“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So also you, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17: 7-10 ESV)
Those of us who are born again Christians, wretched sinners made clean and redeemed by the blood of Christ, are called to be servants of our great and glorious King. Knowing we have no right to be in His presence, we willing[ly] bow the knee and submit to the authority of the One who purchased us by His sacrifice. We were once slaves to sin, to our most base desires and passions. But now the chains of bondage have been removed and we have been made willing servants of Christ. Therefore, it makes all the sense in the word that we would desire to obey the commands of our Lord and seek to please Him in all that we do. Yet, it often seems that those of us whom desire most earnestly to contend for the faith, who intensely strive to preach the truth of God’s word, can be prone to taking pride in what should be humble obedience to God.
It would seem unlikely that those who call themselves biblical Christians, those who decidedly proclaim that we should submit to all that God’s word teaches, would be those who would struggle with the tempestuous beast known as pride. Those who declare that God’s word is inspired, inerrant, and sufficient are those who would admit that they are wretched, foul, and deserving of the pits of Hell. They would declare that they were conceived in sin, that their entire life has been marked by the stain of lawlessness, and that they deserve the righteous wrath of God’s judgment. Those persons are the ones who confess that God, in His mercy, sent His Son to take the punishment they deserve on the cross, so that they might receive the righteousness of Christ through repentance and faith. Such professions are made through hearts humbled by the power of the gospel. No one who has been made a new creation in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit can arrogantly attest that they deserved to be saved by God. Therefore, it would seem that those who have been humbled by the cross would be the least likely to fall prey to pride.
Today, there is no end to the assaults on the Christian faith, whether from without or within. As our culture falls further prey to secular humanistic, post-modern thinking, the absolute, exclusivist claims of Christ are considered anathema to the “modern” world. We see ongoing attacks against the faith in our schools, workplaces, and the public square. The media openly mocks Christians, calling them hateful and intolerant, declaring biblical teachings to be regressive and dangerous. The government seeks to marginalize all Christians, giving token acknowledgement to the freedom to practice our faith and speak freely, but claiming that our beliefs are narrow-minded and that they exclude those with whom we disagree. Every which way Christians turn, there is an assault upon the faith, seeking to cause us to surrender to the onslaught of cultural progressivism.
But the attacks also come from within the professing Church as well. Liberalism within the professing Church has been around almost as long as the church has existed. Councils were called repeatedly during the early centuries of the Church to combat numerous heresies that arose during that time. After centuries of the gospel being trampled on by the papacy, God caused the Reformation where godly men boldly proclaimed the truth of God’s word, freeing people from the stranglehold of Romanism. Yet, with the giving of God’s word into the languages of the people, individuals began to interpret God’s word for themselves, sometimes with disastrous results. Liberalism found its way into every denomination, questioning the validity of Scripture, introducing the philosophies of men, and embracing pragmatism at every turn. Today, any Christian who proclaims to be a follower of Christ must be careful to define his terms lest he find himself swept up in the mass of false professing churches and counted amongst those who deny the Word of God.
Even within Churches that have not fully embraced liberalism, there has been an attack in so much as professing believers have allowed themselves to be affected by worldly philosophies of tolerance and acceptance, or partnered with pragmatism by watering down the gospel for the sake of adding numbers to the pews. Such compromises have led to churches that stopped preaching to believers in order to attract the “unchurched,” that have encouraged Christians to cease preaching the gospel message in exchange to live in such a way as unbelievers will see Christ in them, and created pastors who preach from the latest cultural trends rather than the revealed word of God. Into such an environment the modern, biblical Christian finds himself contending for the faith as an obedient servant of the Lord.
When we look at this brief examination of the assaults against the faith, we see the great need for godly followers of Christ to stand boldly on the word of God, declaring it to be true no matter the cost. Those who are lost, who remain steadfast in their rebellious sins against God, are faced with a deluge of competing worldviews to follow. Yet, all worldviews outside of submitting to Christ in repentance and faith will result in their immediate casting into Hell upon their death in this world. The biblical Christian must stand against the assaults in order to preach the truth, knowing that the gospel message declared in Scripture is the only hope for souls bound for eternal judgment. Christians can give no quarter to those who wish to force the Church to compromise the faith in order to be seen as more relevant and inclusive. We must never make concessions to those who reject God’s word in any form, too much depends on it.
