Forcing Our Way through Service – Law Matters: The Law and Kingdom of God (6)

Forcing Our Way through Service

Law Matters: The Law and Kingdom of God (6)

Kingdom greatness is manifest in selfless service to others.

“The greatest among you shall be your servant.” Mathew 23:10

How shall we attain to greatness in the Kingdom of God? By learning, obeying, and teaching the Law of God. How shall we know when we are fully engaged in this curriculum and regimen? When we are serving others as Jesus did.

But serving others does not come naturally to us, as the disciples demonstrated during their sojourn with the Lord Jesus, and as each of us undoubtedly knows as well. Our natural inclination and disposition is to get others to do for us. But in the Kingdom of God, following the example of our Servant/King, we take up the Law of God to serve others with the love of God and thus fulfill the requirements of the Law (Rom. 13:8-10).

We “force” our way further into the Kingdom, therefore (Luke 16:16), as we suppress and mortify our sinful desires, yield our souls to the teaching of God’s Law, and command and discipline the members of our body to carry out the requirements of the Law in loving service to others (Rom. 6-8). Jesus Himself is the example and epitome toward which we must aspire (John 13:1-15; Heb. 12:1, 2).

We do not use the Law of God to “lord it over” others, as the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did. Nor do we expect through obeying the Law to gain favor or salvation with God. He gives that by grace, and we receive it through faith. But if we are truly saved and know the love of God through Jesus Christ, that love in us constrains us to love as well, according to the teaching of the Law and the Prophets and all the counsel of God (Matt. 22:34-40). We use the Law lawfully in the Kingdom of God when it forms us for loving service, according to the teaching of the Gospel (1 Tim. 1:5-11).

And that love will show itself in knees bent in worship to God and backs bent in serving the needs of our neighbors. Yes, this is a struggle, but it is a glorious struggle, and one to be engaged every day of our lives.

Order your copy of  The Law of God from our online store, and begin daily reading and meditation in the commandments, statutes, and precepts of God’s Law. Subscribe to Crosfigell, the thrice-weekly devotional newsletter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. The Ailbe Seminary now offers online training courses to improve your walk with the Lord and ministry in His Name.

–

In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.