Servants (3011) (leitourgos from léïtos = of the people [NIDNTT says it from "laos" = people] + érgon = work) is literally a worker of the people. In classical Greek leitourgos referred especially to persons performing public duties, or works of public use. Leitourgos is used 5 times in the NT: Ro 13:6; 15:16; Phil 2:25; Heb 1:7; 8:2. Leitourgos -14x in the non-apocryphal Septuagint: 2Sa 13:18, 1Ki. 10:5, 2Ki. 4:43, 2Ki. 6:15, 2Chr. 9:4, Ezra 7:24, Neh. 10:39, Ps. 103:21, Ps. 104:4, Isa. 61:6. Here are some OT uses of leitourgos (in the Lxx)... Ps 103:21 Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him (You ministers-leitourgos), doing His will Ps 104:4 He makes the winds His messengers, Flaming fire His ministers. Isa 61:6 But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. In the NT leitourgos is used by Paul to describe himself (Ro 15:16-note) as well as his "brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier", Epaphroditus (Philippians 2:25-note). In Hebrews leitourgos is used of angels as God's ministers (Hebrews 1:7-note) and of the priests as His ministers in the sanctuary in the Jerusalem Temple (Heb 8:2). Furthermore, leitourgos is the word primarily used by to the Greek Septuagint translation to describe the Old Testament priestly service to God and of service to man. In this present verse Paul uses this word with rich religious legacy to refer to public ministers or "public servants", describing those who render special service. Earlier Paul had called government rulers God's deacons and here they are His ministers! Cranfield comments that this phrase "rulers are servants of God" emphasizes even stronger the servant aspect of the governments because the Greek wording has in view serving in a religious capacity, with an emphasis on solemnity and dignity. (Cranfield, C E B: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Vol 2, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Limited, 1970) Vincent agrees adding that leitourgos... brings out more fully the fact that the ruler, like the priests, discharges a divinely ordained service. Is is worth noting that this verse represents the third time (Ro 13:1,4) Paul has stressed that the authority of civil authorities comes from God. Kistemaker comments... Is not the implication this, that, in the final analysis, the governing authorities owe their authority not to people but to God to whom they are responsible for all their actions; and that the citizens should so regard them; and, when these officials faithfully carry out their duty, even that of collecting taxes, should so honor them?Of course, this very principle has implications also for the officials, as Calvin correctly observes when he states, “It behooves them to remember that whatever they receive from the people is, as it were, public property, and not to be spent in gratification of private indulgence.” (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. NT Commentary Set. Baker Book or Logos) One is reminded of Cyrus, the Persian emperor, anointed by God to be His servant to carry out His will, God declaring... "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'...Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, whom I have taken by the right hand, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the loins of kings; to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: (Isa 44:28, 45:1) In the OT, one of the duties of the priests was to receive tithes and offerings and sacrifices from the people. They were acting as God's agents in receiving these tithes and offerings and sacrifices. Paul simply transfers that ministry and that work to the government, and says that governments have this right given to them by God to collect taxes, and that, in paying your taxes, you are paying properly authorized revenue to God -- for these are his agents in carrying out this ministry. In other words, the power to tax is a God-given power. John MacArthur comments that leitourgos is one of several Greek words sometimes translated minister in the New Testament. Again, it is the term from which liturgy is derived; but it has a broad range of meanings and applications. It was used by ancient Greeks of a public official who was so passionately dedicated to his duties that he discharged them at his own expense. The word often described doing a service that had an aura of special importance, and a leitourgos was therefore highly respected and honored by his fellow citizens. Paul refers to human rulers in general as “servants [leitourgoi] of God” (Ro 13:6), who are to be respected and obeyed (Ro 13:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7). In the New Testament, leitourgos was most commonly used of service to the Lord. Paul spoke of himself as “a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God” (Ro 15:16). The writer of Hebrews calls God’s holy angels “His ministers” (He 1:7) and even refers to Jesus Christ as “a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle” (He 8:2). For Paul to call Epaphroditus a minister was high praise indeed. Epaphroditus was himself the most valuable gift that came to Paul from Philippi—a self-giving, tireless, sacrificial, and humble servant of the highest caliber. (MacArthur, J. Philippians. Chicago: Moody Press or Logos) NIDNTT has the following note on th1:9-17is word group... Leitourgeo (verb form) means do public work at one’s own expense. It is a political, almost legal, concept. The noun (leitourgos) similarly means service for the people. In the later classical period it was as common a term as “taxes” today (O. Cassel, Oriens Christianus 3, 7, 1932, 289). We seldom find leitourgos in secular Gk.; where it is found it is rarely used in a religious sense, but normally means an artisan. leitourgikos is found only a few times in the papyri. In Hellenistic Gk. leitourgeo covers all kinds of service to the community (H. Strathmann, TDNT IV 217) which a person was under obligation to do because of the size of his income, but which could also be carried out voluntarily. The concept gradually expanded, especially in Egypt, to cover every conceivable compulsory service for the state, with regulations laid down for every detail. Then it became widened to cover any sort of service. Beside this legal meaning in public life, there developed an entirely new, religious and cultic use of the words. The only connexion seems to be that the cultus had a public importance for the community. There are, however, no important deductions to be drawn from this. In the Septuagint leitourgeo (about 100 times) and leitourgia (about 40 times) acquired a clearly defined meaning. They are used almost exclusively for the service of priests and Levites in the temple. (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan) Barclay has the following excellent summary of this word group... Leitourgia, from which comes our English word 'liturgy', and its kindred words form a group of words of unsurpassed interest. In classical and Hellenistic Greek these words go through four stages of meaning. (i) In the very early days leitourgein, the verb, meant to undertake some service of the state voluntarily and of one's own free will, voluntarily to shoulder some public task in order patriotic-ally to serve the state. (ii) Later leitourgein came to mean to perform the services which the State laid upon citizens specially qualified to perform them. (Ed note: "In ancient Greece there were certain state duties called liturgies (leitourgiai) which were sometimes laid upon and sometimes voluntarily shouldered by men who loved their country" from Barclay's The letter to the Romans. The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. And from Barclay's commentary on Philippians he adds that "It might be to defray the expenses of an embassy, or the cost of putting on one of the dramas of the great poets, or of training the athletes who would represent the city in the games, or of fitting out a warship and paying a crew to serve in the navy of the state. These men were the supreme benefactors of the state and they were known as leitourgoi) The services were the same, but now instead of being voluntary they have become compulsory. Certain duties were liable to be laid on any citizen who possessed more than three talents, that is about £700. Four typical such duties were : (a) Choregia, which meant the supplying of all the expenses to maintain and train a chorus for the great dramatic performances. (Ed note: "When Aeschylus and Sophocles and Euripides were producing their immortal dramas, in each of them a verse-speaking chorus was necessary. There were great festivals like the City Dionysia when as many as eighteen new dramatic works were performed. Men who loved their city would volunteer to collect, maintain, instruct and equip such a chorus at their own expense." (b) Gymnasarchia, which meant the paying of the expenses involved in the training of outstanding athletes for the games. (Ed note: The Athenians were divided into ten tribes; and they were great athletes. At certain of the great festivals there were the famous torch-races in which teams from the various tribes raced against each other. We still speak of handing on the torch. To win the torch-race was a great honour, and there were public-spirited men who at their own cost would select and support and train a team to represent their tribe." (c) Architheoria, which was the defraying of the expenses of embassies sent out by the state on solemn or sacred occasions. (Ed