17. What effect should the love of God and Christ have on the way we live our life?

¹⁷ If the love of God and Christ compels you to serve them, this will be reflected in the way you live your life. You will not be living for yourself. As the apostle Paul wrote: “[Christ] died for all that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them.” (2 Cor. 5:15) Just what does this involve?

18-20. (a) As illustrated by Jesus, what comes first if a person is no longer living for himself? (b) Did Jesus mean that we are useless?

¹⁸ Ponder a literal slave-master relationship. Would a faithful, trusted slave put off serving his master or treat such service as of minor importance? Would he give first attention to his own comforts or personal interests in life? Most certainly not! Then what about slaves of God and Christ?

¹⁹ An illustration used by Jesus Christ gives a forceful answer to this question. He drew upon the fact that then slaves who worked in the field might also serve the evening meal to their master. This was viewed as something to which the master was entitled. Jesus said: “Will he [the master] not say to him [the slave], ‘Get something ready for me to have my evening meal, and put on an apron and minister to me until I am through eating and drinking, and afterward you can eat and drink’? He will not feel gratitude to the slave because he did the things assigned, will he?” Then, regarding the fulfillment of their assignments, Jesus advised his disciples to say: “We are good-for-nothing slaves. What we have done is what we ought to have done.”​—Luke 17:7-10.

²⁰ Jesus was not here recommending that Christians constantly be tearing themselves down, depreciating themselves, thinking of themselves as useless. No, but he was advising them to keep clearly in mind their relationship to God and his Son. As Christians, it is not their personal will and comforts that come first, for Christ died that they “might live no longer for themselves.”

21. Why is ‘living no longer for ourselves’ very difficult at times?

²¹ Of course, service to God and Christ is not always easy, but never is such service the reason for problems. In itself it is a source of joy and refreshment. Humans without faith and wicked spirit forces, however, are the ones that make things hard for Christians. (Eph. 6:11, 12; 2 Thess. 3:1-3) This has been the experience in modern times of Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, especially in lands under dictatorial rule. Often they have been persecuted because of obeying Jesus’ command to preach and teach God’s Word. (Matt. 28:19, 20) At other times persecution has come upon them because, out of faithfulness to God, they refuse to get involved in the political and military affairs of the nations. (John 6:15; 17:16) The ‘line of least resistance’ would be to give in, to live ‘good, moral lives,’ while accommodating the demands of the totalitarian governments. But these Christians are not living for themselves. They are servants of God and Christ. Appreciating the boundless love that they have been shown, they are willing to suffer, yes, even to die, in faithful service.

25. What, besides faithful endurance when we are persecuted, is involved in ‘living no longer for ourselves’?

²⁵ Living no longer for ourselves involves more, though, than faithful endurance when we are being persecuted. Christians are urged: “Whatever you are doing, work at it whole-souled as to Jehovah, and not to men, for you know that it is from Jehovah you will receive the due reward of the inheritance. Slave for the Master, Christ.” (Col. 3:23, 24) Hence, living no longer for ourselves includes every aspect of life​—morals, how one thinks, acts, talks and works, wifely subjection, husbandly exercise of headship and obedience to parents.​—Col. 3:5-22.