Why should I want to serve God?

Their Service to God was another effect of the gospel; they "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God." The love of God constrained them to serve Him; for, according to the Saviour's words, "to whom much is forgiven the same loveth much." They loved God because He had first loved them. A feeling of gratitude for such unfathomable mercy made His service unspeakably happy. The knowledge of the Saviour's kindness made His yoke easy, and His burden light. A sense of deliverance from the wrath to come, through the death and resurrection of Christ, is the main-spring of true service. This service is happy liberty — perfect freedom; it is the way of faith which works by love. How many mistake here. They serve in order to be saved, instead of because they have received forgiveness of sins and eternal life; and the mistake is fatal. To expect salvation in any measure by works of the flesh is a fearful delusion; to work in obedience to God, because of being pardoned and accepted in Christ, is the blessed path of the Spirit. The Saviour's words are, "If ye love me, keep my commandments, and love one another as I have loved you," etc. It is of the utmost importance to be clear on this point. It is plain that the Thessalonian converts were on right ground; for Paul addressed them as those who were (not would be, but already) delivered from the wrath to come. They knew that they served the living God. Long had they served dumb idols; but now they obeyed the living God. Persons do not believe that "God is," that His eye beholds them, His ear is open to their cry, His face set against evil-doers, that His heart loves, His arm brought salvation, and that His hand is open to satisfy the desire of every living thing. People do not think this; they do not believe that He is the living God. The language of many a heart is, "No God;" hence it is that the creature is so often set up and worshipped more than the Creator, and that so many live without God and without hope in the world, so that God is not in all their thoughts. Not so, however, were these Thessalonians; their faith and hope were in the living God, and they served Him, sought to please Him, obey Him, honour and glorify Him, who had redeemed them with nothing less than the precious blood of His own Son. They also knew Him as the true God. This was happier still. They knew He had always been true to His word, and that He would be true to His promises, true in hearing and answering prayer, true to all who put their trust in Him, true to accept their service, true to sustain them in time of trial, true to bring them through every difficulty, and true to present them faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Oh, if people believed that God was true, how would sinners fly to Jesus to escape the wrath to come! and how quiet would believers be in time of trouble, how submissive in affliction, patient in waiting upon God, and cheerful in the darkest dispensations! The true God has given us His own word to guide us and hope in, until wilderness experiences are past, and we shall be able, when in the glory, to look back and declare that not one jot or tittle has failed. Thus we see that the Thessalonian believers were a working people; they served the living and true God, and were well known for their works of faith and labours of love. We may be assured that turning to God through Jesus must ever be connected with loving service.

The light has shone upon our benighted souls marvellous light—the light of the revelation of God—and by this light we have got the salvation of our souls. Our souls have been emancipated from the bondage to the power of evil under which we lay, and now we are exhorted to take up another order of service—service to God. When the light of God enters our souls in the power of the Spirit, our souls are set free for God’s service. We are to render to Him intelligent service. The point in this passage is not that it is reasonable that we should serve God on account of the compassion which He has shown us, but that our service should be characterized by the knowledge of His will whom we desire to serve. And this sacrifice is holy, acceptable and living. It is not a dead sacrifice, like the bodies of beasts slain at the altar in the past dispensation, but a life devoted to His service. And it is in this way we prove how good and acceptable and perfect His will is.

The apostle beseeches. It is not a command with a curse attached to it in view of possible disobedience. It is an appeal to those who have obtained infinite mercy to enter upon a new career of unspeakable joy and happiness. It is an exhortation to those who have not only been bought, but who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ to “render to God the things that are God’s.” The power of sin, Satan, law and flesh, can dominate us no longer. We have come under a new control, and it is not only that we have power to yield ourselves to God, but the desire of the renewed mind is to walk in the pathway of His will. It is a service of love. We have been brought into new and eternal relationships with God, and we rejoice to know that He is willing to accept of our very imperfect service.

