Serve God out of Love and Serve Others with Christ by Ministering Christ to them

We serve God out of love for Him and we serve others with Christ by ministering Christ to them.

As believers in Christ, we are slaves of God serving Him; our inward motive is loving the Lord, and we use the Lord’s gift to build up the church by serving others with Christ and ministering Christ as grace to them, caring for them with the Father’s loving and forgiving heart.

The Lord Jesus came as the Slave of God to serve us and to serve God; He left us a pattern of what it means to be the Slave of God.

Today we are learning to serve the Lord and serve the saints by first of all loving the Lord and loving one another, for our service is in love and out of love.

And as we love the Lord and love one another, we exercise our spirit and seek to be filled with the Spirit so that we may have something of the Spirit to minister to others.

The only way we can serve others is by ministering something of Christ to them.

Each one of us has received some spiritual gifts from the Lord; these gifts are not our natural talents or abilities but a spiritual capacity that the Lord has given to each member of the Body.

As we exercise our spirit and enjoy the Lord, experience Him, and cooperate with Him in our daily life, we develop our spiritual gifts and exercise these gifts for the building up of the Body.

However, if we are lazy, if we “bury our talent” as the unprofitable and lazy slave did in Matt. 25, we will not be rewarded by the Lord.

We may be in the church life today and we may see this brother or that sister serving the Lord and shepherding the new ones, and we may wonder why don’t we serve or shepherd others.

Our function is not by appointment; it is determined by the measure of the gift of Christ and our cooperation.

The more we enjoy Christ as grace, the more our capacity increases.

The more we exercise our spirit to enjoy the Lord and partake of His riches in His word, the more we will have something to share with others to minister Christ to them.

But if we are not diligent to contact the Lord, be in His word, and partake of His riches, we will not have much to offer to others, and we may not even have a heart to serve the Lord and the saints.

We believers in Christ have been saved to serve; the One who saved us is the Slave of God, and He reproduces Himself into us for us to be slaves of the Lord and of the saints.

Peter, Paul, John, and the apostles were slaves of God and servants of the saints, seeking to minister Christ to the saints for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

We are the same today.

We Serve the Lord out of Love for Him, taking Him as the Source and Coordinating with the Members of the Body

The inward motive of our service for the Lord is not duty or necessity; it is our love for Him.

When we see the Lord, when we enjoy Him, and when we open to Him and just fellowship with Him, we are drawn to Him and we love Him.

Like the slave in Exo. 21:5, we will desire to not leave His house but remain His slave, for we love our Lord and Master.

We serve the Lord not because of duty or demand; we serve Him because we love Him.

In the aspect of life, we are virgins loving the Lord and living for the Lord; in the aspect of service, we are slaves serving the Lord.

We can serve the Lord only because we love Him, for our inward motive for serving the Lord is our love for Him.

However, when we lose our first love for the Lord, no matter how much we serve the Lord, He is not happy with us, for only the service that comes out of our love for Him counts before Him (Rev. 2:4-5).

The church in Laodicea had much service and labor for the Lord, but they lost their first love; therefore, the Lord asked them to repent and return to the first works which issue out of the first love.

May we repent before the Lord again and again, allowing Him to shine on our lukewarmness and lack of love for Him, and may we let the Lord infuse us with Himself as love.

When we love the Lord, we serve Him faithfully and lovingly, for in our service to Him, we give our love to Him.

In John 21 we see how the Lord Jesus came to speak to Peter and recover his love toward the Lord; Peter thought he loved the Lord, but his love was so weak that he denied the Lord three times.

So the Lord came to recover and restore his love for the Lord, and out of this love, he could serve the Lord.

The Lord simply asks us today, Do you love Me? If we love the Lord, we will shepherd His sheep, care for His flock, and feed His lambs.

Our serving the Lord should always proceed out from Him as the source of blessing, be through Him as the means and the power, and be unto Him for His glory (Rom. 11:36; Num. 18:1).

Because we love the Lord, we take Him as the source; we do not bring in our own zeal, our own self-made fire, but we serve Him with the fire from the altar, the fire and zeal of the Lord.

We do not do anything by ourselves, of ourselves, or for ourselves; whatever we may be doing, we do out of Him, through Him, and unto Him.

