IN the last verse we were looking at the Christian in the family of the church. In this verse, in particular, we are looking at the Christian in the world and before the world.

As we approach this verse we need to understand and appreciate how much the accomplishment of the instruction in verse 11 is dependent on the perfection of the application of the instruction in verse 10. If the fellowship of the church is not bound together in vital love, so that the world can see the life of God's people and the servants of Christ truly portrayed in the fellowship of the church, and its Christ like loving; and if the individual Christians are not acting in love to each other; then this will have a detrimental effect on the action and living of believers in the world. The world is very quick to notice failure and inconsistencies in Christians and the church, and because of this will despise the words and witness of Christians as hypocrisy.

When one thinks of this fact, the church at the time when Jesus lived is a great example. The Jewish religious culture, the church of that time, was well ordered, well run, and active in the practices of their faith, but in spite of this did not show anything of the true life of God in their midst. Even though they carried out the law of Moses, such were the changes and additions and omissions to the law of Moses that it was not the faith approved by God. Together with this, the religion only touched the outward behaviour, and left the heart of people still corrupt and far from the love of God. That church made no impact on the world except for the world to despise it for its hypocrisy. The rulers of the Jews could not see this, because the love of God was not in their souls. Jesus was harsh in condemning their hypocrisy. So we can see that even though the church of today may be well order, devout, religious, meticulous in outward acts of charity and even witness, unless within is the love which is in and from Christ, the world will not be fooled, and the church's witness to the world will be made ineffective.

Now as we come to the text itself and look at it perhaps somewhat superficially, we may say that it is only concerned with living in an upright way, so that we work hard and are honest, and so on. There is no doubt that the way we go about our normal business is very important. It must be as truly exemplary as we can make it, but this does not really reach the heart of the injunction given by Paul. The concern of the apostle is essentially that of our witness to the truth in the world and before the world.

Paul speaks, in this verse, of spiritual fervour. Surely this has at its heart the fervour to spread the gospel of Christ, and make it know to others, that they may be saved and enter into the family of love into which God calls his believing people. Spiritual fervour is all about making the realm of the Holy Spirit known, so that people may be saved out of the world and brought into the kingdom of love which is from Christ and faith in him.

Having said this we can not fail to appreciate that the Christian's behaviour in the world in the doing of normal business in the world, will have an effect on the Christians witness to Christ and to his saving love. If the believer's life is inconsistent with the Gospel, then the witness of the believer to Christ's saving love will be made ineffective. The faith of Christ speaks of new life, so if that new life of holiness and love is not evident, then the witness to it will be made to look false. Christians must be good citizens; they must be good and hard workers; they must be honest and above board; they must be kind and loving, and in every way live a life approved unto God and the world. Only then will the believers witness have credibility. We see so many obvious examples of failure in those who profess and call themselves Christians being exposed in the world, and the effect this has on the whole image of the church and its witness. In a lesser degree every believer is being watched by his or her neighbours, and it is paramount that they see the love of Christ in us.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT.

The way to view this verse is to look first at the last clause - "serving the Lord." Our understanding of this clause will set the direction to a proper understanding of the two clauses before it. So what do we understand by serving the Lord?

It is true that we can say that serving the Lord involves living a life pleasing to him in holiness, and so has a reference to the way we conduct ourselves in our family, in our employment, and in our social involvement. As we have already said the character of Christ must be revealed in us, and by his grace and the ministry of the Holy Spirit we must become more Christ-like every day. Unless this is so, the world will not be impressed and turn away from what they will rightly call as hypocrisy. But this cannot be the whole of the meaning of the phrase "serving the Lord"; nor can it be the chief meaning.

