In John 13:8 Jesus’ response to Peter when Peter did not want him to wash his feet was, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Jesus was saying it is not on an option about accepting God’s service to us. We must accept his personally serving us. Even though we know him to be God - - greater than any person - - we must allow him to serve us, even as we would one who is much lower than us. So serving others is not an activity we should avoid. Because we are to be like him, we should do as he does.
Right after talking about serving, Jesus tells us, “The servant is not greater than his Lord”. Why does he say this? Is it that we might get thinking, after serving one another, how noble and giving we are? Perhaps more noble and giving than anyone else in the whole world ever was? Perhaps more a servant than God ever knew how to be?
Maybe it means something else. Maybe if we are God's children we do not have to do the things the ungodly have to do. They are servants to sin; they have to serve - - that's their place. But not us, we are God's children. There are many good works that on the surface appear to be "service works" and therefore we do not have to do them. But we can never serve as God has served: allowing himself to be killed by a misbehaving creation so that they could live. We must be like him. We are made to serve, not to be served.
