Jesus Christ, Bondservant
PHILIPPIANS 2:5-7 

The disciples gathered around a table to celebrate Passover with Jesus. Had one of them been more thoughtful of the others—or if one possessed a spirit of servanthood—he would have done the very thing that Christ did. He would have taken water and a cloth, knelt before the other 12 men, one at a time, and washed their feet. Jesus came into the world as a servant (Matt. 20:28). He was willing to do whatever was necessary to move men’s hearts and bring them to a saving knowledge of God.

As the lowest of household servants, the bondslave had the distasteful job of washing the feet of anyone who entered the home. And this is the very task that Christ voluntarily performed that evening, right before His trial and sufferings would begin. His act was a foreshadowing of the service He was about to render to His Father—as well as to the whole world—by dying on the cross for humanity’s sin.Â

We who believe in Jesus Christ do not call Him “slave”; we identify Him as our Master. So when He says that a servant is not greater than His master, He is speaking of our relationship with Him (John 13:16). Believers bend their knees to God’s most humble servant, His Son. What are you doing for the Lord?

Christians are God’s workmanship, created for the purpose of good works (Eph. 2:10). In other words, we were saved to serve. Therefore, there is no valid excuse for refusal. When you surrender to the Lord, you step onto the pathway of Jesus Christ, which is the best possible way to live

David, Tte Psalmist   –   The sweet psalmist of Israel.

2 Samuel 23:1

Among all the saints whose lives are recorded in Holy Scripture, David possesses an experience of the most striking, varied, and instructive character. In his history we meet with trials and temptations that are not found, as a whole, in other saints of ancient times, and as a result he provides us with a shadowy picture of our Lord. David knew the trials of all ranks and conditions of men. Kings have their troubles, and David wore a crown. The peasant has his cares, and David handled a shepherd’s crook. The wanderer has many hardships, and David hid in the caves of Engedi. The captain has his difficulties, and David found the sons of Zeruiah too hard for him.

The psalmist also faced trials from his friends; his counselor Ahithophel forsook him: “[He] who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”1 His worst foes came from his own household: His children were his greatest affliction. The temptations of poverty and wealth, of honor and reproach, of health and weakness all tried their power upon him. He had temptations from without to disturb his peace and from within to mar his joy. David no sooner escaped from one trial than he fell into another, no sooner emerged from one season of despondency and alarm than he was again brought into the lowest depths and all God’s waves and billows rolled over him. This is probably the reason that David’s psalms are so universally the delight of experienced Christians. Whatever our frame of mind, whether ecstasy or depression, David has exactly described our emotions. He was an able master of the human heart because he had been tutored in the best of all schools-the school of heartfelt, personal experience.

As we are instructed in the same school, as we grow mature in grace and in years, we increasingly appreciate David’s psalms and find them to be “green pastures.”2 My soul, let David’s experience cheer and counsel you today.

1Psalm 41:9

2Psalm 23:2

The family reading plan for August 20, 2011

1 Samuel 12 | Romans 10