When Jesus gave his disciples his last charge to them before he ascended into heaven, recorded for us in Matthew 28: 16-20, we find it concerned with serving Him in witness. Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In other words serving Jesus, serving the Lord, is chiefly in the business of making Christ and his Gospel of salvation known throughout the world. Serving the Lord is the responsibility of being Christ's representatives in the world and telling the world about Christ; who he is, and what he did, and why he lived on earth, and the greatness of his work, specially in dying to save us sinners from eternal damnation in hell. It is to preach to people the forgiveness of sins in Christ and faith in him. It is to preach and teach all the wonderful blessings of salvation found in, and provided by, Christ, and persuade them to repent, believe in Jesus as Saviour from sin, be reconciled to God thereby, and know the blessing of eternal life.

Serving the Lord is all about proclaiming the Gospel and making known the whole council of God revealed in his word, the bible, and doing this diligently and fully in faithful explanation and exposition of the whole of the Bible.

Serving in this bible sense is not a voluntary thing which we do if we are so inclined. Serving the Lord is not for just a few spiritual people so motivated to do it. No! It is for all, and thus an obligation. The word in the Greek language used by Paul in this phrase as the idea of slavery and of ownership. We have been bought with the price of the life blood of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us as a sacrifice for our sins. At creation Adam and Eve were created by God and so were God's possession to do his will perfectly. That will was not onerous or hard or beyond their ability. It had only one prohibition and that was that they must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were created holy and perfect with a disposition which loved God and desired to live for his pleasure. In spite of this, that they belonged to the Lord to live for him, they sinned and plunged all humanity into rebellion against God. Now in Christ the believer is not only God's possession by creation but, we belong to the Lord as his slave because he has bought us by the price of his precious blood. When Jesus told his disciples to go and make disciples, this was not optional, but our life's obligation. We find our life and satisfaction in being witnesses and seeking to make disciples. It is a sad fact that the church has failed so abysmally in the doing of this.

When we look at the church in the Acts, what do we observe. We observe that the Holy Spirit was given for this task of making disciples, and that as soon as the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, the apostles commenced to do this work of serving the Lord. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. The others took part also. This became the heart of the life of the church. When seven deacons were appointed to serve tables, we find that two, Stephen and Philip spent their time serving Christ in making him known in the world. When the church was persecuted for this witness, and scattered over the world of the time, they went forth and made Christ known.

So we must serve the Lord as his witnesses. The first two clauses speak of how this is to be carried out. In the first place we must never be lacking in zeal in the doing of it. The AV version of the Bible speaks of “not being slothful in business.” In the context this means we must not be lazy in the business of serving the Lord, but must give it our chief concern and time. The word for zeal used in the phrase has the idea of diligence and earnestness. So this business of making Christ known is something we must seek to do every day, and be constantly in our prayers that God will enable us to so be witnesses to him. One of the ways we can be faithful is to pray every morning that God will open up opportunity for us to witness, and that he will give us courage to witness when the opportunity presents itself, and that he will endow us with the skill in witness. It is also good to pray earnestly for God to use us in witness, and ask him to point out to us who he is making us a witness to. Then it is essential that each believer gives him or her self to the ministry in their own congregation, for we witness by fulfilling our place in the body of Christ. By this we can understand that making disciples is made possible when all the mundane things which support the witness of the church are in place and provided. Our role may be one or more of these mundane things.

Then, not content to tell us we must have great zeal, Paul also presses home the importance of this service for Jesus when he adds "but keep your spiritual fervour." It is so often the case that in the first joy and peace in believing, the new Christian can't help but speak and tell of what they know and have received, but after a while, when the cares of this life and the business of the world occupies the mind and heart, that this zeal for the Lord grows weak, and the business of service and witness becomes less prominent in the life of the believer. This is specially so when the work of witness is hard, and when it receives so many rebuffs, and the believer is discouraged.

In this condition we need to heed Paul's words “but keep your spiritual fervour.” This is something we have to work at. The literal translation of this phrase is “in spirit burning”. In other words there is such deep experience of how much we owe to Christ for his death for us; and such a deep understanding of what Christ has saved us from; and such a great experience of the blessings we have received now, and will receive in the life to come; and such a horror of the terrible consequence of not being saved through faith in Christ, that we will be boiling within with the need and desire that people may be saved from the burnings of hell, and come to know the joy and peace in believing.