servanthood

²⁷For who is greater: he who sits at table, or he who serves? Is not he who sits at table? Yet I am in your midst as one who serves.

¹Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, any solace of charity, any fellowship of the Spirit, any feelings of commiseration: ²complete my joy by having the same understanding, holding to the same charity, being of one mind, with the same sentiment. ³Let nothing be done by contention, nor in vain glory. Instead, in humility, let each of you esteem others to be better than himself. ⁴Let each of you not consider anything to be your own, but rather to belong to others. ⁵For this understanding in you was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be seized.

⁷Instead, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and accepting the state of a man.

²⁶If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there too my minister shall be. If anyone has served me, my Father will honor him.

¹Before the feast day of the Passover, Jesus knew that the hour was approaching when he would pass from this world to the Father. And since he had always loved his own who were in the world, he loved them unto the end. ²And when the meal had taken place, when the devil had now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, ³knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he came from God and was going to God, ⁴he rose up from the meal, and he set aside his vestments, and when he had received a towel, he wrapped it around himself. ⁵Next he put water into a shallow bowl, and he began to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them with the towel with which he was wrapped. ⁶And then he came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to him, “Lord, would you wash my feet?”

²¹Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

¹⁷Let everything whatsoever that you do, whether in word or in deed, be done all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

¹⁶in an open manner, and not as if cloaking malice with liberty, but like servants of God.

²⁵But Jesus called them to himself and said: “You know that the first ones among the Gentiles are their rulers, and that those who are greater exercise power among them. ²⁶It shall not be this way among you. But whoever will want to be greater among you, let him be your minister. ²⁷And whoever will want to be first among you, he shall be your servant, ²⁸even as the Son of man has not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a redemption for many.”

³⁵And taking a child, he set him in their midst. And when he had embraced him, he said to them:

⁴⁵So, too, the Son of man has not come so that they would minister to him, but so that he would minister and would give his life as a redemption for many.”

⁴²But Jesus, calling them, said to them: “You know that those who seem to be leaders among the Gentiles dominate them, and their leaders exercise authority over them. ⁴³But it is not to be this way among you. Instead, whoever would become greater shall be your minister; ⁴⁴and whoever will be first among you shall be the servant of all. ⁴⁵So, too, the Son of man has not come so that they would minister to him, but so that he would minister and would give his life as a redemption for many.”