Let us each in our measure seek to establish in our lives the fact that we are serving God. And when people inquire, 'Why do you not do this?' let us say, 'I serve God. I fear God. I have His word. I tremble to disobey that word, I fear to do wrong to Him. Knowing His will, I tremble to disregard it.' It ought to be so. These Thessalonians had found the living and true God, and were serving Him. Do not think this is bondage. It is the joy of liberty. The man who has the true God in grace before him feels that he can never do sufficient; that what ever self-denial he may make, it is unworthy to be mentioned; that God's grace is so great, the sacrifice of the cross for him was so infinite, that anything he may renounce is but trifling.

What is most beautiful and wholly characteristic of this beloved and loving man of God is added here. He says, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way;" and this he at once proceeds to do: "Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you." He places their obedience not on the ground of obligation merely, but on the higher plane of gratitude; "For consider," he says, "how great things He hath done for you." There is only one higher reason seen in the creature: the holy angels in heaven obey God for what He is in Himself, in the infinite perfections and glories of His Being. This motive is not absent in the worship and obedience of the redeemed; in them it is coupled and augmented with the sense of gratitude and obligation; and we would not have it otherwise. The "great things He has done for us," shall be our wonder and delight to sing in the coming ages of that glad eternity that awaits us, through the grace of God, on the alone ground of "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Alleluia!

I want to say a word on the dignity of service. It is a blessed matter that there should be a desire in our hearts to serve God, and especially so in the day in which we live. It is well when the motive for service is lifted above all that which is casual on to the dignified plane to which it really belongs, for it is no light matter to serve the blessed God. It is a matter that has an influence not upon this world only but upon the world to come. Every true desire for service is appraised at its full value by the blessed God Himself. I believe it is a joy to the hearts of Divine Persons, Who have Themselves so blessedly served in love, when They see a real desire in our hearts to serve in responsive affection to the love that has so blessedly served each one of us; and let us say at once that any service not actuated by responsive affection to the love which has reached us from God Himself is of no value at all. Job tells us that wicked men say, "Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?" That sentiment is not confined to Job 21, it is a sentiment extant in our day. How solemn is this attitude of the world towards God, refusing the allegiance that is due to Him creatorially; having no respect for the way in which He has come out in the compassionate love of His own blessed heart; and having no intention at all of serving Him.

But my point more particularly is that which is to fill up the interim. Our life is to be one of serving and waiting. The serving of something or somebody characterizes everybody. The men of the world mainly serve their own lusts and passions, and in so doing they are really serving the great adversary himself. We are called to serve the living and true God, and there are ways in great variety in which we may do so. If we are devoted to God, and His will is supreme with us, we shall be led by Him into the service that he pleases, while we tread our way to glory. The world and its lust pass away, and it is he that does the will of God who abides forever. We serve the living God, who notes every item of service rendered to Him, and will ultimately reward it.

Once we realize and start to appreciate what Christ suffered and paid in order to bring us into this position and state of being sanctified, we will desire to respond with gratitude to the Lord by living with and for Him.

There must be an answer on our part to these wonderful things which the love of God has brought us into; redemption, righteousness, life, deliverance, peace, and above all, the gift of the Holy Spirit. These speak of the compassions of God, for in His love He has provided them all for us and we may say in the light of this, "If God has done all this for me, what else can I do but yield myself to Him for His service?" Hence the motive of this service is the love of God, while the power is the Spirit of God. This decision which may be quite unobserved by anyone else but God, must precede any active service.

Liberty of Service. The believer is a servant, because he is a son; and the Lord's service is perfect freedom — "His yoke is easy, and His burden is light." He serves God as a redeemed sinner and an adopted child, constrained by the love of Christ. He works not for liberty, but as having liberty; not for life, but from life. This is happy service; it flows from a cheerful heart; it is wrought by a willing spirit; and is often accompanied with present recompence. There are no cares, no burdens, connected with such service; it aims only at one object, namely, to exalt Him who ransomed us with His own blood; and we know that His blood purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, and to wait for His Son from heaven.

It is not standing on our rights; for what rights have we? If our due deserts are rendered to us, what can the issue be but "the lake of fire?" But sovereign, unmerited grace to those who deserved it not in the least, has been manifested, and from first to last we are debtors to mercy. Where there is the due sense of this in the soul, we shall not be exactors but benefactors. We shall not demand, but be glad to serve, even as "the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."