Christian Living

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Obligation by contract…or by Love


A few days ago, I was talking to a young man about church and “obligations.” The young man is affiliated with a certain ministry in his church, but he did not feel obligated to that ministry, because he never signed a contract. It made me wonder, what obligates us to be in service for the Lord, a contract, or love? I am not picking on that young man, but that question is important to so many of us, what obligates us to do what we do, what obligates us to sing on the choir, or teach Sunday School, to usher, to be a missionary or even to preach. Do we feel that we do those things because, one, God has called us to do that, and two, because we love Him so that we will serve Him at all cost. Sometimes, I feel that people have it confused by participating in ministries; we often do that to please other, but we should do it to please GOD. The Bible tells us in I John 4:19, that “We love Him because He first loved us.” I believe that our love for Jesus should be the reason why we do anything that we do. We should not do things in the church because a contract obligates us, we should do because we love God. Our obligation should go beyond our day to serve or what we get paid, our obligation for Jesus, should reflect the sacrifice He made for us. When Jesus died for us, He did not sign a contract; He did it because of His love for us. When Jesus died for us, He did not say it was not His day to die for us or to serve us; He showed up and did what He was required to do. He showed up so that we could live forever with Him, but not because we signed a contract, but because we love Him. We are contracted to do a job, we serve Jesus because we love Him. Serving Jesus is not a job, it is an honor. We should feel honored when we are able to bless others in our service for the Lord. If we look for pay for service, then aren’t we doing it for the wrong reason? It is one thing to receive pay, but it is another thing to expect it.

People need not sign a contract to serve Jesus, all they need to do is say “Yes.” Our values are all wrong when we look at serving God as a chore instead of serving Him out of love and devotion. Suppose He told us that we owed Him because He died for us, you could never re-pay Him, ever. What do you give to someone who gave it all up for you? What do you give to someone who bled and died for you? What do you give to someone who rose again 3 days later for you? It is not about signing on the dotted line for a period of time, when Jesus gave His all for us, it was for eternity. Not for today, or tomorrow, but forever.

I believe as Christians, we need to realize, “when we make a commitment to serve in this ministry or that ministry, we should serve faithfully and cheerfully, not because we are under a contract, but because we are covered under the blood of Jesus, who loved us so much that He died on the cross for us. Don’t just show up because it is your day to serve and you have to, show up because it is your day to serve and you want to, you can be of service every Lord’s Day to someone, if you just show up and if you allow the love of God to live within you. Don’t be obligated to serve God because of a contract, let your obligation to Him be your love…..allow love to be your motivation to serve!

Be Blessed
DWS

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