The Truth Behind Sacrifice & Service

Serving Like Jesus

If you’ve been in Christian circles, church, read your Bible, or been around other Christians long enough, you have heard about the need to serve and sacrifice like Jesus did. Your parents, Sunday School teachers, or other leaders may have told you of the need to serve others, sacrifice yourself for others, and to do it unto God.

It is true that service and sacrifice are key characteristics of Jesus’ life and ministry. What is not true is that he sacrificed himself to his own detriment, let people walk over him, or let his voice, rights, or agency be thwarted in the process.

The truth behind serving and submitting as Christians today is that many of us struggle to understand what that means and how to do it in a healthy way. Because of our fallen and broken nature, we struggle with a deep selfishness that pulls us constantly inward and toward ourselves. We constantly make decisions about whether to give in to that selfishness or to outwardly focus on the good of others. This struggle is at the heart of spiritual formation. Selfishness pulls us away from God, while God is calling us to Himself. And a will that is surrendered to God desires to serve others in the process of serving God, or is growing toward that desire.

Jesus served others because he desired to do so. Paul makes it clear in Philippians 2 that Jesus willingly and voluntarily gave up his life and his place in heaven to serve humanity. It was a choice, and one that he made because he loved us. His compassion and care for us permeates the Gospels. All acts of his service were done voluntarily, willingly, and at the right time and place. He spoke at times but then remained silent at other times. He healed people at times, but other times did not. He cared for people through miracles but then at other times when a sign was demanded of him, he refrained.

And in his final hours, he willingly allowed himself to go through terrible abuse and suffering. He didn’t fight back, run away, or use his words to condemn others or defend himself. In fact, these final hours of his life, before the cross, are the only times when he gave himself completely into the hands of others for the purpose of the sacrifice on the cross. At all other times, he is choosing when and how to serve. And it was because he loved us that he made these choices to sacrifice.

Serving and sacrifice for others must be first and foremost voluntary, and ideally it should come out of a desire to do so. We will be prompted by the Holy Spirit at times to serve and sacrifice even when we don’t want to do it, but we still have a choice to make. Our desire to be obedient to the Holy Spirit may be the motivating factor in that moment, but there is still a desire and choice that is involved. Over time, as we grow into Christ’s likeness and are growing into wholeness, our desire to serve will go beyond merely the desire to be obedient; we will serve because we care about others and want good for them.

Desire, choice, and free will are crucial in our understanding of serving and sacrifice. Serve and sacrifice because you care about others, because your love for their well-being is as strong as your love for yourself (Isn’t that what loving our neighbor as ourselves is all about?). Until then, serve others and sacrifice for them because your desire to love God and follow His commands outweighs your love for yourself. Eventually, as your will changes and becomes like Christ, your desire to serve others will be a real desire all its own.