We may be preaching the gospel, visiting a dormant saint, or shepherding some weak ones – all this is out of Him as the source and unto Him.

This means that we don’t just go and visit someone because we have to or because we haven’t seen that person for a long time; we check with the Lord and, even though we may hear that person is in great need, we depend on the Lord in all things.

And we serve the Lord with our whole being according to the counsel of God by coordinating with the members of the Body of Christ, for our service is in the Body and for the Body (Rom. 12:1-2, 11; Acts 13:36; 1 Cor. 12:14-22).

We practically depend on the Lord as we depend on the members of the Body.

On one hand, we contact the Lord and do all things one with Him and out of Him; on the other hand, we carry out our service in coordination with the Body.

We do not do things independently or individualistically.

There’s a tendency among us that, the more we go on in the church life, the more we know how to do this and that, we know how to shepherd, and we know how to care for others, so we don’t depend on the Lord or on the Body.

We simply become accustomed and experienced, so we don’t need the Lord or the Body that much. Oh, Lord!

May we never be in such a situation and may we never think this way; may we never become an independent worker.

May we never make decisions by ourselves or do things in ourselves and by ourselves.

We need to be blended together and coordinate together, having no trust in ourselves to carry out the Lord’s work but remain in the service in a coordinated way.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we want to serve You! Amen, Lord, our inward motive for serving You and serving the saints is that we love You! You loved us, You gave Yourself up for us, and You imparted Your love into us; we love You and we serve You out of love toward You! We take You as our source of blessing. May our service proceed out from You and be through You as the means and the power. May our service to God be unto You for Your glory! Amen, Lord, we don’t want to do anything in ourselves, by ourselves, or for ourselves in serving You. We simply want to be one with You, depending on You in all our service. Oh Lord, we want to serve You according to the counsel of God by coordinating with the members of the Body. Save us from serving in an individualistic way. May we remain in the fellowship and coordination with the saints You put us with so that we may serve in the Body and for the Body! Lord, we love You, we depend on You, and we depend on the Body in our service to You!

Serve others with Christ and Minister Christ as Grace to them

There are many aspects of our service to the Lord, and one of them is seen in Matt. 24:45; the Lord put us in His household to give others food at the proper time.

He gave each one of us a gift for us to build up the church by serving others with Christ and ministering Christ as grace to them (Matt. 25:27; 1 Pet. 4:10; Col. 1:7; 4:12).

Each one of us has a gift given to us by the Lord; this gift is not a natural ability to speak or a talent to do this or that in our natural being, but a spiritual gift.

We have been given a gift to speak for the Lord out of our enjoyment of Him.

We shouldn’t accept the enemy’s lie that only the elders, the serving brothers, and the gifted saints can function in speaking for the Lord, but we don’t, since we’re like a “little potato” without any gift to speak eloquently, etc.

Rather, may we stand on the Lord’s word in Matt. 25 where He tells us that each one of us was given at least one talent, and we have the spiritual gift for our commission.

The Lord gave us two categories of things: His possessions (the church with all the believers) and the talents, the spiritual gifts.

Each one of us has a gift from the Lord, and we need to practice enjoying the Lord daily to cultivate our gift, develop our gift, and exercise our gift.

We need to serve as laboring priests of the gospel of God, saving sinners to offer them to God as acceptable sacrifices and eventually present them full-grown in Christ (Rom. 15:16; 12:1; Col. 1:28).

We serve the Lord by using the Lord’s gift by serving others with Christ, first helping them to be saved through the gospel, and then shepherding them and perfecting them until we can present them full-grown in Christ.

We need to supply others with Christ as their spiritual food at the proper time (Matt. 24:25).

How can we give others food if we ourselves do not have enough food?

We need to daily contact the Lord, enjoy Him in the Word, and obtain the spiritual food, the nourishment we need, and even an extra portion of spiritual food to give others also.

Just as mothers know how to cook the groceries to provide excellent food to their family, so we need to learn to cook the spiritual groceries in God’s word and cooperate with the Lord in our daily living so that we may give others food at the proper time.

We need to speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season (Acts 5:42; 8:4; 2 Tim. 4:2).

In season and of season, we need to exercise to speak for the Lord.

