Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this my motto be,
Help me to live for others.
These words come from a hymn titled “Others” by Charles Meigs. We sang this hymn in our worship last Sunday and the message of it has stayed on my mind.
So often the message we hear is this life is self-focused.
Time and again we are told to look out for ourselves, because no one else will. We are told to take care of number one.
The message is that we should take care of ourselves first, and then if we can do something for someone else, that’s fine. But if someone else gets trampled upon in the process of looking out for ourselves, well that’s just too bad; they should have done a better job of looking out for themselves. Survival of the fittest!
But that is not the message of the Holy Scriptures. That was not the example of Jesus. When the disciples were arguing among themselves which one of them should be the greatest in Jesus’ kingdom (which they wrongly supposed would be a physical kingdom), Jesus rebuked them. He showed them that unbelievers want to rule over each other as their idea of greatness. But in God’s kingdom, if one wants to be great they must make themselves small. You must serve others rather than being served by others. Jesus Himself, the King, didn’t come to be ministered to by other but to minister to others (Matthew 20:25-28).
Paul told the Philippians that they should have the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:5). He meant they should think the same way Jesus did. How did Jesus think? He put others ahead of Himself and He put their needs, their problems, and their concerns ahead of His own (Philippians 2:3-4). Jesus gave us a beautiful picture of serving others when He knelt and washed the disciples’ feet. Then He instructed us to follow His example (John 13:15).
And this is the spirit of the regenerated child of God, they will want to serve.
In the 25th chapter of Matthew, we are given a picture of the Day of Judgment (v. 31-46). Jesus uses sheep to represent the saved and goats to represent the eternally damned. To the sheep the King says, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”
The “sheep” are astonished by this statement and ask the King when they had ever done such things for Him. He responds by telling them that every time they did such things for others, He counted as being done for Himself.
Clearly they had been busy serving others without even appreciating what they were doing. They did it because it was the right thing to do; they did it because they had a passion to serve given them by the Holy Spirit. They did not do it for self-glory.
When the Holy Spirit moves in a person, they change. They no longer want to serve self; they want to serve the Lord. They want to emulate their Savior. And they know the way to do this is to serve others.
So their motto and prayer becomes, “Help me to live for others,” so, as the hymn ends, “That I may live like Thee.”
•Philip Green is pastor of Greenwood Primitive Baptist Church.
