For generations, many Christians have been conditioned to believe that serving God is measured by how consistently they attend church services. Sunday service. Mid-week service. Night vigils. House fellowship. Special programmes. Revival meetings. All these gatherings are beautiful, powerful, and spiritually useful — but they are not, by themselves, the definition of serving God.
- Church attendance is fellowship
- Service to God is lifestyle
- Fellowship is a spiritual gathering
- Service is a spiritual posture
- One happens in a building
The other happens in your heart, your words, and your everyday interactions with people.
Some people have replaced genuine devotion with religious routines. They believe that as long as they sit in a church hall every Sunday, they are automatically pleasing God. But Jesus Himself warned us that many will say, ‘Lord, Lord’ — yet their hearts were far from Him (Matthew 7:21–23). It is possible to attend every programme and still miss the heart of God.
Church attendance is good
But attendance without love, without kindness, without mercy, without forgiveness, without humility, without respect, without good character — that is empty religion.
Serving God is loving people — both strangers and familiars
Serving God begins with how you treat the people you know and the people you don’t know. True spirituality shows up not in your seat inside the church but in your behaviour outside the building.
Jesus taught that the two greatest commandments are:
- Love God
- Love your neighbour (Matthew 22:37–40)
Every doctrine, every teaching, every commandment, every instruction in Scripture rests on these two pillars.
- You cannot love God genuinely if you habitually mistreat people
- You cannot claim intimacy with God when your heart is a storehouse of bitterness
- You cannot raise holy hands in worship while using those same hands to tear others down
- God is not impressed by religious activities disconnected from love.
1 John 4:20 says, ‘If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar’. The Bible did not call such a person ‘mistaken’ — it called them a liar.
- That means God takes love seriously
- Love is not decoration
- Love is not suggestion
- Love is not emotional reaction
- Love is a command, a lifestyle, a spiritual requirement
If your Christianity does not make you kinder, gentler, more patient, more forgiving, more peaceful, more considerate — then you are practising religion, not relationship.
Serving God is being considerate towards others
Philippians 2:4 says, ‘Look not every man on his own things, but also on the things of others’. This is the heart of consideration.
- It means not living with a ‘me first’ mentality
- It means your actions take other people into account
- It means your choices are not selfish or inconsiderate
- It means you treat people with dignity, respect, and empathy.
Serving God means being sensitive to people’s pain and not adding to it.
- It means being gentle with people who are struggling
- It means not taking advantage of people’s weaknesses
- It means treating employees kindly, respecting your spouse, raising your children with love, caring for strangers, and honouring those around you.
Some people attend every service yet insult their housemaids, mistreat workers, lie in business, snap at their children, shout their spouses into silence, cheat customers, or use manipulation to control others.
- These things may pass unnoticed by men, but they matter greatly to God
- Your true service is measured in the moments nobody sees
- Your Christianity shows in how you treat those who can’t ‘benefit’ you.
Serving God is honouring people and living in peace
Romans 12:18 says, ‘As much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men’. The instruction here is not to always be right — it is to be peaceful.
- Peace is part of service
- Honour is part of service
- Humility is part of service.
Hebrews 12:14 adds, ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness…’ Peace comes before holiness in that verse. It shows how important it is to God.
- Honouring people is a reflection of your honour for God
- Honouring your spouse is honouring God
- Honouring elders, leaders, colleagues, and even younger people is honouring God
- Respecting others — regardless of background, tribe, wealth, or position — is service.
Some Christians speak in tongues yet cannot speak gently to their spouse. They preach to strangers but wound their partner with harsh words. They dance in church but bring tension into their home.
Service begins from the inside out, not the outside in.
Serving God is forgiving offences — even the painful ones
Forgiveness is one of the hardest but most powerful spiritual acts. Jesus said in Matthew 6:14–15 that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us.
- That is how serious forgiveness is to Heaven
- Forgiveness is not pretending the pain didn’t happen
- Forgiveness is not saying it didn’t hurt
- Forgiveness is not excusing wicked behaviour
- Forgiveness is releasing your own heart from bondage
- Unforgiveness is a chain
- Forgiveness is freedom
- Some people fast every week but won’t forgive their sibling
- Some pray in tongues but keep people in emotional prison
- Some give offerings but hold onto bitterness
- Yet Jesus placed forgiveness above offerings (Matthew 5:23–24)
- Forgiving — even when it hurts deeply — is serving God.
Religion has made attendance look like service
Religion, control, and manipulation have convinced many people that if they miss church on Sunday, they have committed a sin. They walk around with guilt, feeling like God is angry, disappointed, or distant because they didn’t sit in a building for two hours.
But let’s be very clear:
- Missing a church service does not mean you have sinned
- The Bible encourages fellowship — yes (Hebrews 10:25) But it does not say that missing a service equals sin
- God is not checking attendance registers; He checks hearts
- Even Jesus Himself did not attend the synagogue every single week
- The apostles missed meetings during travels, assignments, and persecutions.
And the early church did not gather under fear or guilt — they gathered out of unity and love. A Christian who is walking in love but misses a service is closer to God than a Christian who attends every service but walks in hatred, pride, and unforgiveness. God values character more than routine.
The manipulative of doctrine of ‘don’t come without an offering’
There is a teaching that says, ‘Don’t come to church empty-handed’. Many preach it as if God will reject you if you don’t drop money during service. But let us look at Scripture honestly.
The commands in Exodus 23:15 and Deuteronomy 16:16 — ‘Do not appear before Me empty-handed’— were given specifically for the three major annual feasts.
- Israel gathered once a year for those feasts
- Not weekly
- Not daily
- Not every Sunday
The context was annual festivals, not Sunday worship. Using these verses to guilt people into giving weekly offerings is manipulation. God loves cheerful giving (2 Corinthians 9:7), not coerced giving.
You can come before God with a sincere heart even when you have no money in your pocket. Your worship is not invalid because your wallet is empty. Your Christianity is not measured by your offering envelope. Generosity is good. Offering is important. Giving is scriptural. But it must come from willingness, not pressure.
True service is a life of love
When Jesus described the final judgment in Matthew 25:35–40, He did not mention church attendance. He mentioned feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned — acts of love. He said, ‘Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to Me’.
That is service.
God is not waiting for you to impress Him with religious routines. He is waiting for you to reflect His heart in daily living.
True service is
- Loving when it’s difficult
- Forgiving when it hurts
- Giving when it’s inconvenient
- Showing mercy when it feels undeserved
- Living peacefully even when others don’t cooperate
- Treating people with dignity and kindness
- Walking in humility and compassion
- Your life becomes worship when your character aligns with God’s nature
- Church gatherings are important, but they are not replacements for love
- They are not substitutes for character
- They are not higher than compassion
- They do not override integrity
- They do not cover wickedness in the heart.
- Christianity is not seen in attendance — it is seen in behaviour.
- If love is missing, the service is empty.
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- Let your life be the altar
- Let love be your worship
- Let peace be your testimony
- Let compassion be your witness.
That is what it truly means to serve God.