And when we come to the meetings of the church, we need to desperately endeavour to build up a habit of speaking in the meetings (1 Cor. 14:26, 4-5, 12, 31).

We speak in the meetings not to show what we know and how much we read during the week; we speak for the building up of the church.

When we meet together, that is one of the proper times that we can speak for the Lord and speak the Lord forth into others.

We may think we don’t know how to speak that well, or we may compare ourselves to brother So-and-So or sister So-and-So; however, no matter how much we stutter in our speaking and how much we forget what to speak, we need to practice to give others food.

This means that we daily need to take the way of labouring on the Lord’s word to obtain the riches of Christ, and we need to experience Christ so that these riches may be wrought into our being.

We cannot just grab a coffee and a doughnut for breakfast; we need to learn to eat a healthy spiritual breakfast so that we may be healthy Christians who have something of Christ to minister to others also.

We need to be diligent to seek the Lord in His word so that we may prepare and serve good food when we come to the meetings of the church.

When we come to the Lord’s Table meeting, the prayer meeting, and the home meetings, we need to have something of Christ prepared and ready to minister to others for their nourishment.

This is how we serve the Lord, by giving food to those in His household at the proper time.

The meeting time is one of the proper times to give others food.

We need to care for people with the loving and forgiving heart of our Father God and the shepherding and seeking spirit of our Savior Christ (John 21:15-17; 1 Cor. 12:31b; 13:4-8, 13).

The best way, the most excellent way for us to be anything and do anything for the building up of the Body of Christ, is love.

First of all, the motive of our service is loving the Lord, and last of all and also throughout our service, we need to care for people with the Lord’s loving and forgiving heart.

May we all take the most excellent way to serve, do anything, and be anything in the church life for the building up of the church.

May we take the way of love in doing anything in the church.

Lord Jesus, we want to use the spiritual gift You gave us to build up the church today! Amen, Lord, we want to serve others with Christ and minister Christ as grace to them. Hallelujah, each one of us has a spiritual gift given by the Lord, and we can develop our gift by spending time with the Lord to enjoy Him and gain Him! Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to you to serve as laboring priests of the gospel of God, saving sinners to offer them to God as acceptable sacrifices! We love You, Lord, and we want to serve You and serve the saints with the Father’s loving and forgiving heart so that we may present the ones under our care full-grown in Christ! We come to You, Lord, and we want to enjoy You and obtain spiritual nourishment from you. We want to supply others with Christ as their spiritual food at the proper time. Amen, Lord, may we all build up a habit of speaking for You and speaking You forth in the meetings! May we cooperate with You to speak Christ to all kinds of people daily in season and out of season! Make us faithful and prudent slaves of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” chs. 8-9, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 6, Being Watchful in Life and Faithful in Service.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – A good minister of Christ, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, Chapter 8.
  – The experience of the pneumatic Christ in the Gospel of John, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Avoiding Common Mistakes in Shepherding, via, Lamb Followers.
  – Christ as grace, a portion from, Autobiography of a Person in the Spirit, An, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee.
  – Patterns of serving the saints, via, CSOC.
  – My Personal Testimony – Pursuing Christ, Living the Church Life, and Enjoying the Ministry, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Follow after love, a portion from, Hearing of Faith.
  – Q&R Sessions with Co-workers by Uni Students, via, Living to Him.
  – To overcome the leaving of the first love, a portion from, The Overcomers, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – We Serve God in the Temple; that is, in God Himself, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Going along with the Lord to carry out His plan, a portion from, A Young Man in God’s Plan, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – How Does God Want Christians to Live? More via, Bibles for America blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – To the lost world minister Christ, / The very Christ you enjoy, / Imparting Christ to all your friends / As all their boast and their joy. / To the lost world minister Christ, / Who is your life and your all, / Imparting Christ to all you meet, / All fallen ones, great or small. (Hymns #922 stanzas 3-4)
  – Serve and work within the Body, / This the Lord doth signify; / For His purpose is the Body, / And with it we must comply. / Serve and work within the Body, / Never independently; / As the members of the Body, / Functioning relatedly. (Hymns #913 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Christ to minister is service / Both to God and others too, / Christ, the surplus, e’er supplying, / Off’ring Him as service true. (Hymns #912 stanza 1)