How to become a servant of God

(2 Timothy 2:20-22 – How to become a servant of God

Every Christian is on a journey. One of the most fundamental things we aim at is to serve God.

So this raises the question, how to become a servant of God? Before writing this post I did a search and noted that there are many articles on the web talking about how to become a servant of God. They look at the attitude of a servant, servant mentality, the servant leader, and so on.

But I think the words of Paul in these few verses sums it all up perfectly. If you want to know how to become a servant of God, just follow this advice.

What the scripture says about how to become a servant of God

This is what the scripture states about becoming a servant of God.

20 In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and earthenware, and some for noble use, some for ignoble. 21 If any one purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work. 22 So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:20-22)

When we come to Christ we are all vessels of one kind or another. In truth, we all start out as vessels of wood or earthenware, to use Paul’s analogy.

A wooden or earthenware vessel is one that is of little value. If it breaks you throw it away and get another. They are designed for menial use and are not treated with much care, respect or dignity.

That’s who and what we are when we are living in the world and what we are like when we first come to Christ. We are “ignoble.” The word translated here as “ignoble” is also translated from the Greek as any of the following: indignity, disgrace, dishonour, reproach, shame, vile.

You get the picture? And we are all of those things before coming to the Lord because we lived lives of sin and had no hope in the world.

On becoming a valuable vessel to God

Now Paul goes on to say that if you purify yourself from what is “ignoble,” then you will be a vessel for “noble” use. That is, when you clean up your act in Christ, you will be someone He can use in His service. No longer will you be someone that is worthless and useless to God. Instead, you will be valuable to Him and become like a vessel of gold or silver. Such vessels are not thrown away and replaced when they crack or break. They are taken to the gold and silversmiths to be repaired so that they can continue to be of use as they are valuable to the master of the house.

So too with us.

When we learn how to become a servant of God, He cares for us and strengthens us. When we suffer and fall, He picks us up and “repairs” the cracks and brokenness in our lives, because we are valuable to Him. We are objects of His love and care, and like the master of a household, He cares very much for our spiritual welfare.

So, how do we learn how to become a servant of God?

Purifying yourself in Christ

The key to becoming a valuable vessel to God is through purifying yourself in Christ.

Paul continues on in verse 21 saying, “If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble…” The thing that makes us ignoble is sin, and the root of sin is the evil desires of human nature. It is impossible for a man to be rid of these things by his own power. But not for Christ Jesus.

Freedom in Jesus Christ

This is the reason why Jesus came: to set you free from sin and to provide a path to be rid of or to control human passions.

He died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin and gave us the opportunity to take His death as our own through baptism, so that we could die with Him and thus have the penalty for sin paid. The penalty for sin is death and it cannot be paid any other way than by a death. And likewise He set us free from the law when we died with Him because the law is binding on a person only while he is alive, as it says in Romans chapter 7, verse 1.

So, Christ’s death washes away our ignoble past that is stained with the filth of sin, and adds a “protective Teflon coating” against future sin by removing the law that convicts us of sin when we break it. That is, you can’t break a law that you are not under.

But this still won’t make us into vessels of gold or silver as we still have the passions of the flesh in our system.

But God gives us His Holy Spirit when we ask, and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us walk in Christ, and to overcome the weaknesses of the passions and desires of this sinful human nature.

What are you aiming at?

If we are to assist the Holy Spirit in his work as we learn how to become a servant of God, we must follow Paul’s words in verse 22.

We must shun our human passions, lusts and desires, which we learn to do by walking in the Spirit. When we walk in the Spirit we gain the victory over evil human desires and passions and the lusts of the flesh. But we must initiate this walk and so hand over the evil desires to the Spirit when they rise up within us.

If you would like to know more about walking in the Spirit, just do a search on this website in the search block in the right side margin, as there is a lot of information on this subject.

And finally, as we deal with the passions and desires of the flesh, we should change what we are aiming at. In the world, our goals are for worldly things. But in Christ we should aim at the things of, such as: righteousness, faith, peace, and love.

This is how to become a servant of God. When we understand and follow this path, we become useful to God in His service, and we become greatly loved by the Lord.

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