The Spiritual Servant
The Spiritual Servant
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Not merely a bearer of information — Not just in the stage of repentance
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A moving Church — The spiritual servant’s task is to bring God into the service
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An incarnate Gospel — Faithfulness in service
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A means of illustrating virtues — Between spirituality and knowledge
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What does lesson preparation mean? — Spiritual and social
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His love, zeal, and prayers — His children resemble him
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His feeling of unworthiness
The servant is not merely a teacher or a transmitter of information to others. He is not a mere intellect, but a spirit that conveys life to others — a great spirit united with God, having experienced life with Him, tasted how good the Lord is, and desires to transmit this life to others. He conveys it through emotions, living example, good conduct, prayer, and supplication for those he serves — in short, by bringing the Spirit of the Lord into the service.
The spiritual servant is a person filled with the Spirit; therefore, he overflows to others from that Spirit within him, for one can only give what he possesses.
If the servant’s spirituality is sound, the spirituality of his children will also be sound.
The spiritual servant has the living and effective Word of God, which leaves its impact on the hearers and does not return void.
He continually grows in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his spiritual level remains far above that of his children.
He is a role model — not only for his children but also for his fellow servants.
The spiritual servant does not work by his own power, but by the gifts of the Holy Spirit working within him. He is merely an instrument moved by the Spirit in serving the Kingdom. He lives constantly in communion with the Holy Spirit.
The spiritual servant does not allow worldly matters to distract him from his spiritual life. If he continues to focus on his salvation, he may end up dedicating his entire life to serving the Lord.
The spiritual servant does not feel that he gives in his service; rather, he constantly feels that he receives something new from God while serving. To him, service is a means of grace, like prayer and meditation.
The spiritual servant is a beautiful melody in the ears of the Church and a pure icon through whom everyone who sees him is blessed.
He continually strives with God for the sake of his children, pouring out his soul before Him in service so that God may lead it — granting spiritual nourishment to him and those he serves, and giving them strength to walk in the way of the Lord.
He weeps before God until his prayers are answered for their good.
The spiritual servant realizes that preparing a lesson or sermon is not preparing information, but preparing himself to be a vessel fit for the work of the Spirit.
He constantly remembers the Lord’s saying: “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”
And he keeps before him St. Paul’s words to his disciple Timothy the bishop: “Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine; continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.”
The spiritual servant’s students need no visitation, for they naturally long for his lessons. When they see him in church, they feel as though they have found great treasures.
They benefit from his appearance and dealings as much as, or more than, from his words. He binds them to God and the Church through the strong bond of love. His lesson is a delight to their souls, spirits, hearts, and minds.
The spiritual servant is the lesson — a practical one more than a theoretical teacher.
He does not seek to be a successful instructor, for such a goal holds some self-interest. His sole concern is the salvation of his children’s souls. He forgets himself in his deep concern for them, saying like Paul: “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:3)
He loves his students as God loves them — or as God loves him — as it was said of Christ: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.”
He loves God with all his heart and desires that they love Him as he does — or even more. His love for them grows with time; if they love God, his love for them deepens in admiration for their spirit; if they fall, his love increases in compassion and care for their salvation.
Through this love, he presents them a bright image of faith and of God.
The spiritual servant is not one who merely trains himself in repentance but one who strives toward perfection. The more he grows, the more he feels humble, realizing that the road before him is much longer than the steps he has taken.
He is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Everyone who associates with him is enlightened and receives something divine. He is a stream of grace flowing to everyone — not only in church but also at home, at work, and along the way. He is a servant wherever he goes.
Service to him has no limits of place, time, or formality — for the spirit of service within him drives him to serve everyone he meets.
The spiritual servant is a moving Church, an incarnate Gospel, and a living illustration of all virtues.
And if someone asks how a person can become like that — it is enough to be faithful to the Lord and seek His Kingdom and righteousness with all your heart, effort, supplication, tears, and striving with God — and then all these things shall be added unto you.
The spiritual servant continually feels crushed and unworthy.
