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John Foster: The Work Of Love, And Loneliness

785 Words4 Pages
As social beings, most of us feel the need to interact and enjoy the company of others. A popular definition of loneliness, is that its that feeling we get when this interaction is missing. However, loneliness is not the same as being alone or isolated. One can choose to be alone and enjoy a very blissful life. Or one can be very active in community groups, friends, and even family and still feel lonely.

Out of all the proposals made by Foster there were a few that stood out strongly. One of these points, although it appeared to be common knowledge stood out the strongest. That is Foster 's main point that true service is an act motivated by ones love and obedience to Christ and not ones love of praise from others. This point may seem like an obvious assumption, everyone knows service is done out of love and obedience to Christ. But as Foster points out so frequently it is more than knowing the facts of, as he puts it being "the towel" really is, it is a discipline in which one must destroy their pride and lusting flesh in order to achieve true humility in service. True service in the eyes of Foster is the little things you do in secret that discipline your flesh. It is the act of listening, common courtesy, holding one another up in support, sharing the gospel, and lastly keeping slanderous words from out your mouth and from around you. True service as defined by Foster is something that can be easily done once one denies himself with the act of discipline.
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