Service is so deeply important to the Christian lifestyle. It is something Jesus did, and so we are compelled to do it. He washed the feet of His disciples. He healed the sick. He taught the masses. He ministered to many. He discipled those who were meant to pick up where He left off when His work after the cross was done.

And He’s still working and serving us, a people who don’t deserve such tender care and affection.

Love covers a multitude of sins. We love to quote that verse, but do we really live it? Do we really walk out the meaning of that in all we do, especially when we serve each other in the Church? The fact of the matter is, churches can be toxic. It’s something most churches love to ignore because they don’t want to own up or take responsibility for the fact that there are people out there walking around with some real emotional wounds inflicted by church people. It’s because as Christians, sometimes we forget that we’re supposed to be good stewards of God’s grace to us. We forget that we are supposed to be the example that God uses to draw others unto Him.

If you think about it, 1 Peter had to be a very revolutionary letter to the church. Peter, a jew and disciple of Jesus, repeatedly asserts how Christ’s work on the cross put Jews and Gentiles on the same playing field. Until the cross, there was a clear line between the two groups because the Jews were God’s chosen people under His covenant with Abraham. But Jesus’ spilt blood on the cross meant that not only Jews but Gentiles as well could be brought into the family of God and enjoy the same inheritance, grace, and spirituality that was reserved for Jews only up to that point.

Where is your treasure? Think about it. Take a pause and think about your life. Where is your time most spent? What are the things you absolutely cannot live without? What are your non-negotiables? Family? Friends? Career? Your home? Your lifestyle? Your politics? Jesus? Your list is completely valid, whatever it is you put on it. Your treasure is exactly that: yours. You may put value on something that I don’t, and that’s just the beauty of different perspectives.

When I was in college, I joined a sorority. There was an awesome sense of belonging in that, knowing that I was in a community of women that I could call friends, and we could accept each other's differences simply because we were united by the same Greek letters of the sorority. Over those three years that I was an active sister, there was this idea drilled into us that we were “always wearing our letters.” In other words, we were always representing our sorority, whether we were wearing the Greek letters that designated us as a community or not. So wherever we went, whatever we said, however we conducted ourselves– it was a reflection of the sorority itself.