From His birth to His life, from the beginning to the end, Jesus was a servant of others. He performed what in His culture was the work of a slave, so we in our cultures must regard no task too menial or degrading to undertake for each other.

 We are urged to be like Christ in His death, to love with self-giving Calvary love. “Walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Be like Christ in washing the feet of others. Be like Christ, the One who gave Himself freely for the benefit of others.

(See 2 Peter 1). We are not to repay evil for evil. We must embrace suffering, because Christ also suffered, leaving us an example. We are to follow in His steps. This call to Christlikeness in suffering unjustly may well become increasingly relevant as persecution increases in many cultures in the world today.

In John 20:21, in prayer, Jesus said, “As you, Father, have sent me into the world, so I send them into the world”—that is us. And in His commissioning in John 17 He says, “As the Father sent me into the world, so I send you.” These words are significant. As Christ had entered our world, so we are to enter other people’s worlds. We commend the faith to others only in so far as we go out and put ourselves with loving sympathy inside the doubts of the doubters, the questions of the questioners, and the loneliness of those who have lost the way.