Service is a Sin Detector

I want to try and unpack an idea that I believe is critical to being able to serve others faithfully. I desire to think rightly about serving, and it is my hope that this effort may encourage others as well.

In leadership class this morning, Bruce said that serving was a sin detector. What I believe he meant was that as we seek to serve other people, we become aware of many manifestations of the pride in our sinful hearts. Whether it be serving as a means of self righteousness or serving to gain the approval of men or serving ourselves under the veil of serving others, pride is an evil that lies close at hand when we desire to do good to others.

The Apostle Paul says it this way:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

Romans 7:21

In other words, if we aren’t acknowledging the presence of pride (however small it may be) in serving others, we are failing to evaluate ourselves honestly.

By God’s grace, I can see the presence of pride in so many areas of life. But, it’s ugly. I don’t like it. I don’t like to think about it. And I certainly don’t like doing things that make it more apparent to me.

Serving is one of those things that brings pride to the surface and reflects the ugliness of my heart. I may even say that it is the most effective way of exposing my pride. I certainly agree that it is a sin detector capable of detecting even the most trace amount of pride.

Bruce served me in a big way this morning by outlining a right response to seeing our pride manifesting itself in serving others. It goes against my nature and it requires great effort and sacrifice, but it is good and it is from God.

What I want to try and do is take us through a few Scriptures beginning with the fundamental reality that should guide our lives as Christians, going through a few promises of God, and ending with an effort to tie all of it back in to the blessing of serving others.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

The fundamental reality that needs to be the driving force behind our lives as Christians is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ’s love needs to be what controls us. We need to see God’s grace shown us in our hopeless and helpless state as the ultimate demonstration of love in the universe. We need to realize that we were walking in darkness, opposed to God, and under His wrath until He sent His Son, Jesus, into the world to save sinners. And that love needs to control us. It needs to captivate us. It needs to be our motivation. Because Jesus Christ ransomed our lives, we ought to lay down our lives in the service of others, which is only possible in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says:

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

At the next step is where my thinking wants to naturally break down. Not only does the passage from 2 Corinthians point us to our motivation, but it points us to our desperate need for Jesus Christ as well. We needed a Savior. We needed someone to die in our place to free us from the unpayable debt that we owed God. And once we repent of our rebellion and put our faith in Jesus Christ, we remain in constant need of Christ’s righteousness because we cannot live the life God calls us to in our own power.

My natural inclination is to do what Paul warns against in Galatians 3:2-3:

Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Our need for Christ doesn’t stop when we are saved by grace through faith. It continues on because it is only in Christ that we can live holy lives. I want to believe the lie that I can grab the torch from Christ and continue on in the flesh to accomplish God’s sanctifying work.

What this causes me to do is to shy away from the areas of weakness that I have. I avoid people, situations, and environments that expose the sin of my heart so that I can appear to myself as better than I truly am.

But, when I realize that it is God’s desire for me to be sanctified and I remember that I need Jesus Christ for everything, then I am free to engage with even the most difficult people and in the most difficult situations trusting that God will work good through the challenges that sin presents me with. And there is goodness in having my eyes opened to the sin that is present in my heart. It is not something that I should shy away from. It is not something that needs to result in a pity party.

I can trust in two things from God’s Word that give me great hope.

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the Day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

The first verse assures me that God will finish the work that He started in me. I don’t have to worry about messing up beyond repair. I don’t have to worry if my prideful heart will disqualify me from His grace. (And thank God, because I probably would have been disqualified long ago!) Instead, this truth liberates me to actively participate and rejoice in the work God is doing in and through me.

The second verse reminds me that no matter how much I sin, God’s grace blows my sin out of the water. He has promised eternal life, not because of my good works of righteousness, but because of Jesus Christ’s perfect, sinless life. And God proved the sufficiency of Christ’s work by raising Him from the dead. I’m willing to gladly say that this is my only hope. All my eggs are in this basket. I trust in Jesus Christ alone for my salvation, sanctification, and future glorification.

Therefore, since God is working all things together for my good (Romans 8:28), I can trust that when I detect sin’s ugly presence that it is a means of God’s grace to me. What I mean is that apart from Christ, I would not be aware of my sin. This is true in the sense of putting my faith and trust in Him to begin with, but it is also true in the sense of trusting in Him to reveal areas of sin in my life and grow me through those revelations.

Since it is God’s grace to me when I am made aware of sin in my heart, I can then respond in faith rather than with depression and self pity. I can continue to rejoice, even when the atrociousness of sin is clearly perceived, because it is God’s kindness to expose sin in my life, convict me of my need to repent, and make me more like Jesus through the war against my flesh.

So what does this mean for me? It means that I need to actively seek to put to death the pride that is present in my heart. This is done not by avoiding difficult people or situations but by running to them while at the mercy of God relying on Him to give me grace to glorify Him and serve others.

This is so hard! But God’s grace is sufficient. And I clearly see the goodness in not only thinking rightly about sin but also living out a right response to His grace.

I want to slay pride. It has no place in the believer’s heart. What do I have that I did not receive? I can do nothing apart from Christ.

God has been good to me. I am so grateful.