Dictionaries :: Serve

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Serve:

"to minister" (akin to diakonos, No. 2, above), "to render any kind of service," is translated "to serve," e.g., in Luk 10:40; 12:37; 17:8; 22:26, 27 (twice); see MINISTER, B, No. 1.

Serve:

"to serve as a doulos" (No. 1, above), is used

(a) of serving God (and the impossibility of serving mammon also), Mat 6:24 and Luk 16:13; Rom 7:6; in the gospel, Phl 2:22;

(b) Christ, Act 20:19; Rom 12:11; 14:18; 16:18; Eph 6:7; Col 3:24;

(c) the law of God, Rom 7:25;

(d) one another, Gal 5:13, RV, "be servants to" (AV, "serve");

(e) a father, Luk 15:29 (with a suggestion of acting as a slave);

(f) earthly masters, Mat 6:24; Luk 16:13; 1Ti 6:2, RV, "serve;"

(g) the younger by the elder, Rom 9:12;

(h) of being in bondage to a nation, Act 7:7; Gal 4:25, to the Romans, actually, though also spiritually to Judaizers;

(i) to idols, Gal 4:8, RV, "were in bondage" (AV, "did service");

(j) to "the weak and beggarly rudiments," Gal 4:9 (RV), "to be in bondage" (aorist tense in the best texts, suggesting "to enter into bondage"), i.e., to the religion of the Gentiles ("rudiments" being used in ver. 3 of the religion of the Jews);

(k) sin, Rom 6:6, RV, "be in bondage" (AV, "serve");

(l) sin, Rom 6:6, RV, "be in bondage" (AV, "serve"); "divers lusts and pleasures," Tts 3:3;

(m) negatively, to any man -- a proud and thoughtless denial by the Jews, Jhn 8:33.

Serve:

primarily "to work for hire" (akin to latris, "a hired servant"), signifies

(1) to worship,

(2) to "serve;" in the latter sense it is used of service

(a) to God, Mat 4:10; Luk 1:74 ("without fear"); 4:8; Act 7:7; 24:14, RV, "serve" (AV, "worship"); Act 26:7; 27:23; Rom 1:9 ("with my spirit"); 2Ti 1:3; Hbr 9:14; 12:28, AV, "we may serve," RV, "we may offer service;" Rev 7:15;

(b) to God and Christ ("the Lamb"), Rev 22:3;

(c) in the tabernacle, Hbr 8:5, RV; 13:10;

(d) to "the host of heaven," Act 7:42, RV, "to serve" (AV, "to worship");

(e) to "the creature," instead of the Creator, Rom 1:25, of idolatry: see WORSHIP.

Note: In Luk 2:37 the RV has "worshiping," for AV, "served;" in Hbr 9:9, "the worshiper," for AV, "that did the service."

Serve:

for which see MINISTER. B, No. 3, is translated "to serve" in Act 13:36; there is a contrast intimated between the service of David, lasting for only a generation, and the eternal character of Christ's ministry as the One who not having seen corruption was raised from the dead.