note: " Sometimes the city of Athens sent an embassy to another city or to consult the oracle at Delphi or Dodona. On such an occasion everything had to be done in such a way that the honour of the city was maintained; and there were patriotic men who voluntarily defrayed the expenses of such an embassy.") (d) Trierarchia, which meant the shouldering of all the expenses of a trireme or warship in time of national crisis. (Ed note: The Athenians were the great naval power of the ancient world. And one of the most patriotic things that a man could do was voluntarily to undertake the expenses of maintaining a trireme or warship for a whole year.) (Ed note: Barclay adds a fifth voluntary service in his notes on Romans "There was hestiasis. There were occasions when the tribes met together to share in a common meal and a common rejoicing; and there were generous men who undertook the task of meeting the expense of such a gathering...That is the background of this word leitourgos. In later days, as patriotism died, such liturgies became compulsory and not voluntary. Later the word came to be used of any kind of service; and later still it came to be used especially of worship and service rendered in the temple of the gods. But the word always had this background of generous service. Just as a man in the ancient days laid his fortune on the altar of the service of his beloved Athens, and counted it his only glory, so Paul laid his everything on the altar of the service of Christ, and was proud to be the servant of his Master) Still later, especially in Egypt, nearly all municipal duties were leitourgiai. The state picked out a suitable man and laid on him the duty of serving in some capacity his town or village or county. (iii) Still later leitourgein came to describe any kind of service. It is used, for instance, of dancing girls, flute-players, musicians who are hired for some entertainment; of a workman working for any master; and even, strangely enough, of a prostitute giving her services. (iv) In NT times leitourgein was the regular word for the service that a priest or servant rendered in a temple of the gods. So we read of `Thanes and Taous, the twins, who serve in the great temple of Serapis at Memphis'. In the NT the words have three main uses. (i) They are used of the service rendered by man to man. So Paul, when he is set on taking the collection for the poor saints of Jerusalem, uses leitourgein and leitourgia (Ro 15.27; 2 Cor. 9.12). He uses them of the service of the Philippians and of Epaphroditus to himself (Phil. 2.17, 30). To serve others is a 'liturgy' laid on the citizen of the Kingdom by God. (ii) They are used of specifically religious service (Luke 1.23; Acts 13.2). They are actually used of the high-priestly work of Jesus himself (Heb. 8.6; 8.2). Our Church work is a 'liturgy' again laid on us by God. (iii) There are two specially interesting uses in Paul. (a) The magistrate, the person in power, is called by Paul a leitourgos (Rom. 13.6). A man's public service must be done for God. (b) Paul uses it of himself when he calls himself Jesus Christ's leitourgos to the Gentiles (Rom. 15.16). Just as Athens in the old days sent out its leitourgoi to represent the state, so Paul is sent by God to the Gentiles. Perhaps the most interesting fact of all about the word leitourgos is that in later Greek it came simply to mean a 'workman', for that simple fact has in it the great truth that all work is a 'liturgy' laid on men by God, and that the commonest task is glorious because it is done for him. The great fact about leitourgia is that it has a double background. (i) It describes voluntary service, spontaneously shouldered. (ii) It describes that service which the state lays compulsorily upon its citizens. The Christian is a man who works for God and men, first, because he desires to, with his whole heart, and second, because he is compelled to, because the love of Christ constrains him. (William Barclay. New Testament Words) (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press) (Bolding added) DEVOTING THEMSELVES (continually) TO THIS VERY THING: eis auto touto proskarterountes (PAPMPN): (Ro 12:8; Exodus 18:13-27; Deuteronomy 1:9-17; 1 Samuel 7:16,17; 2 Samuel 8:5; 1 Chronicles 18:14; Job 29:7-17) "Copy and paste the address below into your web browser in order to go to the original page which will allow you to access live links related to the material on this page - these links include Scriptures (which can be read in context), Scripture pop-ups on mouse over, and a variety of related resources such as Bible dictionary articles, commentaries, sermon notes and theological journal articles related to the topic under discussion." http://www.preceptaustin.org/romans_135-7.htm#servants