«　WEEK 9　DAY 1　»

　　Rom. 12:1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

　　1 Cor. 7:22 For the slave who has been called in the Lord is the Lord's freedman; likewise the free man who has been called is Christ's slave.

　　

　　A saved person wishes to serve the Lord, not out of others' encouragement or compelling, neither out of others' exhortation or leading, but out of an inward motive. This motive is his love for the Lord. His love for the Lord constrains him and impels him to serve the Lord. His inward love for the Lord forces him to serve the Lord. This refers to the slave described in the Old Testament who, due to his love for his master, would not go out free at the end of his days of slavery; he would rather be a slave to serve his beloved master. Our motive of serving the Lord should be the same. We volunteer to be a slave of Lord and to serve the Lord, out of our love to the Lord.

　　We love the Lord because He loved us first. His love moves us to love Him. Lord's love to us generates the love to Him in our inward being so that we can not help but love Him. Thus it is His love that makes us to love Him and to serve Him. For this reason, Apostles exhorted us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to serve God through the compassions of God. We serve the Lord because His love stirs us up and because His love generates the love in our inward being.

　　According to the Bible, Christians … should take serving the Lord as their primary job. We, Christians, should take our jobs or careers as secondary ones. Only serving the Lord is our primary job. To us, all the jobs and careers are number two. Only serving the Lord is number one. Our purpose of living in the world is to serve the Lord. Serving the Lord should be the center and purpose of our life. All our jobs and careers are taken incidentally to sustain our life and to supply for the need of the Lord's work. At the same time, they become the means for us to contact people and to preach the gospel to others…. Whatever our job is, it should be incidental to us. Our purpose should be for serving the Lord and preaching the gospel…. If we want to be a normal Christian, it should be this way. Only to live to the Lord in this way is to serve the Lord.

　　“He who was called when free is Christ's slave” (1 Cor. 7:22). To serve the Lord is to be a slave of the Lord Christ. In this verse, a slave refers to one who is sold and who has lost his freedom. Such a status reveals the significance of serving the Lord. Our serving the Lord is not to do any great work, but to be a slave of Christ to serve the Lord.

　　“And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting…” (Acts 13:2). In the original language, ministering here refers to service as a priest; it is the same word as in Hebrews 10:11 for the “ministering” (serving) of a priest. To serve God as a priest is to handle before God all things related to the worship of God. This requires us to constantly draw near to God and stand before Him.

　　“But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body [of Christ], even as He willed” (1 Cor. 12:18). We believers are all members placed by God in the Body of Christ, and each member has its function. When we fulfill our office to minister in the Body of Christ according to our function, we are also serving the Lord.

　　“God…whom I serve in the gospel of His Son” (Rom. 1:9). To preach the gospel is also to serve God. This means that we bring sinners to God just as the priests brought sacrifices to offer to God. Thus, Romans 15:16 says that to preach the gospel in this way is to minister “as a priest the gospel of God.” This kind of service is valuable, and it fulfills God's eternal economy.