Status v. Service

By Matt

I read Romans 16

"Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?"

Beautiful. I love it. The part I bolded is now residing in an honored position among the other Post-It notes of scriptural nuggets behind my monitor. But let's take a look at what Peterson does here: there is a tacit comparison of service and status here, placing them at opposite ends of a spectrum. I know that I have never really thought of status and service being opposites, so let's take a look, shall we?

Status is something you obtain for you or your immediate peers. Status opens up doors by elevating yourself into a higher social strata. You can come by it honestly or deceitfully. It's something to be seen, a way to get yourself noticed. It's also very fickle and rests on sandy ground: money, looks, talents, job, location, etc.

Service is something you do, often for folks you know but just as importantly for strangers or folks you're getting to know. Service can open up doors, but that's not necessarily the point. A lot of times it builds relationships though. You can do service for good and bad motivations but, no matter what, you're still doing something good for someone. It can give you notoriety, but doing it for notoriety's sake (i.e. a bad motivation) still makes something better for someone (hopefully). Service takes advantage of those fickle mistresses that create status: we can use our money to help someone else; our talents are put to good use to give a hand to someone else; the freedom and mobility of where we live can help folks who don't enjoy what we do. Not sure what looks can do in service except for getting you in some good photo ops :)

So, I don't know that they're polar opposites, but they do seem to have some contrasts. And that doesn't deny the fact that anything good we're given by God is meant to be used to benefit someone else. Damn straight.