It is in this fight for the truth that the biblical Christian, the servant of the Lord, may find himself susceptible to the ravenous beast of pride. Christians who love the Savior and His word know that any assault upon God’s word is an assault upon the King. Therefore, it is our duty as His servants to stand fast against the lies that are being told in His name. We must so love our King that we cannot stand to see His name dragged through the mud to further the goals of His enemies. So, in whatever context we find ourselves, be it in personal conversation, in online discussions, in the of blogging and writing, or in the pulpit, we seek to identify those who are enemies of the gospel. We want to call them out and tear down their false teachings. We want to call them to repentance for all to see. We do this, ostensibly, in the name of the King.
Yet, as we engage in battle, as we seek to divide truth from error, the Christian can come to see himself as the warrior upon whom the whole war sits. As we sit in our churches, we find that there are those who just do not seem to understand how bad the situation is. We cannot begin to comprehend how those who sit next to us do not see that they too should be engaged in the battle as we are. This can take many forms: the evangelist begins to question those who are not regularly sharing the faith; the theologian and teacher begins to suspect anyone who does not see the importance of every doctrinal issue; those in abortion ministry cannot fathom how people can call themselves Christian, yet do nothing to protect the most defenseless among us; those gifted in the area of music are stunned to see professing brethren singing worship songs that do not elevate Christ rightly. These issues and many more can cause the Christian to see themselves as being one of the elite few, or maybe even the only one, who really get how important their favorite issue is. And there lies the monster of pride, ready to swallow the Christian whole.
When we as Christians see the issue in which God has equipped to work as our ministry, as our work, we claim for ourselves a position of authority that does not belong to us. We forget our place, that we are unworthy servants, that we did not deserve any position or service to the Lord. God, in His mercy, not only saved us, but cleaned us up and made us tools fit for His service. When He equips us, God sends us into His fields and commands us to do His work. We do not deserve to be defenders of the faith, proclaimers of the gospel and savers of lives. We deserve His righteous judgment. But God chooses to use those whom He has redeemed that His glory might be made manifest to the world. When a wretched rebel against the King is saved and put into service rather than into chains, the world sees His kindness and mercy on full display. We serve for His glory and His benefit, not for our own.
This is not to say that we should never be passionate about the fields of work where God places us. Not only does God equip us to serve, but He gives us a love and a joy for Him and His word. The energy we derive from these merciful gifts should drive us as we go about the business of serving our Savior. If ever we find ourselves trudging through the service given us by God, we may well need to question if we truly understand the gospel message. But that passion should never give way to pride. It should never be allowed to transform from a passion for the Lord that drives us to serve into a passion for what we are doing because we love what we have accomplished. When we see ourselves as elevated above those whom we deem less worthy, we have sought to kick Jesus off the throne and take His place. We make ourselves king and declare our knowledge and work as worthy of special recognition. We tell ourselves we do this because we want to defend Christ, but in truth, we believe we deserve that special place because we have worked hard to achieve it. It is that same attitude that drove the angel Lucifer to see himself exalted above the most high God. He was a being gifted with wonderful talents and abilities who sought to lift himself above the station of humble servant. Such is the tenacious sin of pride.
Yet, it is in this passage in Luke where we find the cure for such a wicked ailment of pride. Christ teaches His disciples that the master never gives a special place to the servant, to serve himself before the master. The servant is expected to serve his lord in all that he does, and to do so without expectation of recognition. The master is worthy of such work because he is lord over the servant. He has full power and authority to command all that the servant does. It is not within the servant’s position to demand recognition or special privilege. The servant is deserving only of that which the master gives him by nature of his position. In the end, the servant is to acknowledge that his master rightfully deserves the best service he can give. In his humility, the servant acknowledges he is unworthy of any good thing and must be obedient to his master to the best of his ability.
Those of us redeemed in Christ must see ourselves in the same manner. We are unworthy servants, called into service by a good and merciful King. We should not be where we are, but we have been placed there according to His loving kindness. So when we are seeking to defend the faith, proclaim the truth, and call His enemies to repentance, we do so because it is expected from our Lord and Master. We have not been elevated to a special position that should be recognized, we have been pressed into service according to His needs. When we preach the gospel, teach true doctrine, defend the lives of the defenseless and worship Christ rightly, we are merely being obedient as servants to our Lord. Therefore, when we seek to exhort others into obedience, it should be not as though we have authority to demand, but rather as loving brethren who understand that obedience is simply what servants do. We are unworthy to serve, yet we do so because we love our Master. We are unworthy to be in His presence, but He has placed us there out of the abundance of His loving kindness. When we see ourselves in this manner, we are less likely to succumb to pride and will simply begin to serve.
Great read