Monday, July 28, 2025

How To Serve Like Jesus

Monday, July 28, 2025

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? "You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. "If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. John 13:12-14

Jesus calls us not to conform, but to be transformed. The world wants us to conform to the world, to be tolerant. As believers, we are called to live different – radically different – from the world. We are called to love the ones no one else loves; help those who are helpless, deserted, or forgotten; serve those who others believe don’t deserve it. We are called to live and love like Jesus and that means showing the love of God to a broken and fallen world. One way we show that love is through serving. Through serving we can offer them the only answer to everything – Jesus.

How To Serve Like Jesus

It was the week of Passover, the week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross.  Jesus gave His disciples a special commandment, a new commandment, as He celebrated His final Passover meal with them. This new commandment was A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34). This command gave the disciples a new standard to measure themselves by - the way they loved others.

Jesus didn’t just share a meal with them that night, He washed their feet, a beautiful display of humility and servant leadership. As they sat and dined together, Jesus rose from the table and began to wash their feet - the job of a slave. Peter was uncomfortable with Jesus washing his dirty feet, but Jesus told Peter that unless he let Jesus wash his feet, he couldn’t be a part of His work.  Jesus was setting an example for them as he instructed them to wash each other’s feet just as He has washed their feet.  He served those who served Him. This is the lesson of the least shall be the greatest and the greatest shall be the least. And Jesus wasn’t just setting an example, He was telling them to be humble and serve others. This is how He expected them to treat each other after He left.  

Jesus loved His disciples sacrificially, meeting their deepest needs in a way no one else could, by giving them forgiveness of sins and new life. He loved everyone that way, even His enemies. He commanded His disciples, and us, to love and serve all the way He loved. That means those who we think don’t deserve it, those who are difficult to love, and those who are different than us. 

How do we practice the spiritual habit of servanthood so that we might grow to look and act more like Jesus? 

Right up to the end of His life Jesus was setting the example of how we are supposed to live our lives and treat others. Jesus showed us with His whole life - His actions while He was here on earth and His sacrifice on the cross. How we treat others will be more important than any other accomplishment we will ever achieve. How we treat others will either point others to him or not. If we are his disciples we are already in a relationship with him, learning to live and love like him. We will learn to serve others as he did. 

How can we practice the spiritual habit of servanthood so that we might grow to look and act more like Jesus? We live and love like Jesus. As his followers we should be stepping where the Spirit steps, living and loving like him. We love the unlovable, help the helpless, serve the ones others have deemed undeserving like Jesus did. Like he did for us as well. We should be looking for opportunities to serve, seeking to live in humility, and making serving others a part of our whole life. 

How are you serving God and others?

Are you looking for opportunities to humbly set aside your own needs and serve others? 

What can you do this week to grow in the spiritual discipline of servanthood?

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