When God became man: To serve others

"[T]he Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28).

If anyone deserved to be served, it was the God-man, Jesus. Yet, when His disciples squabbled over position and greatness, Jesus told them even He was not with them to be served. Instead, He -- though Lord -- was on earth as a servant.

The apostle Paul wrote of this mind-set of Christ in his letter to the saints in Philippi. He told them Christ, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped [clutched and held onto at all costs], but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6-7).

God the Son provided the supreme example of servanthood. The first steps in a life of service were willingly to be conceived in the womb of a poor Jewish maiden and to be born in a stable. The final step in a life of service was to give His life freely as a "ransom for many."