Attitude of Servitude

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

ATTITUDE OF SERVITUDE

2 Cor 12:14-18

14 Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? 16 Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! 17 Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent you? 18 I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not act in the same spirit and follow the same course?

NIV

Is this a truth about children not having to take care of their parents? It seems our culture surely has established this concept of children somehow being responsible for the parents in their old age. Maybe this is not about that, but just about the parent child relationship while the child is still in the care of the parent. Although this could be applied to be talking in the spiritual aspect, yet within the context of the whole letter it does appear to be talking about the material aspect. Yet it is not actually talking about physical families, but about spiritual families. Do we expend all of ourselves for the benefit of those who would be considered our spiritual family? Heck, do we expend all for our physical family? Are we a burden to anyone else? Have we exploited anyone for our personal cause? None of this may apply to us at all. But we should know there are people out there who would exploit us. There are people out there that do not expend anything for us, but expend all their energy for their own benefit. Now of course in some sense we should pay attention to this for our own growth. We should be willing to expend our self for the benefit of others. We should be willing to serve others for the express reason of serving God. When we look around we see that in most of our local churches. We see others serving in all sorts of areas, doing things for the benefit of the others, which is then also for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. This is one area most of us do a pretty good job at. We do have to make sure as we do these things we have the right attitude in that we are doing what we do, not to lift ourselves up, or make ourselves feel good about what we do, but that we actually think we are serving others and serving God. Thinking of one self as a servant is one of the most difficult frame of minds to be in. We have to be careful not to want people to think we are so wonderful for want we do. Maybe they do think we are wonderful for what we do, but we certainly should not try to solicit that kind of response. Our reason for what we do must be out of obedience to God with the attitude of servitude.