Deep Rooted Service!

In Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, he noted the proper attitude of the members of the church toward one another, husbands and wives with each other, children and parents, and slaves and masters. ( Ephesians 5-6) In all of these relationships something that needed to be kept in the forefront of their minds was the fact they were all under Christ. The honor, submission, and interaction were to be "out of reverence for Christ" (5:21), "as to the Lord" (5:22 & 6:7), "as Christ" (5:25), and "as you would Christ". (6:5) With the desire to reverence Christ and please Him held above all else, powerful things can happen in other relationships.

When Paul addressed slaves he stated. . .
"(5) Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, WITH A SINCERE HEART, as you would Christ, (6) not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, DOING THE WILL OF GOD FROM THE HEART, (7) rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, (8) knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free." ( Ephesians 6:5-8 ESV)

Whether one was "slave or free" (6:8) made no difference. The service rendered was to be HEART SERVICE. [This principle can even apply to employee/employer relationships.] Paul also went on to remind masters that they needed to bear in mind they too were under the same Master in Heaven. (6:9) Rather than service performed being in relation to the watchful eye of the one giving the orders, merely to please people (i.e. the master or the boss), or even dependent on a suitable reward from them, it was to be "as to the Lord", knowing that the reward would ultimately come from Him! That is good reason to put the SINCERE (genuine, pure, and undivided) HEART into it. However, it really goes even deeper than that! There is a difference in the Greek between verses 5 and 6 that we may miss in our English translations. In fact, after checking several translations I only found two (the Darby and Young's Literal translations) that gave the literal rendering of the Greek other than in a footnote. In verse 5 "HEART" is translated properly from "kardias". However, in verse 6 "HEART" is translated from "psuche" which is actually the "SOUL"! The service rendered was not to be just from the HEART, but also from the SOUL; the deeper eternal essence of our being! Is that where service is rooted in our life? Being properly motivated from deep within our eternal essence will help keep our service as to the Lord. May the Lord and His glory and honor be the motivation behind all that we do. Rather than living for temporal reasons, let us live based on eternal ones.

Have a great day SERVING FROM THE DEEPEST DEPTH OF OUR BEING!
Carl

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