Everything I write, and all I aspire to be can be summed up by the phrase “Love God and serve people”. It is the essence of discipleship because it is the quintessence of how Jesus lived His life. If we would only do these two things, everything else would take care of itself. If we focus on loving God and serving people, we will never be selfish, greedy, prideful, lustful, covetous, or evil.
It is the elixir for all our struggles. Jesus asks very little of us, only that we love God and serve people. We overcomplicate things when we pile on additional rules, regulations, do’s, and don’ts. Living the life Christ created you to live is as simple as loving God and serving people.
Before every conversation and activity, ask yourself: “Is what I’m about to say or do honoring to God or providing service to others?” It will revolutionize the way you live. It will quickly develop the mind of Christ within you. So simple, yet so often not done. As Jim Rohn used to say, “What’s easy to do is also easy not to do.” We don’t want to be bothered with checking our intentions every second of our lives, but I submit until we habitually think like Jesus, we must constantly take the time to check our motives.
I’m far from perfect at this, but I am getting better. And I am convinced this is essential to those wishing to be disciples of Jesus. If we want to look like Him, we’ve got to live like Him. Look at the life of Jesus; everything He did was to glorify His Father and to serve others. While we know He enjoyed spending time with friends (John 2:1-2; Matthew 9:9-10), the writers of the New Testament make it clear it was always in the context of loving God and serving people. These two things consumed and defined Him. How amazing would it be if the same could be said of us?
Just because the concept is simple, do not confuse it with being easy. Serving God in every moment is incredibly difficult because we are constantly battling Satan and the habits we’ve allowed him to instill in us. It no longer feels natural to think of ourselves third, but we must. We must first love God, and second, serve people. We must serve those we like and those we do not. We must serve the wealthy and we must serve the poor. No one must be beneath or above our desire to serve. Our human nature will thrash against our desire to serve others before ourselves, but remember this is the way of Christ.
I don’t want to live my life for any purpose other than to love God and serve people. I know it is my mission. It is for this reason I was created. I cannot stop talking about it or striving towards it. Living the life Christ created us to live really is simple. We need only love God and serve people.