He feels that sanctifying souls is beyond his level and that saving a soul is a divine work. He realizes that his participation with God in the work — his partnership with the Holy Spirit in building the Kingdom and purifying hearts — is something he does not deserve.
Yet despite this feeling of unworthiness, he does not flee from service; rather, it drives him to more prayer.
He says continually to God: “It is Your work, not mine. You must accomplish it through me or without me. I am but a spectator, watching Your work and rejoicing.”
“Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.”
So he prays, “Work, O Lord, Your work, gladden the hearts of Your children, and do not withhold the grace of Your Holy Spirit from them because of my sins, weaknesses, or shortcomings.”
And through his persistence in prayer, he receives grace for the service. When the service succeeds, he gives glory to God who has done all the work.
If we know that “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it,” then why do we labor in vain without involving the Lord in the work so that it may be completed and we find rest? The duty of the successful spiritual servant is to bring God into the work.
Some servants think that faithfulness means working hard, but the spiritual servant believes that true perfection is letting God work — that he himself may decrease so that God may appear.
This does not mean laziness or idleness. On the contrary, he works — yet not he, but God who works in him, as St. Paul said: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”
The spiritual servant is a faithful person. He labors diligently in service, remembering the Scripture: “Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord deceitfully.”
He strives so that he may be worthy for God to work with him — that God may see his humility and effort and carry the burden for him. He labors and says to himself as David did:
“Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed; I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” — a place for the Lord in every heart.
The spiritual servant is a person aflame with holy zeal.
He says with the Psalmist: “The zeal of Your house has consumed me.”
And with the Apostle Paul: “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?”
He is fervent in spirit, kindled with the holy fire that descended upon the apostles at Pentecost. He is a flame moving in service, working with passion, heart, and enthusiasm — faithful even unto death.
He constantly feels that he stands in God’s presence, and service to him is a holy altar, his labor a sweet incense offering.
The spiritual servant’s children become spiritual; he raises them in his likeness and example.
The social servant produces social children; the intellectual servant produces students who are like books full of information.
Truly, as Scripture says, “The tree that bears fruit yields fruit according to its kind.” (Genesis 1:11–12)
If that is the case, let us take care of what we are — for our children will be in our likeness and image.
The spiritual servant feels that his children are a trust laid upon him, for which he will give an account before God on the Day of Judgment. They are God’s children, entrusted to his hands to give them their portion of food in due season.
Let each one of you examine the spirituality of his service, his life, and his children.
The spirituality of his life — for the sake of his own salvation and the influence of his example.
The spirituality of his service — that it may bear fruit in raising a new spiritual generation.
And the spirituality of his children — which requires great patience and long-suffering.
The spiritual servant is patient until the seed grows, turns green, and bears fruit. He does not grow weary if its growth, blossoming, or fruiting is delayed.
He keeps before him the Apostle’s words: “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak.”
Some souls do not yield fruit quickly, nor rid themselves of their faults swiftly. Such souls need someone who will patiently bear with them until they are saved.
As St. John Chrysostom said:
“If the physical embryo needs many months to mature and grow before birth, let us also be patient with the spiritual embryo until it reaches full growth.”
The spiritual servant cares for the spiritual nourishment of his children. He leads his little lambs to the waters of rest and to the green pastures, feeding them among the lilies.
He is concerned with their spirituality, not merely filling their minds with information.
Yet this does not mean neglecting knowledge — but rather taking from it what builds the spirit, not focusing on intellect alone.
Even when the spiritual servant speaks on theological, doctrinal, or liturgical matters, he speaks spiritually. But the intellectual servant, even when speaking on spiritual matters, turns them into theories and concepts.
Therefore, be spiritual servants and serve spiritual service.
I say this because I fear for this generation — one that has greatly increased in knowledge but decreased in spirit — unlike the past generation, when service was like the dove towers cooing with the hymn of divine love.
For there are servants who began in the Spirit but continued in the flesh, or in intellect, or in diplomacy.
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An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on January 26, 1986.
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