The Bible repeatedly highlights the concept of servanthood.
The most common word used for servant is doulos, which
means, "slave". Oddly, the ancient cultures considered
it to be
a term of humiliation. People fought against the idea
of being
subservient, of putting a master's interests before their
own.
In contrast, the Bible describes the heroes of faith
as
servants. Moses, the lawgiver (Deut.
34:5), Joshua, the fearless
warrior (Josh. 24:29),
David, Israel's greatest king (Psalm
78:70), and many
of the prophets (Isa. 20:3: Amos 3:7)
were
described as God's servants. New Testament leaders like
James (James 1:1),
Jude (Jude vs. i), Paul (Rom.
1:10), and
Peter (2 Peter 1:1),
saw themselves as servants of God.
The concept of"servant" fits well with that of"lord"
(kurios) which means "absolute owner ofa person or thing."
Lord was Paul's favorite title for Jesus. He realized
that Jesus
had bought him with his own blood. Therefore, he no longer
belonged to himself. Paul had been "bought with a price"
(I
Cor. 7:23). As a
slave to Christ, he became a message-bearer,
apostle and teacher (2 Tim.
1:11).
The New Testament uses the phrase "servant of Christ"
for
all Christians. "He who was a free man when he was called
is
Christ's slave" (I Cor. 7322b).
But what does it mean to grow
in servanthood? William Barclay has some wonderful
descriptive phrases for us: