“He became a servant” by Richard Sibbes

“Is the Lord Christ a servant? This should teach us not to stand upon any terms. If Christ had stood upon terms, if He had refused to take upon Him the shape of a servant, alas, where had we and our salvation been?

And yet wretched creatures, we think ourselves too good to do God and our brethren any service. Christ stood not upon His greatness, but, being equal with God, He became a servant. Oh! We should dismount from the tower of our conceited excellency.

The heart of man is a proud creature, a proud piece of flesh. Men stand upon their distance. What! Shall I stoop to him? I am thus and thus. We should descend from the heaven of our conceit, and take upon us the form of servants, and abase ourselves to do good to others, even to any, and account it an honour to do any good to others in the places we are in.

Christ did not think Himself too good to leave heaven, to conceal and veil His majesty under the veil of our flesh, to work our redemption, to bring us out of the cursed estate we were in. Shall we think ourselves too good for any service?

Who for shame can be proud when he thinks of this, that God was abased? Shall God be abased, and man proud? Shall God become a servant, and shall we that are servants think much to serve our fellow-servants? Let us learn this lesson: to abase ourselves.

We cannot have a better pattern to look unto than our blessed Saviour. A Christian is the greatest freeman in the world. He is free from the wrath of God, free from hell and damnation, from the curse of the law.

But then, though he be free in these respects, yet, in regard of love, he is the greatest servant. Love abaseth him to do all the good he can. And the more the Spirit of Christ is in us, the more it will abase us to anything wherein we can be serviceable.”

–Richard Sibbes, “A Description of Christ,” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 8-9.