Servants may not be on the top of the social ladder, but they are on the top of the spiritual ladder. That’s what God says.
In Philippians 2:7 it says that when Jesus emptied Himself, He took upon Him “the form of a bond servant.”
Now the word here is just the common word for servant, or slave. But the one thing to notice is that Jesus became a servant by choosing to do so. Usually servants or slaves don’t have a choice in the matter. They just are what they are because life was dealt to them that way. But when you don’t have to be a servant, and you choose to be one anyway, then that is something special.
In fact, Israel had a provision for just that. In Deuteronomy 15, concerning a servant who was about to be freed, it says, “And it shall come about if he says to you, ‘I will not go out from you,’ because he fares well with you; Then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever.” Now that type of servant was called a “bond servant.” There was a bond of love between the master and the servant, and the servant chose to serve because of love.
Well, that’s what Jesus did. Because of His love for the Father and because of His love for us, He deliberately chose to be a servant. He took upon Him the form of a bond servant so that He could save you and me by going to the cross and dying for our sins.
Say—did you know that God wants you to be a bond servant—to serve Him just because you love Him?