03/02/2026
Serving God by Serving Others
In Matthew 25, Jesus tells two parables to prepare us for the future. The parable of the Ten Virgins teaches us to be ready for Christ’s return at any moment. The parable of the Talents teaches us that while we wait, we must be actively investing our lives for the glory of God. Then Jesus shifts from parables to a literal description of the future judgments. When Jesus comes again, there will be a line drawn between Christians and unbelievers, and each will be judged accordingly.
For believers, this judgment will not be to determine their salvation, but to reward them for their service (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). Jesus’s words in Matthew 25 reveal some of the criteria by which the righteous will be judged. “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat.”
The righteous will ask questions like, “When saw we thee an hungered and fed thee?” And the Lord will answer, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Herein lies a key to understanding the importance of serving one another. When we serve others, we are serving God.
God is not physically present on earth for us to serve like a human master. God has no needs that we can meet like other people do. There is nothing that we can do for God that will benefit Him in any real way. But by helping others, meeting their needs, and caring for them with a servant’s heart, we are serving the God who has commanded us to serve one another. So, instead of thinking in terms of serving other people who may or may not be worthy of our service, we need to view serving each other as serving God, because that is how God sees it.