This characteristic has two distinct branches. Part One considered the fact that a godly man is a servant of God. Part Two considers the fact that a godly man does not serve men.
“Be not you the servants of men” (1 Cor. 7:23).
Is there no service we owe to men?
There are 3 ways that the godly man serves men:
1. There is a civil service we owe to men, as the inferior to the superior. The servant is a living tool, as Aristotle says. “servants, obey your masters” (Eph. 6:5).
2. There is a religious service we owe to men, when we are serviceable to their souls: “your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5).
3. There is a sinful serving of men. This consists of three things:
(i) When we prefer men’s rules before God’s commands. God commands one thing; man commands another. God says, “Sanctify the Sabbath”; man says, “Profane it.” When men’s commands have more force with us than God’s laws, this is to be the servants of men.
(ii) When we voluntarily prostitute ourselves to the impure lusts of men, we let them lord it over our consciences. When we are pliable and conformable to any beliefs, either Arminian or atheist, for either the gospel or the Koran. When we will be what others will have us be, then we are just like Issachar, who is “a strong donkey crouching down between two burdens” (Gen. 49:14). This is not humility—but ignorance, and it is men-serving.
(iii) When we are advocates in a bad cause, pleading for any impious, unjustifiable act; when we baptize sin with the name of the Gospel, and with our speech wash the devil’s face—this is to be the servants of men. In these cases, a godly person will not so unman himself, as to serve men. He says, like Paul, “If I yet pleased men, I would not be the servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10); and like Peter, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
Use: How many leagues distant from godliness, are those who serve men, who either for fear of punishment, or from hope of promotion, comply with the sinful commands of men, who will put their conscience under any yoke, and sail with any wind which blows profit. These are the “Servants of men”; they have abjured their baptismal vow, and renounced the Lord who bought them.
To the one who is so bendable as to change into any form, and bow as low as hell to please men, I would say two things:
1. You who have learned all your postures, who can cringe and tack about—how will you look Christ in the face another day? When you say on your death bed, “Lord, look on your servant”, Christ shall disclaim you, and say, “My servant? No! you renounced my service, you were “a servant of men”; depart from me; I do not know you.” What a cold shoulder this will be at that day!
2. What does a man get, by sinfully enslaving himself? He gets a blot on his name, a curse on his estate, a hell in his conscience; no, even those who he basely stoops to, will scorn and despise him. How the high priests kicked off Judas! “What do we care? That’s your problem” (Matt. 27:4).
That we may not be the servants of men, let us abandon fear and advance faith (Esther 8:17). Faith is a world-conquering grace (1 John 5:4). It overcomes the world’s music and threats; faith steels a Christian with divine courage, and makes him stand immovable, like a rock in the midst of the sea.