26 If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
Oh, what great honour is promised to all who serve Christ according to His good and perfect will as revealed in His Word! How wonderful to hear it from the lips of our blessed Lord and Saviour! He will certainly do what He has said. Oh, how tenderly and graciously the Lord deals with His servants! How amazing it is that in the midst of His great agony, He thought about cheering His troubled servants by telling them of the honour that His Father will bestow upon them!
The prospect of being a servant of Christ is the highest and an unsurpassable honour that a man can ever receive. Obedience to Christ is a glorious privilege, for it empowers a man to overcome his wicked lusts and thoughts and live a godly and blessed life. Being an obedient servant of Christ is to inherit a pure and clean life devoid of the corruptions of sin. To be a submissive, dutiful follower of Christ is to be conformable to Christ. A true servant of Christ is Christ-like. Oh, what an honourable and high calling Christ gives to everyone who follows Him as His servant!
Serving Christ in this hostile world would bring many trials and much suffering to His followers. Jesus Himself has said, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord” (Matthew 10:22-24).
The humiliations and the hurts one suffers for being a servant of Christ serve only to prove his calling and the certainty of the eternal glory and honour the Father will bestow on him. True servants seek not the honour that cometh from man, but from Christ and His Father. So Jesus said, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12). Paul told the suffering Christians, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us” (2 Timothy 2:12). Servants of Christ may suffer on earth, but they shall have great honour in heaven!