Doulos
Luke 17:7-10
Unworthy Servants
7 “Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, Come at once and recline at table ? 8 Will he not rather say to him, Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink ? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty. ”
Strong’s Number: 1401 dou=lov Original Word Word Origin dou=lov from (1210)
Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling Doulos doo’ -los Parts of Speech TDNT Noun 2:261,182
Definition 1. a slave, bondman, man of servile condition a. a slave b. metaph., one who gives himself up to another’s will those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men c. devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests 2. a servant, attendant Translated Words
KJV (127) -bond, 6; bondman, 1; servant, 120; NAS (141) -bond-servant, 11; bond-servants, 12; bondslave, 3; bondslaves, 8; both men and women, 8; servants, 1; slave, 58; slave’s, 1; slaves, 39;
The word “servant ” used in the passage is the Greek word doulos as defined above. Why am I bringing up this topic? Its simple really; perspective. Yes perspective, it is so key that our focus and vision is percisely on the object of our faith which is Christ Jesus. When Jesus is no longer premiere in our hearts that is when trouble comes.
The worst part of having bad vision is that it causes our love for Christ to be misplaced. What would happen to a servant/slave who served the wrong master? What if the slave followed the wrong orders? What if regardless to how sincere a servant working to gain freedom did it for the wrong master? How can he be justified or reconciled to the true master if the slave never did what the master commanded? But we don’t see ourselves as slaves/servants, we see ourselves as friends of Christ. Just as he called the twelve disciples friends.
John 15:13-15
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
Because of our new life in Christ we are friends in the sense of our adoption. Our adoption makes us children of God. Yet, Christ is LORD making us servants. Even the brother of a king still will honor, serve and obey the king’s authority as well as person. Can we say the same? Can we even be a friend if we don’t do what friends do? Sometimes we are nothing more than fair weather friends. This is because our hearts are not focused properly. To be a friend we have to be a good doulos(slave) first. Being a doulos means being humble, denying yourself. Being a doulos means trusting the master enough to follow him wherever he leads. Being doulos means that we are more than talk but we also carry our crosses. Being doulos means that we do our duty out of love for the master not for gain. We are unworthy because we know that the Father by the obedience of the Son transformed us through the Spirit and has given faith to believe. Thus we are saved all against our will and abilities.
John 3:5-8
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
When we see our position it is humbling and focuses our hearts on Jesus commandments to love God and love our neighbors. And when we humble ourselves, the Father will exalt us to a place where no man can remove us.
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amen. I bumped into an ol’ fella the other day, we were talking about “believing” in Christ. He made a great point… “No where in scripture will you find the word ‘surrender’. An enemy surrenders. A friend.. a friend yields.”
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