Living For Jesus

Since I was old enough to talk, we regularly sang this hymn in our church. I grew up with it, but as I have grown older, I seldom hear it, and neither is it a part of our current programs for worship. I do not believe our attitude towards the message of the song has changed, nor do we sing it less because we no longer believe it is true. If there is a culprit for less inclusion, it may be because we too often give into the world which many times has more power over our lives than Christ. We do not owe our failure to any insufficiency in Christ to overcome our sin but to the fact that we are not as active in the disciplines that make us react the way we should when confronted with sin. Jesus addressed this issue by referring to the allegiance of a slave to his master. The language is difficult in our culture because we at once reject such a socially unacceptable comparison. Master-slave relationships are taboo, and yet out of this New Testament cultural norm comes some of the most powerful concepts of our relationship with God.

Jesus said “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24). Our separation from the world to live apart from the world and for Christ comes from the action of service. We cannot “serve” two masters. “Serve” is a word with more depth of meaning than we understand in the English language. In this place, it means a “slave.” Christians are literally slaves of Jesus Christ. It is uncommon and practically unheard of for a slave to have two owners. They bought a slave, they paid a price, which transferred ownership of the slave from one party to another. With this price came the obligation of service and resolute obedience. This is the language Paul used in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” “Bought with a price” which gives Christ every right to demand all our time, attention, and energy for His service. The price paid was steep, which enhances the value of ownership and increases the levels of expectations.

We must also consider how in our slave relationship to Jesus He does not force obedience which makes us miserable without our freedom. As children of God our freedom is in Christ, and we never feel restricted. Our happiness is not in self-satisfaction but in “trying to please Him in all that we do.” The heart attitude is “yielding allegiance glad hearted and free,” which marks, “the pathway of blessing for me.”

We would never think from our cultural viewpoint that we would want slavery. The blessing is that Christ does not treat us as slaves to order but as children to love. He treats us as heirs to honor and as princes to exalt with Him in glory. The incentives of voluntary dedicated service are too good to abandon for self-satisfaction. With sinful hearts not yet renewed to perfection, the world will always have the stronger attraction unless we give ourselves fully to the Master’s control. The method of embracing which makes them more attractive than the world is the voice of God spoken through the word and the ears of God reached through our prayers. Speaking and hearing are the pathways of understanding that overcome all of sin’s allure. The hymn ends: “I own no other master; my heart shall be thy throne. My life I give, henceforth to live; O, Christ for Thee alone!”

Pastor V. Mark Smith

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