Many non-Church people are indignant at the Christianity for what man considers himself a servant of God. In their opinion, it inhibits the freedom of the individual and humiliates the believer. But whether or not this status means inferiority and passivity, or is this a new freedom, beginning with humility before God and full acceptance of His Will in our lives?

If the question of what it means servant of God, to seek the answer in the Scriptures, then first of all these are the words of the Holy of Apostle Peter: "...so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men, - as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God" (1st Peter. 2:15-16). The Apostle says, in essence, is a fundamentally new way of perceiving the world, the essence of which is freedom from passions by means of conscious refusal from them for God's sake.

Paganism, which actively opposed the young Christian Church, it was unthinkable because the pagan gods themselves being dependent on its elements (not only the earth, but also sensual; not by chance there were gods of love, jealousy, revenge, anger, and so on), was not able to make free of them mortal men. Christianity, however, respects from those times to our twenty-first century the son of God with power over the earth and the heaven, and at the same time is not under anyone's authority on earth and in heaven, except the power of the Father (and humility, as all the Persons of the Holy Trinity are equal). Moreover: "Christian is one who, how much can a man imitates Christ words, deeds and thoughts, right and pure believing in the Holy Trinity" - writes the venerable ascetic VI-VII centuries, St. John of the ladder. Therefore, proclaiming himself a servant of the living God, the Christian suggests ways to overcome slavery earth elements and vices for some spiritual reality, the Kingdom of heaven, for the sake of which would be destroyed this earth and everything on it.

Such views on life always ridiculed in pagan societies, including modern, where instead of the ancient Baal and Astarte reign idols of success, beauty, dollar and supermarket. Nobody says that the last four bad in and of themselves a bad one only lives for them. And these images to enslave the human mind is more powerful than any traditional Christian doctrine, but behind the veneer is not evident, how much a person adheres to all this and what a vile even from the point of view of pagan morality things can go in order not to lose it.

The Declaration of freedom from belief in combination with ill-concealed reliance on worldly goods, the same thing that lecture about health with a cigarette in his hands. You can listen to, of course, but nothing but an ironic smile, by and large, not causes. It is with bitter irony wrote once about such preachers of psevdomonady the Holy Apostle Peter: "while they Promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption" (2 Peter. 2:18-19). The servant of God is the person who made the conscious decision to break the bondage of corruption, and to go further, to salvation in Christ. Although the God-man Himself warned his disciples about the fact that the world is ruled by the devil, neglect never forgive herself...

But, fortunately, has always been and there are those who, despite ridicule and persecution, have the freedom to openly declare that they are slaves of God, as it was done in one of his publications "archdeacon of all Russia", father Andrey Kurayev: "the Phrase servant of God - this phrase is not enslaving, not degrading, and osvoboditelu what if I be the servant of God, I am nobody's more nor slave. First, it means that I have neither the servant of my passions and habits, secondly, I'm not a slave to public opinion - I'm not a slave NTV and "Moskovskiy Komsomolets"because I am from other sources of judgments, estimates and reactions, not that I nourish your soul and your mind. I neither slave political parties, I'm not a slave to fashion, if I am indeed a slave of God is not in word but in deed. Remember the classic principle of feudal society - the person who has the status of the servants of the king - a free person in the society, because if I be a servant of the king, I'm nobody's more no servant, no feudal me has no power. If I am a servant of God - it means that I have a principle of diplomatic immunity in this world as such. Nothing hath no more dominion over me".

The servant of God - it is also the first step of saving faith, without which it is impossible to be in two subsequent mercenary and a son. If to characterize the stage of formation of the person in the knowledge of God by the words of Scripture that comes to mind string of Proverbs: "the Beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:7). Such fear has nothing to do with cowardice - it is more like a fear of offending someone sincerely and deeply loved. When a man loves, he is always in some degree becomes a slave of his love, at least, because it cannot and does not want to live without it. When a person is seriously interested in something, we cannot say that it is completely free from your hobby. But we take all of this is normal, as we understand that without these attachments do not happen development, therefore, is not formed and the identity of the person as such.

But if earthly love for another person may degenerate into ordinary lust, "a love fever", and fascination favorite thing - to become a true dependence on him, the love of God, if it is not, of course, confused with normal fanaticism that leads to salvation and eternity.

In eternity, those of us who had the humility to call himself the servant of God, will be called the son of the highest. About it during His earthly life were said by the God-man Jesus Christ: "... the servant abideth not in the house for ever: the son abideth ever; so if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (Jn. 8:35-36). It "took upon himself the form of a slave," in order to make slaves of corruption and the death of the sons of God. But in order to join this Sacrifice, you must have the courage to tell the truth about yourself to yourself. And through it to become better and better about Who can make the handmaid of the Lord God by grace...