Our practical service should be as a servant, even as a slave. This is according to Matthew 20:26-27. The great ones among us should be slaves to others. At least we should be servants to serve others.
In this lesson we want to give three examples of such service.
The Lord Jesus said that He came not to be served but to serve, to minister (Matt. 20:28). He served us even by giving up His life. This shows that we even have to die for the brothers if there is the need. We have to lay down our lives for the brothers (1 John 3:16). The Lord Jesus is the example to us of serving the brothers even at the cost of our lives.
In the book of Colossians Paul mentioned Epaphras twice. Paul said that he was "a faithful minister of Christ" on behalf of the saints (1:7) and one who was always struggling on their behalf in his prayers (4:12). A faithful minister is a faithful servant. Epaphras went to Paul from Colossae, and came back from Paul to Colossae to serve the saints there. A minister of Christ is not only a servant of Christ, one who serves Christ, but a serving one who serves others with Christ by ministering Christ to them.
In Colossians 4:7 and Ephesians 6:21 Paul spoke of Tychicus as a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow slave in the Lord. These verses indicate to us that in the early days some of the brothers served the church full-time. Otherwise, they would not have been able to travel as extensively as they did. In ancient times to travel by boat from one place to another could have taken a few months. It took them a long time to go to a certain place and return, so surely they were serving the saints and the churches full-time.
We should point out that there was such a unique and special characteristic of the church life in the ancient days. The church life is not an organization in which people are hired and fired. The church life is a matter of love toward the Lord and toward the saints. Because some of the dear saints loved the Lord, loved the church, and loved the saints, they served others at the cost of their lives. In the early part of the nineteenth century, there was this kind of situation among the so-called Brethren. This is why they were considered as the fulfillment of the church in Philadelphia, the church of brotherly love. The service that builds up the church must be like this.