Jan 21 2008
doulos / diakonos
Today was the second Sunday in our God’s Frat Party series, as we talk about our Fraternity letters, Kappa Delta Pi. Today was Delta. It was a great day and powerful message. If you want to check it out, here it is.
The main point of the sermon was that as Christians we are called to be slaves (doulos) of Christ (and God) and therefore we are commanded to serve (diakonos) one another. It was a powerful reminder of our identity in Christ and the calling that flows out of that identity.
The one point that resonated most deeply with me was Ben’s statement that we cannot serve God without being a servant to God. I think his actual line was something like, “How do you plan to serve God? Go up to heaven and mow his lawn?” This is a truth that I too quickly forget. I desire some way to serve God. I want to show my love for God and so I look for something super spiritual or super holy that I can do as an expression of my love. I understand what led priests of ancient religions to go to such extreme lengths to demonstrate their devotion.
But that is not the call of God. Over and over scripture teaches us that the way we demonstrate love for God is by serving others. We are called to love God and love our neighbor but scripture makes it clear that we do the first by doing the second. 1 John 4:7-21 is an essential text in this regard. John knows and Jesus knows that it is easy to say we love God in some abstract way, but the rubber meets the rod when we realize that our doulos to God can only be expressed by our diakonos to others. Apparently there is no other way.
on the walk
-Ethan
