The Longer I Serve Him / William J. Gaither
Since I started for the Kingdom,
Since my life He controls,
Since I gave my heart to Jesus,
The longer I serve Him,
The sweeter He grows…
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read I Corinthians 4 (key verse 2):
Apostles of Christ
1 So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
8 Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10 We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11 To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12 We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13 when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
14 I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15 Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
18 Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21 What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
My Understanding: I like the wording and the order of the wording to this first stanza of this song by Bill Gaither. As I read through these words, the Lord quickened my mind and helped me to see the significance of this order of lines in this first stanza. Bill said, “Since I started for the Kingdom…” The kingdom is the kingdom of God, which encompasses God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the life and ministry of Jesus Christ on the earth; his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection in conquering death, hell and sin; his ascension into heaven; his sending the Holy Spirit to indwell the hearts of true believers in Jesus Christ; his coming again to receive us to himself; and our eternity with God in heaven. The way in which we start for (or in) the kingdom is by God’s grace (through Jesus’ death and resurrection and him dying for our sins so that we could go free from sin), and through faith (repentance and obedience) in Jesus Christ as Lord (Master) and Savior (from both the penalty of sin and the control of and bondage to sin over our lives on a daily basis).
The second line in this song bears out this understanding that repentance, obedience and making Jesus our Lord (Master) at the onset or start of our relationship with Jesus Christ is essential for us to be in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. The second line says, “Since my life he controls…” This means that Jesus is on the throne of our lives, which is what it means to truly give our hearts to Jesus to serve him and to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. This entering into God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ is a radical life transformation. It means going from being one thing and becoming something or someone else. And, that is what I believe the Lord Jesus would have me to focus on this morning from this passage in I Corinthians 4. The life God controls is one who is (or has):
A servant of Christ
A servant is someone who works in the service of someone else. That means that the person he or she works for is the boss, and the boss is the one who gives out the job assignments. Some assignments are generally for every believer in Jesus Christ to do and we can find those assignments for us in God’s word, and we can follow them. Yet, the Bible also teaches that God gives individual gifts and callings to his followers, so we need to find out what our specific assignments are from the Spirit of God, who decides what gifts to give us. I find so many times that believers in Jesus Christ, in trying to serve God, choose what they want to do, and what they choose to do they do on their human terms, according to what feels comfortable to them. Yet, that is not the true meaning of the word servant. If we are to be servants of Christ, it means to be slaves to Christ in doing what he requires the way he wants it done, and it is not always what we would choose or even something we would even think of in our wildest imaginations. What Jesus is looking for are those servants who are willing to let him be the boss, and to let him decide what we should do and the way in which it should be done, and perhaps even the timing in which it should be accomplished.
Entrusted with the Word of God and to prove faithful
To be entrusted with something means for someone to delegate or to assign to us something of importance, that involves the person who entrusts that something with us expecting us to behave responsibly and/or honorably in the area of responsibility assigned, and that is required for us to do. As servants of Jesus Christ, we are entrusted with the Word of God - to spend time learning what it teaches and then by putting the teachings into practice in our daily lives. As well, we are entrusted with spiritual gifts, natural talents, resources, people, possessions, time, etc., so we must be faithful in exercising our spiritual gifts, in using our natural talents, in accessing our resources, and in being sensitive to the needs of others, etc. - all as led by the Holy Spirit within us to do exactly what he has for us to do and to meet the exact needs he wants us to meet and/or that His Word specifically directs us to meet. Some things, again, are generally for all of us to do, and some things are specific assignments for us to do, and all are given by God, and we must be faithful with whatever trusts God has given to each of us individually.
