A Co-owner, Employee, or Servant

September 5, 2022

The greatest among you must be a servant. Matthew 23:11 NLT

…and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:27-28 NLT

How you view your position in a company says volumes about how you behave, perform, and carry out your responsibilities. If you are a co-owner and a basically decent person, you care about your partner and want that person to succeed. But you feel you have as much in this venture as he or she does, so you are very determined to have your opinion heard and valued. You feel free and entitled to push for your ideas to win out.

If you are an employee, it’s likely that you will be much less aggressive than a co-owner. You will follow direct instructions of your boss, but most of the time stay within broad parameters of your job, making daily decisions for practical implications on your own. When you disagree with something and don’t want to do it or follow procedure exactly, it’s not unusual to just fly under the radar, doing what you prefer. You stick to policies and procedures as much as needed to keep your job, or sometimes to get a raise or perk.

If you are a servant/slave, you realize your purpose and job description is to please your master, your owner. We naturally think of that in a negative manner most often, and reasonably so. But that has not been true for everyone. The Bible has a few stories of slaves/servants who were so beloved and loving that the master/slave relationship was full of trust, respect, and devotion. Abraham and Eleazer, his servant, had just such a relationship. In our own history there are a few stories after the Emancipation Proclamation that slaves had been so loved and valued in a mutual relationship that in return they chose to stay with their owners in special relationship. But this relationship was still one where the master/the owner was rightly viewed as the authority and one the slave/servant chose to proactively please. The slave didn’t wait to be told what to do if he/she knew what would please the master—it was immediate. “I will do what pleases him most.”

We don’t need much commentary here, do we? The reason our service is sporadic, weak, ineffective, unenthusiastic is generally not because we lack understanding. God has made it abundantly clear that He must be our Master and Lord—He owns us. He is a kind and loving master. We are to build HIS kingdom and do HIS will. We do that by serving others. We don’t have room to negotiate, decide what we will and won’t do, work just to keep our status or get rewards. We are willing servants because the mutual love is so deep.

• Lord, I will be Your obedient and happy servant. You own me—every part—by my choice.