There are many passages in the bible exhorting particular behaviours or attitudes, but few, if any are as challenging as when Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Nothing should be done out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility everyone should consider other better than themselves. Each person not looking to their own interests, but to the interests of others.” He continues with the famous Christological hymn where he shows how Jesus embodied just such an approach in not grasping onto his rights and privileges as the Son of God, but rather humbled himself in becoming human and following the road to the cross and death for the sake of all humanity.
So how do we do likewise in our lives? And what does servant leadership look like? Firstly, it is perhaps easiest to start with what it isn’t – and it isn’t being a doormat, being weak and pushed around by the bullies of the day. We only have to read the accounts of Jesus’s encounter with the religious leaders of his day to see that he was no shrinking violet, and particularly the episode where he made a whip of cords and drove the merchants and money changers from the Temple.
Better is to think of servant leadership as one who’s purpose, goal and motive is the benefit of others rather than self. However, we should not be fooled into thinking that this means we should therefore agree with what anyone happens to think or believe, or to condone all their actions and behaviours. It is one of the greatest follies of our current age that it is believed that unless we agree with/support someone then we aren’t loving them. This is easily illustrated in the child/parent relationship – where this is a good and healthy loving relationship the parent will frequently put the child’s needs before their own, whilst at the same time also discipline, correct and guide the child as required.
So what does this look like in politics? How does a politician serve a group of people within an electorate and a nation who have such differing desires and outcomes? The answer lies, in part, in remembering that serving others does not necessarily mean doing what they want, or what they will approve of; but rather serving others is to use the things which are at your disposal in a way that you believe will be for their benefit and good.
As I’ve argued elsewhere this should not result in governments increasingly imposing themselves on our lives and choices. Rather, it’s quite the opposite for to truly love and serve another is to not demand anything of them, but instead to focus on what we can control for their benefit. God’s love for humanity is the finest example of this – firstly, he used his power and authority to provide a means for our salvation and restored relationship with him through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Secondly, he gave us the option of accepting or rejecting this gift. In all this, he ensured we retained our free will whilst also doing all within his power to help us. Whether or not you believe the Christian gospel message, it nevertheless still illustrates the point; that serving others does not demand something from those you serve, though it may well ask something of them for things to work as they should.
Indeed it is the great vulnerability of love that it completely gives of itself without knowing if there will be any response in kind. Some may call this weakness, and yet our observation is that love is the strongest and most powerful force in creation, and it expresses itself most fully in the service of others.