The night before He was crucified, Jesus did something that stopped His disciples cold. He got up from the table, wrapped a towel around His waist, and began washing their feet. In a culture where foot washing was the job of the lowest servant in the house, the Son of God was on His knees doing it for the men He had spent three years leading. When He finished, He said, “…I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:15). That is the standard for serving others.
Key Takeaways
- Serving Others Is Not Optional: Jesus did not suggest that His followers serve. He modeled it and commanded it, making it central to what it means to follow Him.
- The Greatest Leaders Serve First: Every example of Jesus serving others points to the same truth: greatness in God’s kingdom is defined by how much you give, not how much you accumulate.
- Service Starts at Home: The men closest to Jesus received His service first, which means your wife, your kids, and the people under your roof are the first place to put this into practice.
- Serving Costs Something Real: Jesus gave His time, His energy, and ultimately His life. Genuine service to others always involves a real sacrifice of something.
- You Cannot Serve Well Without Staying Connected to God: Jesus withdrew regularly to pray before serving. The capacity to give consistently flows from a life rooted in God.
Why Serving Others Matters
Jesus is the model for serving others. He was perfectly God and perfectly man, meaning every choice He made on earth was a deliberate picture of how His followers should live. When He served, He was not just being kind. He was showing the world what following God actually looks like in practice.
Understanding why serving others matters starts with understanding what Jesus was after. He was not building a movement around impressive leaders with impressive credentials. He was building a kingdom where the greatest person in the room is the one who serves everyone else in it (Mark 10:43–45).
For Christian men, that changes how you think about leadership, about success, and about what you owe the people closest to you. Being a true disciple of Jesus means adopting His posture, which is always one of service over status.
Examples of Jesus Serving Others
The Gospels are full of examples of Jesus serving others. Here are five that every man should know.
1. Jesus Washed His Disciples’ Feet (John 13:1–17)
This is one of the most striking examples of Jesus serving others in all of Scripture. Foot washing was considered beneath any respectable person in first-century Jewish culture. It was a job for the lowest servant available. What it meant for Jesus to wash His disciples’ feet goes far deeper than a simple act of hygiene. It was a direct statement about what leadership looks like in God’s kingdom.
He did not delegate this. He did not explain it beforehand and then let someone else handle it. He got up, got the towel, and did it Himself.
2. Jesus Fed the Multitude (Mark 6:30–44)
After the disciples returned from their first ministry trip, Jesus took them away to rest. But when the crowds followed them, Jesus had compassion and spent the day teaching. As evening came, the disciples suggested sending the crowd away to find food. Jesus had a different idea.
With five loaves and two fish, He fed more than five thousand people. He saw a practical need in front of Him, and He met it. Serving others often looks less like grand gestures and more like noticing what is needed and doing something about it.
3. Jesus Healed the Sick (Matthew 8–9)
Matthew 8 and 9 contain a rapid series of healings that show just how consistently Jesus served the people around Him. A man with leprosy, a Roman soldier’s paralyzed servant, Peter’s mother-in-law, two demon-possessed men, a paralyzed man, a synagogue leader’s daughter, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. Jesus did not pick and choose based on social standing or religious credentials. He served across every line the culture had drawn.
4. Jesus Raised Lazarus (John 11:1–44)
When Jesus arrived at the tomb of His friend Lazarus four days after his death, He wept (John 11:35). He was fully aware He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and He still stopped to grieve with Mary and Martha. That is a picture of serving others that goes beyond action. It is presence. It is showing up and feeling the weight of what someone else is carrying before you fix anything.
4. Jesus Died for Sinners (Romans 5:8)
“[B]ut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Every other example of Jesus serving others in this list points to this one. He gave His life for people who had done nothing to earn it and everything to forfeit it. That is the ultimate act of service, and it is the foundation from which every other act of service flows.
What Serving Others Looks Like for a Dad
It is easy to read the examples of Jesus serving others and feel the distance between what He did and what daily life actually looks like. But the gap is smaller than it seems.
Serving others as a husband means putting your wife’s needs ahead of your own preferences, especially when you are tired. It means initiating the hard conversation instead of waiting for her to bring it up. It means leading spiritually even when you do not feel qualified.
Serving others as a father means showing up fully when you get home instead of mentally clocking out. It means handling the discipline even when it would be easier to let it go. It means getting on the floor with your kids when everything in you wants to sit on the couch.
Leading well at home is inseparable from serving well at home. The two are not different things. They are the same thing.
How to Grow in Serving Others
Three things from Jesus’s example stand out as practical anchors.
First, stay connected to God. Jesus regularly withdrew to pray before serving (Luke 5:16). You cannot give consistently from an empty tank. Time with God is not a luxury. It is what makes sustained service possible.
Second, start with the people closest to you. Every example of Jesus serving others began with the people right in front of Him. His disciples. The crowds that followed Him. The individuals who crossed His path. Service does not require a platform or a program. It starts with whoever is in your house.
Third, serve without keeping score. Jesus washed the feet of the man He knew would betray Him within hours. He did not serve Judas because Judas deserved it. He served him because that is who Jesus is. Serving others without conditions is what separates genuine service from transactional kindness.
The Bottom Line
Serving others is not a spiritual bonus for advanced Christians. It is the baseline expectation for every man who claims to follow Jesus. He showed us exactly what it looks like, and He told us plainly to do the same. The question is not whether to serve. It is whether we are willing to get the towel.
Related Questions
What does the Bible say about serving others?
Galatians 5:13 is direct: believers are called to serve one another through love, and Mark 10:45 makes clear that Jesus came not to be served but to serve, setting the standard for every follower.
Why is serving others important to God?
Serving others is an act of love and is what God made us to do.
How did Jesus show servant leadership?
Jesus showed servant leadership most clearly by washing His disciples’ feet, feeding crowds, healing the sick, and ultimately giving His life, always placing others’ needs above His own comfort or status.
What are the benefits of serving others?
Beyond the direct impact on others, serving consistently develops humility, deepens relationships, and aligns a man’s life with God’s priorities.
