Something for Nothing

Considering the fact that we live in a world that does its best to get the most while doing the least, it's not hard to understand why many aren't Christians. We see commercials and newspaper ads, receive junk mail and telephone calls - all offering us "something for nothing." This approach often reels in many customers. It works because the world of 2000 is a world that has come to believe that success is merely intake over output. I pray that we can learn to feel differently

In (Luke 17:7-10) Jesus speaks to His disciples and says, "And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'? But will he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink'? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do'"

Jesus was teaching the apostles about God's love and about true discipleship. He was also stressing that we need to work. Our Lord is the master and we are the servants. But too often we want to be the master. We've become so selfish in our thinking that we've lost the understanding of what it is to be Christ-like. Are we really expecting to merit heaven? We never will. Do we really want God to give us what we've earned? "The wages of sin is death" - (Rom. 6:23).

Instead, we need to realize just how unworthy we are of all of God's blessings. We haven't ever done anything to deserve what we have. We have one thing to do and only one thing: serve God. He is the benevolent provider. How good He is! He's provided all of the earthly things we need to sustain us. He's provided all of the spiritual things to maintain us. He'll provide a heavenly home and soon save us. All because He sent His only Son to reclaim us.

It was that Son, Jesus the Christ, who came into the world and took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7). "Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness" (1 Pet. 2:21-24). And when He was done with all of the tasks that had been given Him, He said to the Father, "I have finished the work which You have given Me to do." (John 17:4). Now that was success!

Jesus told the apostles to realize that even after all of their work was completed, they were merely doing what God was asking them to do (Luke 17:10). The difference between them (or us) and Jesus was, and is, simply this: He didn't have to do it, but He loved us enough to do it anyway.

Can you truly say that you love the Lord? You can if you are humbly doing what it is your duty to do - and most importantly, if you are doing it because you love Him. Or, has He done something for nothing?