THE SERVICE YOU PERFORM

2 Corinthians 9:12-15

Three men were in the middle of a lake in a large rowboat. They were caught in the middle of a violent storm and the water was so rough that it appeared they might capsize and drown. The men agreed they needed to appeal for divine assistance. The three men varied widely in their religious persuasions, so each agreed that he would perform a religious act that was of great significance to his faith. One man was Jewish, so he recited the Shema, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one God." The second man was Roman Catholic. He chose to make the sign of the cross. The third man was Protestant. It took him a long time to decide what religious act he might perform. After lengthy meditation, he settled for the act that was most central to his Protestant faith. He took up a collection.

Of course the story is fictitious and the Protestant comes out looking like the goat of the story, but in a way the man got fairly close to a Biblical ideal. In 2 Corinthians 4:8, Paul wrote,

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

When we get to chapters 8 and 9 we discover the Macedonian Christians responding to their life pressures by taking up a collection, but there's this difference. They didn't just take up a collection, they responded to someone else's need.

We often reason the exact opposite way. If we're being stressed in some manner, we might feel justified in placing a temporary hiatus on our acts of service. If we're asked to give for some cause, or participate in some act of service, our response could well be. "I'd like to but I'm hard pressed right now. As soon as things settle down and I get back on my feet, I'll be able to respond."

PAUL'S PERSPECTIVE ON PROBLEMS

In essence, Paul was saying, "That isn't the answer." He recommended that we cope with stress and pressure by getting involved with other people in their times of trouble. If you help someone out with their trouble, chances are you'll help your own trouble.

In verses 12-15, Paul presented his rationale for that proposal. After appealing to the Corinthians to act on their intentions to the Jerusalem need, he identified their response as the "service you perform" (12). Let's take a more careful look at the term "service."

Normally, when you see the word "servant" in the Bible, it is either a translation of the Greek word doulos (which means a slave) or diakonos (which means a table servant). Here Paul didn't use either one of those terms. The word is litourgia. It's a term the Greeks used to describe the act of rendering a public service to the state at one's own expense.

The New Testament makes a somewhat different use of this term. Sometimes it refers to an act of charity (what we might think of as Christian kindness). At other times, it refers to what a priest does. In Luke 1:23, the gospel writer described the work of Zechariah, (the father of John the Baptist) when he burned incense in the temple. He said, "When his time of service was completed, he returned home." "Service" meant performing his priestly duty in burning the incense. You have it used in the same manner in Hebrews 9:21. The NIV obscures the term, but it is very clear in the NASV. "And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood." The word "ministry" is litourgia. It is from this word that we get our English term, "liturgy."

It is virtually impossible to draw a line of distinction between what is "worship" and what is "service." Some argue for a distinction, but the lines of difference are so blurred, you really can't separate them without being arbitrary.

top of page    next page