Love God by Serving One Another

Read

Galatians 5:13–15 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Opening Prayer

Recap

The doctrine of justification frees a person from the exact-ment of the Law.

Justification removes the penalty of Law-breaking.

How?

The gospel declares that By Faith...

The perfect righteousness of Christ...

And, the atoning work of Christ on the Cross...

Is imputed to our account.

What Christ did is credited to our account...

As if we did it our self.

We do not pursue obedience for the purpose of earning.

Grace is in opposition to earning.

Grace is not in opposition to obedience out of love.

In Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit effecting in us the promises of the New Covenant...

We have freedom.

Christian freedom is not freedom from caring about sin.

Christian freedom is the freedom to pursue being like Christ in imitation.

Human beings are truly free when they are no longer under the dominion of natural desires.

Last week, we talked about the goodness of the God’s commands.

By the work of the HS, we’ve been given new eyes and a new heart...

And, we now see and experience the goodness and the joy in obeying God.

And, we understand that the greatest joy and happiness that can be experienced in life...

Is within the parameters of pursuing obedience to God.

Now, with all of that foundational understanding I want us to look at the command in v.13

The Command to Serve One Another

Galatians 5:13 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Our Christian freedom is not to fulfill the desires of the flesh.

Life is not meant for the enjoyment of sinful desires...

And, somehow our fallen state is hindering us from the enjoyment of it.

As if, that’s the curse.

Like, salvation is the freedom to enjoy sin with a clear conscience.

No!

Salvation is for the correction of the mind, the emotions, the desires...

To allow us to pursue what God intended for us to pursue...

Which is, at the same time, the best thing for us...

And the greatest joy we can know.

By the way, sin never serves others...

It uses others, negatively, for the sinful gain of the person pursuing the sin.

Sinful behavior is the opposite of serving others.

And, Paul says here that our freedom in Christ is for the serving of others.

When we do...

We do with the benefit of others in mind.

Will my actions serve others in a good way?

Or will my actions harm others, biblically speaking?

This is a crucial thought...

Because Paul says that our calling as Christians is to serve one another...

To serve others.

And, this is easy to say, yet hard to follow through on.

Our fallen sinful nature, screams everything in creation should serve us.

One of the most challenging verses in the gospels is...

Luke 14:12–14 (ESV)

12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

What Jesus is calling us to here...

Is serving others with no desire for receiving blessings back from the ones we serve.

IOW, you are just serving people because that is the expression of biblical love.

Only serving people because they are image-bearers...

And you want what is best for them and that is all.

How many times, when we are treated poorly, do we break out the list of good things we have done for that person?

And, really, when we get into that mindset, we have to ask ourselves...

Hold on, why am I bringing this up like this?

Why have I done these things for this person?

Have I done those things so I will receive back?

Or have I done those things because that is what I should do, no matter the response?

We like to say things are gifts to others, but in actuality...

Many times, those gifts are actually to gain power over people to say, “You owe me.”

We even flatter others, and do good to others...

For the purpose of being served in the end.

Served through:

Others saying good things about us.

Others doing much for us.

Others heaping gifts upon us.

In our fallen condition, this is the only way we think.

In our saved condition, this is the mindset we are being tempted to fall back into all the time.

And it is very hard to live out.

Living out this truth shows the evidence of the power of sin...

Listen to what Paul says in a similar way...

And quotes the Lord in...

Acts 20:35 (ESV)

35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Did you hear that?

There are more blessings in giving than receiving.

Giving is a context for greater joy…than receiving.

That is such a strange saying to our ears & hearts.

That is in such opposition to the way we naturally think.

The world teaches Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Build more & more storehouses.

The worldly mind says, “Never give until it hurts.”...

Only give up until the reciprocating benefit ends.

In the world, giving equals:

Until tax break ends.

Or until marketing impact ends.

Paul says here that Christ has set us free in order to serve one another...

Without worrying about the compensation of giving...

Because we already have everything in Jesus.

All that we need has been given to us in JC.

We have been made joint heirs with Christ...

And, really the whole world is ours in Him.

And, one day that inheritance will be fully realized.

Now, we live in the light of our inheritance in Jesus.

And, confess through our self-less giving that we have all we need in Jesus.

And, Paul tells us something very important about this kind of giving/serving one another through love.

Galatians 5:14 (ESV)

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul, here, speaking of the second greatest command.

The second tablet of the moral law.

Living this way, serving one another through love...

Is, indeed...

How the Second Table of the Moral Law was Means to be Fulfilled

IOW, this is a fleshing out of God’s original design in creation.

Or to say it differently, this is the kind of living and loving others is exactly what God has designed you for.

And, our problem is we struggle believing it.

We struggle, daily, believing that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

If obedience to God is the greatest context for joy and happiness...

And, we have been designed, by God, for serving others...

So, we should be looking for ways to serve one another, biblically.

And, we should be evaluating our motives in serving/giving constantly.

––IMPORTANT––

And, we don’t evaluate for the purpose of whether or not to obey.

IOW, well, if I can’t be pure in motive I may as well not do it.

No!

That’s going back to the exact-ment of the Law.

That’s trying to earn.

We evaluate to send us back to abiding in Jesus for:

the STRENGTH to DO

the JOY to DO

Because we have been freed from the exact-ment of the Law.

We’re not serving and giving out of a motive to earn.

We’re serving and giving out of love for God...

Because Christ has already earned all that we need for us.

Another, very important truth that Paul is teaching here is...

Galatians 5:15 (ESV)

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

Here’s what we see.

Legalism & Antinomianism, Both Feed Devouring One Another.

Both were probably going on in the church.

There are usually both types in a church.

One was saying we don’t need the Law...

And the other saying we need to obey in order to be in covenant with God.

Both end with one another devouring each other.

How?

Because legalism stands on me being better than you.

I need to be more righteous than you...

At least in the eyes of others.

I need to feel the most special in the eyes of other.

Peer value and peer thought are incredibly important in a system of legalism.

So, that it comes to be a system in which we pretend like we don’t sin.

In stark contrast...

Anti-nomianism is living in such a way that sin is to be enjoyed.

So, one would say Christ has set us free to enjoy sin...

And, sin causes grace to look all the better.

But that is not true, biblical freedom...

As Paul states here in this passage.

And, as I stated earlier sinful living is never serving others for their good...

Sinful living is feeding off of others at the detriment of others and self.

So, both are self-centered and feed on the belittling & the detriment of others.

But, Paul gives this biblical, gospel-centered command...

Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [This is how you were designed & purposed by God]

Take Away

For those being served...

Or in need of being served.

A truth that is important for us to remember...

Because the passage is stressing the motive of our giving...

And how we should serve/give.

But, there is an implicit lesson in the manner in which we receive gifts or being served.

We can serve one another by not expecting others to serve us.

You’re not serving others if you hold people to expectation that must meet your needs.

We cannot expect perfection in giving.

We need to receive others serving us with grace and thankfulness...And surprise.

We need to be ready to forgive when people fail to recognize when being served or helped may be needful.

We need to be humble enough to ask when we need help.

And, yet, have the mindset that Christ will meet our ultimate needs in His timing...

Through the person He chooses.

Don’t be the person that is always expecting others to serve you...

To meet your wants.

And, forget your role to serve.

Also, don’t set up people in your mind/life to be your Savior...

And expect from people…What only Christ can provide.

And, every one should be ready to serve one another through love.

Remember, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Closing Prayer