Is it servitude or servant hood that we are called to?

EarthboundNess said:

I wish there were more Christian teachings regarding the difference between servant, servitude, and martyrdom. Giving to each other and receiving from each other is a natural condition and an act of devotion to get or give. When you martyr yourself for doing it it kind of defeats the point.

I've seen far to many women and a lot of men applaud themselves for their servitude or talk about how it's a great sacrifice but they do it because it's what's expected of them by husbands, wives, fathers, society, God. Meanwhile I think to myself that I think the point is to do it without tooting your horn or complaining about it.

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ValleyGal said:

Good question. Imo, servitude is about someone else expecting me to serve them...it puts me into a position of servitude. But servanthood is about me choosing to be a servant, or serve others. It is virtually impossible to serve everyone, though. The motivation for service is love for God, love for others (AS yourself). For me, this is about self care and knowing when it's time to serve myself (not saying expecting others to serve me). Service requires selflessness and often sacrifice. Imo, these are the three S's necessary for a strong marriage - on both the part of the wife as well as the husband, since God calls all of us to these things as believers.

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EarthboundNess said:

I wish there were more Christian teachings regarding the difference between servant, servitude, and martyrdom. Giving to each other and receiving from each other is a natural condition and an act of devotion to get or give. When you martyr yourself for doing it it kind of defeats the point.

I've seen far to many women and a lot of men applaud themselves for their servitude or talk about how it's a great sacrifice but they do it because it's what's expected of them by husbands, wives, fathers, society, God. Meanwhile I think to myself that I think the point is to do it without tooting your horn or complaining about it.

Click to expand...

ValleyGal said:

Good question. Imo, servitude is about someone else expecting me to serve them...it puts me into a position of servitude. But servanthood is about me choosing to be a servant, or serve others. It is virtually impossible to serve everyone, though. The motivation for service is love for God, love for others (AS yourself). For me, this is about self care and knowing when it's time to serve myself....

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Johnnz said:

Technically servitude refers to being in a designated role under someone else's authority, being a slave, under some binding obligation. Christian servanthood is about a voluntary blessing of another through a love gift of some kind to bless them by what you chose to do. The other has no authority over you apart from what you chose to yield by your actions based in love.

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