Service to God and Service To
Others Is Closely Related
By Jeremy Crump

Our God is a God who is concerned about us. As clear as the Bible is in describing God as holy, the Bible is just as clear in describing God as a kind, compassionate God who cares deeply for His people.

Just as God commands worship for Himself in the Bible, He commands care for our fellow brothers and sisters. In Matthew 25, Jesus clearly demonstrates the connection between service to Him and service to others:

 "Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me'” (Mt. 25:34-40, NASB).

Often we forget to think of our worship to God in these terms and do not pay attention to just how much these two concepts are interwoven in scripture.

New Testament Focuses on Relationships with Others
It should catch our attention that in the New Testament, not much detail is given to describe our worship to God on Sundays. In fact, the absence of such great detail has paved the way for much debate and misunderstanding among people regarding how God should be worshiped in His church.
This is quite a contrast with the Old Testament. Anyone who has ever given serious time to the study of the book of Leviticus has most likely experienced a headache from all the minute detail given to describing just how God should be worshiped. The Jews knew exactly what God wanted and how God wanted it. However, in the New Testament, the majority of instruction given concerns our relationships with others.
Consider how often in the New Testament we are commanded to be examples, to love one another, to not fight or be envious, to keep our relationships pure, to take care of one another, to edify, encourage and correct each other; the apostle Paul summarizes in Romans 12:18 – “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” – and the other New Testament writers corroborate (Heb. 13:1; Jam. 2:8; 1 Pet. 1:22; 1 Jn. 3:16; etc.).
Just as the priests and the Israelites in the Old Testament were to represent God to the world through their obedience to the law, so we today are to represent Christ to the world through our dealings with others.
Jesus and the Pharisees
Consider Jesus’ dialogue with the scribes and Pharisees in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt. 18:21-35). In the parable, the king says to the unmerciful servant: “You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?” The emphasis given is that we are to be like God in our relationships with others. As God has been kind and patient and longsuffering and merciful to us, so we are to be toward our brothers and sisters.

Of course, this story packed an added punch in the minds of the Pharisees who were blatantly unmerciful to others themselves (Mt. 23:4 and almost everything written about them in the New Testament). Their problem was not that they did not know the law; on the contrary, they were careful to observe the law in even the smallest tithe (Mt. 23:23). Still they had neglected the part that mattered most by mistreating others. This was not what God had intended.

As Jesus reminds the Pharisees in Mt. 22:36-40, the duty to serve and love others is an essential part of service to God: "‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." It is a shame that these Jews who had such a close relationship with God, who understood His Law, and were committed to keeping the smallest details of it were so far from understanding what God really wanted of them.

Serving Others in the Church Today

In the church today, we cannot expect to serve God and neglect others. We have to focus on those around us and give them the attention they deserve. This means working with them despite our differences, being attuned to one another’s needs and being desirous to help each other out from time to time.

How are we to be an example of Christ to those in the world if our relationships with our fellow Christians are full of tension, jealousy, anger, and neglect?

The world takes notice of such things.

Remember the words of Christ in John 23:35: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”