A Debt We All Owe

In a very well-known passage in John 13, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. And then in John 13:14-15, Jesus gives His disciples this command. 

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. - John 13:14–15

That word that’s translated as ‘should’ in “you also should wash one another’s feet” is a word that refers to debt. It means to owe. Jesus is explaining to His disciples that since He washed their feet, they now owed Him a debt. And His desire was that they repay that debt by washing one another’s feet.

It’s the same with you. Because Jesus laid His life down for you, you now owe Him a debt. And His desire is that you would repay that debt by regularly serving and laying down your life for His children, for the church. You are commanded to serve other believers… in the most humble and helpful of ways.

Far too many people come to church expecting to be served instead of looking for a place to serve. Far too many people want to complain about what others are not doing, or they want to complain about how others are doing what they are doing, when they ought to be finding some way to humble themselves and serve.

So, let me ask, are you humbling yourself to serve other believers at church? Or do you go expecting to be served?

Soulless Worship

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

John 4:24

There's a question of how best to interpret this verse. When Jesus says that we must "worship in spirit" is He referring to the Holy Spirit or to our spirit? If He's referring to the Holy Spirit, then He's saying that in order for your worship to be acceptable to God you must approach the Father through the Holy Spirit. 

Many believe that is what Jesus means, but it seems like an odd interpretation to me. While I do believe that we gain access to the Father only by salvation which is a result of the finished work of Christ and is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit; I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus is talking to the woman at the well both before He died and before the Spirit was sent, so I’m not sure how she could even hope to worship rightly if that was Jesus’ point.

No. To me the second interpreation option make more sense. If Jesus is referring to our spirit, then He is saying that true worship isn’t merely an act of the body. It isn’t going through the motions or performing a ritual. In order for your worship to be acceptable to God, it must engage not only your mind and your body but your soul as well. Worship that is pleasing to God is an activity of the soul.

Looking back at the verse, you'll notice that Jesus grounds this principle in the fact that “God is spirit." His point is that it isn’t where you worship but the manner in which you worship that matters to Him. To worship God, you need to engage the part of you that is most like Him. He is a spirit, so you must worship Him with your spirit. 

If we aren’t careful, we will fail to do this. You can go to church every week and go through all the right motions but do so without engaging your spirit in any way. If you aren’t careful, you can leave the very heart and soul out of your worship and offer up to Him a kind of soulless worship that is only an empty shell of right thoughts and right action. Jesus tells us that is not pleasing to Him.

Don’t make that mistake. When you worship God, worship Him from your spirit. Don’t just think right thoughts and do right actions, worship Him from your heart. In other words, put actual worship into your acts of worship. Offer to Him the worship that comes from deep inside, from your very spirit. That’s the kind of worship He desires.

Regular, Everyday Christians

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.... Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Acts 8:1, 4

Did you notice who was scattered? It wasn’t the apostles. It was everyone else. It was the regular, everyday Christians who were scattered by this persecution. And what did they do as they packed up and left Jerusalem? It says they, “preached the word wherever they went.”

The first major spread of the gospel in church history was the result of these normal, everyday Christians taking the gospel with them wherever they moved to avoid persecution. God ordained, that it wouldn’t be the few apostles, but the thousands of everyday Christians who would begin taking the word out with them beyond the walls of Jerusalem to the edges of the earth.

Why? Because the job of taking the gospel to the nations was never intended to be accomplished by the 12 apostles alone. It's too big a job for that! And you know what? It was never intended to be accomplished by preachers and missionaries alone either. It's too big a job even for that.

Sharing Jesus with lost people is a job God has given to all Christians in all times. And as we see in these verses above, often it isn't preachers or missionaries whose lives make the difference in bringing people to Jesus but normal everyday Christians. You can take the gospel to places that no pastor and no missionary will ever get an invitation to. And you will probably be more successful than we ever would be anyway. So, share Jesus everywhere you go. If the believers in the early church could do it, then you can too!

No Going Back

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him... So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.

1 Kings 19:19-21

When Elijah called Elisha to be his successor, it wasn't exactly a great time to be signing up to be a prophet of God. Sure, Elijah had just won a major victory on Mt. Carmel. But, besides Elijah only 100 other prophets remained, and they were all hiding in caves. Queen Jezebel had killed all the rest of the prophets and had promised to kill Elijah. By signing up to be Elijah's apprentice, Elisha is putting his own life at risk. Yet, Elisha embraces his new calling fully and without hesitation.

Notice the act of total commitment Elisha uses to confirm his acceptance of this call. He slaughters the oxen he was just plowing with and uses the wood from the plowing equipment to cook the meat. Then he uses that meat to feed his friends and neighbors and family and himself. This is a beautiful symbolic action. There's no going back to plowing now! Elisha is fully committed. He closes the door on his past life as he steps into his new one.

Christians are called to do the same when we get saved. In order to walk with Christ, we must leave our old ways of living behind. But we often struggle to be as decisive and final as Elisha was. Are there any bridges you need to burn, any old ways of living you need to sacrifice, any doors you need to firmly close and lock between your current calling and your past life? 

Being fully committed to living for the Lord in the present and future requires you to firmly close the door on how you used to live. What door do you need to close? What old way of living do you need to sacrifice? What bridge do you need to burn to make sure that you never go back to your life before Jesus? Fully commit to living for the Lord today.