From the Pulpit: The Bondservant’s greatest choice

Author Greg Laurie shares the following whimsical story:

I heard the story of a woman who had finished shopping and returned to her car. She found four men inside the car. She dropped her shopping bags, drew a handgun, and screamed, “I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car.” Those men did not wait for a second invitation; they got out and ran like crazy.

The woman, somewhat shaken, loaded her shopping bags and then got into the car. But no matter how she tried, she could not get her key into the ignition. Then it dawned on her: her car was parked four or five spaces away! She loaded her grocery bags into her own car and then drove to the police station to turn herself in. The desk sergeant to whom she told the story nearly fell off his chair laughing. He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four men were reporting a carjacking by an old woman with thick glasses and curly white hair, less than five feet tall, and carrying a large handgun. 

No charges were filed. You see, she thought it was her car, but it really belonged to someone else.

Last week we looked at Romans 1:1 and what it has to say about our identity in Christ. The Greek word DOULOS is translated ‘bondservant’ in this verse. Paul was saying that He was voluntarily owned by Jesus Christ, and that Jesus, as the Master, had every right to do whatever He wanted to do with His property. Paul had no claims on his own life. He belonged, totally and completely, to Jesus Christ. He was bound to do whatever Christ called him to do because he didn’t have any rights to his own life. Everything he had, everything he needed, every hope he might have, every desire he might want to fulfill were all in the hands of His Master, Jesus.  

Some Christians look in the mirror and say, “I’m a bondservant.” A bondservant finds little frustration in their Christian life because they are voluntarily serving another without expecting any remuneration in return. The payday frustration is off the table. But here is where the ‘bond-servant Christian’ struggles … they are not bound contractually to serve, it’s voluntary, so they are always faced with the temptation to quit serving.  

Philippians 2:7 tells us that Jesus took the form of a bondservant. He voluntarily came to this earth and became a servant to the very human beings he had created. Of course, we know that Jesus did it for a purpose. He did it to provide salvation. It wasn’t easy. Satan was constantly attacking Him because He knew that Jesus could choose to give it up at any time. So, he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. That didn’t work but the temptation was there right up until His death. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from Me.” The easy way out would have been to quit. He went on to say, “Not My will, but Your will be done.” He never quit. He never denied His identity. That’s the faithful choice of a bond-servant.

Every single day bond-servants face the temptation to not serve God. “I should do this for God today, but I really want to do this.” “I should talk to this person about Christ, but it would be a lot easier not to, or to wait for a better time, or to let someone else do it.” You see, we can choose not to serve. It’s a constant temptation.  

Paul tells us that bondservants live like Jesus. Life gets hard but they never quit. They never deny their identity. That’s the faithful choice of a bondservant.