When William Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” he kind of had a point. If we think of life in that sense—us, you and I, as the players and the world’s the stage—who then is our director? Who wrote the script?

For those who are a part of the “ecclesia,” or the called-out ones, our creator God is our most-talented and qualified director. He composed the script! We look to God for our cues on how to live out this play called life. It is our great rehearsal for God’s coming Kingdom. Since the Bible is our script, we then must search it, study it, live and breathe it to build our godly character. We rehearse so that when the big day finally comes, we will have been made ready. In this beautiful script, we are given the very example of God in the flesh. Jesus Christ’s life on this earth pointed to God the Father so His example is the example we follow. Christ gave little heed to Himself, but rather He esteemed others better than Himself. He gave His all for us all. In Christ’s own words, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

A major job description for this role we have been given by our Creator is to follow Christ’s example of service. When we are doing our jobs properly, we declare to the world that it is God who directs us, and His direction isn’t burdensome, rather it is perfect, pure and the way to a purpose-driven life! Romans 6:16 tells us, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey.” Through obedience to God’s directions, we acknowledge that He is the one in charge. So, we serve Him, and in serving Him we are then led to serve our fellow humanity.

1. You can’t properly serve others, unless you properly serve God.

The ecclesia has been given the directive to serve. Countless times we are told to love, pray for, care for, encourage, counsel, assemble with and help one another. All of this is service. And yet we are told that service doesn’t matter if we are practicing lawlessness. “Not everyone who says to Me, “‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). The scripture continues to say that many people will be shocked to find out that all their acts of service were done in vain because they didn’t follow God’s direction. They didn’t serve God first.

It’s worthy to note that we, no matter how many good deeds we do or hungry mouths we feed, can in no way make ourselves right with God for the sins we have committed. The prophet Isaiah very vividly notes in Isaiah 64:6 that even our most righteous acts are like “filthy rags,” and we rely solely on the grace of God to be forgiven (Ephesians 2:8). It is through repentance from sins and receiving forgiveness that our bodies, our hands, all that we are, can be used in service of God—a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service (Romans 12:1).

Paul notes in 2 Timothy 2:19-21 that once we are cleansed, we are “a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” If He is our Master, and we serve Him, then whatever we produce has His name on it. I used to work for a newspaper, and every week we would spend hours and hours designing a layout for all the stories and all the photographs we took that looked alluring and pleasing to the eye. It was an artwork. But at the top of the newspaper each week it didn’t say “The Amber Duran News.” No, it donned the name of the newspaper. The company, the boss who hires us to do the work, claims ownership. And so, we are told that all we do—the good and the bad—can reflect on our God. We strive to emulate light and not darkness so that others will see and glorify God (Matthews 5:16). Proper service doesn’t shine a light on us, it shines a light on Him.

2. Service is all about the attitude.

The heart of the matter is that what’s in our heart truly matters. Romans 2 talks about the Jews, who had grown up with God’s law and the knowledge of what was good, and yet they were filled with pride for the physical works they did. In their hearts, they were still sinning against God. Our service can’t be about what we can do, but what God can do through us. This is where we need to focus on being service-centered rather than self-centered. We can’t take God’s grace and use it as an opportunity to serve ourselves, but rather, “through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

Knowing that God is love (1 John 4:8), it comes as no surprise that we are to do this. The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 make it clear that we can spend our entire lives in the service of man, teaching scripture, prophesying and feeding every hungry mouth. If we do all of that with the wrong motivation and attitude, we are nothing. So, we must ask ourselves: Why do I serve? Is it a glory to myself or to God?

All that we have has been given to us by God— not earned but bestowed upon us by our Creator. We serve 1) because it is commanded by Him and 2) because God’s spirit softens and molds our hearts to desire what’s best for others, to “esteem [them] better than ourselves” (Philippians 2:3-4).

This looking out for the needs of others comes in many shapes and sizes, and it takes the entire body, “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16).

3. Service looks different for different people.

It is human nature to start comparing ourselves to others, which should prompt us to maybe think about who our service shines a light on one more time. For some reason, because some service is required to be done in the view of the congregation, that service can be looked at as somehow better service than others. In that way, the service that can be seen can act as blinders to us, but only if we let it!

One could argue that the greatest service we can offer is the work done in private. Matthew 6:1-4 says: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them … But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.” Service doesn’t need to be grandiose or flashy. Scripture often says small things result in great things! Small faith moves great mountains. A tiny ant is worth our consideration because of the mighty work she accomplishes working as a colony. And we are told that God calls the weak things of the earth, to show His great power. Small things, when done right, have a mighty and lasting impact. An ant on its own does very little, but when the whole colony does their own job, all the work gets done. Everyone is cared for, fed and well. God tells us to consider the ant for reasons such as this (Proverbs 6:6).

In 1 Corinthians 12, the entire chapter lays out how this works within the ecclesia. In fact, a diversity of gifts produces unity when we all have one spirit, one faith, one hope, one Lord. If we remain centered on these things, our service will not be done in vain. We can honor God with our lives. It’s not always considered an easy life, but nothing ever worth having comes easy, does it? So, “… let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:9-10).

As we prepare to be servants in the Kingdom of God, we must humbly follow the direction of God—merely players on His stage.