious, dependable, not sharp-tongued, not overfond of wine. Servants in the church are to be committed to their spouses, attentive to their own children, and diligent in looking after their own affairs. Those who do this servant work will come to be highly respected, a real credit to this Jesus-faith. (The Message)

Yesterdays scripture and thoughts spent time focusing upon the role of leadership in the church and I know that many people hear those words and walk away thinking it is a good thing that they will never serve in a leadership position. In fact they avoid even the opportunity to serve as a leader and instead tell themselves that they will play the servant role because their lives do not live up to that necessary of a leader. But Paul doesn't let us off the hook. He makes it clear that those who serve are also called to a high standard. What he is really saying is that all followers of Jesus are called to live a consistent life. Both those who lead and those who follow should show the signs of Jesus presence in their lives in all that they do. The fact that it isn't optional seems to escape many of us. Maybe it is because we don't want to change or find it inconvenient to what we have grown used to. It could be that we really don't want to admit to ourselves or others that we have been selfish and self-centered and want to / need to change. So when we look at these characteristics of both leaders and those who serve it would be easy to simply give up hope and walk away from it all thinking that we will never qualify. But the reality is that to become the type of person Paul says is qualified for leadership and serving you have to begin serving others. The way to develop this type of life is by living it before you have meet its criteria. You have to practice serving before you will become a servant. You have to  do this with your family, in the church, in your community, and where ever else you might find yourself.

Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:

• Do you think Timothy was surprised to hear that servants needed a similar set of characteristics as leaders in the church?
• When you seen people who are truly serving Jesus in all their lives what are some of their characteristics?
• What areas of your life might change if you focused upon serving others more than you serve yourself?
• Pick something this week that you can do for someone else that will bring you no other rewards than doing the work of Jesus. Once you have done this talk with a friend about the experience and what you learned.