Paul wrote Romans 12 in a marvelous way. First, he considered us as priests, then servants, and then slaves. If we could not be a slave, we could never be a good servant. And if we could not be a good servant, we could never be a proper priest. As a slave we know nothing concerning rank or position. We only know to labor. We labor not as a priest or a servant, but as a slave having no freedom and no rights.
It is easy for us to think that a deacon or deaconess just serves people like the sisters who prepare the Lord’s table. To make the bread and prepare the wine is wonderful and necessary, but that is not something that we could offer to God as a sacrifice.
Our service must result in a sacrifice offered to God. To clean the hall, vacuum the carpet, and arrange the chairs are all needed. But these things are not qualified in themselves to be a sacrifice we offer to God. Our kind of chair arranging and vacuuming should be something that issues in some sacrifices for us to offer to God. If we come to arrange the chairs in a pure and humble spirit and others observe, they will sense Christ being ministered to them. Although there are different ways to arrange the chairs, this kind of chair arranging results in a sacrifice offered to God. If we are such a person who arranges the chairs, we would pray for the Lord to bless this chair and whoever sits there that this one may contact Him.
Not only so, the deacons’ service is spoken of as helps by Paul. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 Paul says that God placed some in the church, including the universal church and all the local churches. In the church God placed apostles, prophets, teachers, and so forth. Then Paul mentions helps and administrations. Helps refer to the deacons’ and deaconesses’ service. When we serve, we render help to others. Administrations refer to the elders’ management of the church. We must realize that Paul purposely mentioned helps before administrations because there is no thought of rank here. Such a thought of who is higher or lower, first or second, is devilish. This is a secular thought in the world. In the church, however, there is no rank, no first and no second.
This word helps implies a great deal. We may help the saints in a hundred ways. To go and make a meal for the saints when they are sick is a help. To do something for the saints to fill up their lack is also a help. For example, when we go to make a meal for a family, and our spirit is right, pure, high, and living, the entire family will sense that we are ministering Christ to them. They receive more than just a meal. This is a spiritual life supply because we ministered Christ through our cooking. This kind of help surely results in a sacrifice because through cooking, Christ was ministered to this family. Then we would surely begin to pray, “Lord, gain the whole family. Gain each one and gain more ground in the children. Lord, make each one a young person loving You that their life would be for You during this entire age.” We must realize that while we are praying this way, we are presenting the whole family as a sacrifice to God.
In the Old Testament the priest’s main function is to offer sacrifices from the flock or from the herd. But according to the New Testament, Christ must be the first sacrifice offered, then the members of Christ, the corporate Christ. We minister Christ to others so that they may become living members of the Body of Christ. Then we may present these members to God as sacrifices. Eventually in this way whatever we present to the Lord is a kind of New Testament sacrifice which is either Christ Himself or the members of His Body as a corporate Christ. As a result, all kinds of helps will issue in the building up of the members of the Body of Christ. This should be the fruit of our service.
A number of years ago a dear brother offered to repair my car. How much Christ was ministered to me by that repair work! He worked on that car, but I received Christ. He was there not only for Christ but with Christ.