Unconcerned with human judgment
When someone judges (evaluates; appraises; decides; discerns; and/or concludes) with human judgment, he or she is using man as his center of reference and he is using the teachings and/or philosophies of man as his ruler by which he judges. This is faulty, because mankind is sinful and subject to failure and often cannot make right and just judgments. The Bible says that to measure ourselves by ourselves and to compare ourselves with ourselves is not wise (See 2 Co. 10:12b). Paul said, in relation to this subject of man’s judgments (decisions; discernment; and/or conclusions): “Do not go beyond what is written.” What he was saying there is that our view of mankind (including of ourselves) should be Biblical so that we don’t take pride in one man over the other. I Samuel 16:7 says: “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." This was God speaking to Samuel when Samuel was looking for the one God had chosen to anoint as king of Israel in place of Saul and Samuel thought David’s brother Eliab was the Lord’s anointed. God was saying that man does not judge (choose; select) as God chooses because man has a different set of criteria than God. So, we should not concern ourselves with man’s judgments of us. What we should be concerned about is how God views us and if we are living lives pleasing to him; faithful to our trust.
A clear conscience
Paul, when being judged by man, stated that his “conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.” I believe what he was saying there was that, with regard to whatever human judgments were coming against him, he had a clear conscience before God that he was not guilty of any accusations of man, and yet he recognized that he is still a sinner and thus still subject to sin, so he was not claiming sinless perfection but only that he presently had a clear conscience before God in all matters of right and wrong. It is important that we daily come before the Lord Jesus in prayer, in the meditating upon his word, in seeking God’s face for how practically he would want to apply his word to our lives today, in humility and repentance of any known sin, and in asking God to search our hearts and to show us anything in our lives that is not pleasing to him that we are not consciously aware of. And, then we need to repent (turn from our sin and go in the opposite direction toward obedience to God) of anything that God reveals to our hearts. That is the way we keep a clear conscience before God. Yet, we are always to remain humble before God in being willing for him to show us anything in our lives that is not right with him and to never entertain prideful thoughts that place us above other people in which we think we are somehow spiritually superior or that we have arrived at some level of sinless perfection. We must recognize always that we live in fleshly bodies and are vulnerable to giving in to the flesh if we are not being controlled by the Spirit of God. The Bible warns us to take heed if we think we stand lest we fall (See I Corinthians 10:12).
A Fool for Christ
I Corinthians 1:18 says: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” If we are preaching and living the message of the cross of Christ, i.e. if we are giving witness to the fact that a decision to start (begin) in God’s kingdom via belief in Jesus Christ means that God/Jesus now controls (is the boss of) our lives - that he makes the calls and he is the one who gives out the assignments; that coming to him in faith means repentance, obedience, submission and surrender to God’s will for our lives, instead of to our own will; and that it means reckoning ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus - no longer living to please our flesh - we will have some people, even some professing Christians, think we are being harsh, unloving, judgmental, unkind, radical, crazy, nuts, intolerant, disunifying, subversive and/or something even much worse.
Many will think we are foolish or that we have gone too far off the deep end in our commitment to serve Jesus Christ and they may even curse, persecute, and slander us or just flat out reject us for our stand for Jesus Christ and for his word. Yet, when we are cursed, we are to bless; when we are persecuted, we are to endure it for the sake of the name of Jesus and the sake of the gospel; and when slandered against, we are to answer kindly. We are to accept that we will not be most popular, that we may not be liked by the masses, that we may be chosen last or not chosen at all by man, we may be ignored, misunderstood, mocked, criticized, or even made a spectacle of before the entire world. Yet, we are to rejoice that we are counted among those who are called to suffer for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we must persevere, never give up, and keep on keeping on in allowing the Lord Jesus to be the master of our lives, in being his servants in doing what he wants us to do and in being who he wants us to be, in spending time at his feet each day learning from him what his word teaches and how to apply it to our daily lives, and then in walking in obedience to what he shows us and to his commands written in His Word that are applicable to believers in Jesus Christ. And, we need, like Paul, to be unconcerned with what man thinks of us, but rather we should desire to please our Lord Jesus Christ in all things.
Sources: Hymn Lyrics - http://www.hymnlyrics.org/lyricst/the_longer_i_serve_him.html
I Corinthians 4 - http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=I%20Corinthians%204&version=NIV1984
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