The double aspect of Christian service.
The apostle's mind was as powerful and active in a practical as in a speculative direction. Christ's law had been, "By their fruits ye shall know them." And in this verse, Paul, reiterating his Master's principles, vindicates the principles of the new faith by appealing to the excellence of the fruits of the Spirit.
I. WHAT CHRISTIAN SERVICE IS.
1. It involves a personal relation between Master and servant.
2. It involves an acknowledgment of Divine authority.
3. It involves a powerful motive to a consecrated life.
4. It involves the inclusion of all activities and relationships within its sphere.
II. SUCH SERVICE IS WELL PLEASING TO GOD.
1. For it resembles that of Christ himself, who came to do the will of him who sent him, and who "pleased the Father alway," in whom the Father was "well pleased."
2. It is in conformity to the Divine will. It is the prerogative of the spiritual nature of man that it is capable of apprehending and voluntarily accepting and obeying the perfect will of God.
3. It tends to the Divine glory. This is by no other means so effectively promoted as by the willing consecration to the Lord of all intelligent and moral natures.
III. SUCH SERVICE IS APPROVED OF MEN.
1. Even those who do not render it themselves, approve it in others.
2. Even those who verbally censure, in their inner conscience commend it.
3. Legislators and rulers approve it, as contributive to the harmony and just development of human society at large.
HOMILIES BY C.H. IRWIN