Mark 1:30-31 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him (Jesus) about her. And he (Jesus) came and took her by the hand and lifter her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

When Christ saves or heals us he does it for a reason far beyond ourselves. He saves us so that we might serve him. This is exactly what we see when Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law, her immediate reaction is towards serving other people. We see this a few paragraphs later in Mark 1:40-45 where Jesus heals a leper and the healed man goes out and declares the news about Jesus to others. The healed leper's first reaction is towards other people and declaring Jesus to them. (Jesus commanded the healed leper to immediately obey what is written in Leviticus 14, this does not exclude ever declaring Christ to anyone else. It does however require the leper to immediately declare Christ to the Priests, which afterward have been his immediate reaction. After this, he would have been freed by the Law to freely tell others about Jesus) Then again, in chapter 2:14-15 Levi the tax collector follows Jesus after being called and soon after has a party with other tax collectors and sinners with Jesus. Again, Levi shows us that his salvation led him to focus on others. These are clear demonstrations of what our salvation is to look like. When we are saved we should begin to focus on others. We don't just become moral, nice and good people, we need to become others focused. This reminds me of Matthew 20:26-28, "But whoever would be greatest among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." I pray that we may become a people focused on giving our lives to others, just as Christ is.

Matt