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Faith

The Paradox of Serving

One of the great paradoxes of serving others is that your motives are liable to be misunderstood, and the more you do for others the greater the level of misunderstanding you are likely to face. In chapter 6 of his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul says:

“In everything we show ourselves to be servants of God, through great endurance, difficulties, hardships, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger; through purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, sincere love, the message of truth, and the power of God; with the armour of righteousness on the right side and on the left, through glory and dishonour, slander and praise. We are treated as frauds, but we are genuine; as unknown, but we are well known; as dying, but we live; as punished, but we are not killed; as grieving, yet we are always rejoicing; as poor, yet we make many rich; as having nothing, yet we possess everything.”

The US Declaration of Independence famously includes the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” but many people prefer to cling to self-serving truths rather than self-evident ones, and as a result many are happy to call good things bad and bad things good. People get punished for doing what is right and rewarded for doing what is wrong. Honest people are accused of fraud, and swindlers are praised for their integrity. If you are expecting everyone to like you for following Jesus, you may be in for some serious disappointment.