A Servant to All

J.J. Stark

February 2016

Week 7

IGNITE Class 10

Inductive Bible Study (IBS)

A Servant to All

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.”

– 1 Corinthians 9:19

When reading the first part of this verse, the phrase “I am free from all men” stuck out to me, initially not making a lot of sense.  I had to do a fair amount of backtracking in 1 Corinthians to get the context and understand the reason for the Apostle Paul saying this.  My first impression of this was that Paul is talking about slavery, people over people - which in a sense he was, but not in the way I thought it was.  Chapter 8 in 1 Corinthians explains that the slavery in this case is slavery to the worship of idols, where this practice fell under the law, the law of the flesh.  In this setting, there was human slavery…for me it is slavery to my own self and all the fleshly desires that accompanied it.  However, through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, I am now free in Him and not under the rule of my flesh.  Romans 7:4-6 says, “Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law though the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.  For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.  ⁶But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”  Now that I have freedom of the Lord, I am now to take the step and operate under the true law of love that was set in place with Jesus’s crucifixion.  Paul says this in Romans 7:25 “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”  I can have joy in serving the Lord, with no reservations, regret, or fear of shame in claiming the title “Bondservant of Christ,” and this is affirmed in Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”

From here I am to serve as Christ served – He is the greatest example of being a servant.  This is seen all throughout His ministry here on earth – even all the way to the cross.  One particular instance that comes to mind, is the night of the Passover meal where Jesus lowers Himself to a bondservant status and washes His disciples’ feet.  The lowest servants were the only people in that culture who washed feet.  If my Savior humbled Himself to that level, then who am I to do anything less than that?

Application: Today I will help the KP team with every meal.