Free to Love

Galatians 5:13-15 Berean Standard Bible

13For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.

God call His people to love. Paul reminds us that God sets us free from legalism (religious rules) of self-righteousness to love others.

John Piper summarizes this passage:

“The main point of the text is, “through love be servants of one another.” If you do this, you fulfill the whole law; if you don’t, you destroy yourselves.”

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/freed-to-love

A friend comforts another in the valley of sorrow.

The Question: Self-Reflection

Am I free to love others? Why do we have a tendency to “hold ourselves” back? When we serve others in love we are experiencing true freedom!

“Because love is motivated by the joy of sharing our fullness, but the works of the flesh are motivated by the desire to fill our emptiness. The meaning of “flesh” in the book of Galatians is not the physical part of man, but man’s ego which feels a deep emptiness and uses the means within its own power to fill that emptiness.”

Source: John Piper’s Freed to Love

Fear, past hurts, and unhealed wounds causes our hearts to harden to others. A daily challenge for me is to discern and then act upon opportunities to actively listen and respond to others with grace and compassion.

A hug or simple acknowledgment of another person is powerful.

Why we love others

We love others because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). John writes in 1 John 3:14-20

14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.

16By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him?

18Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. 19And by this we will know that we belong to the truth, and will assure our hearts in His presence: 20Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows all things.

John repeats this concept again in chapter 4

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

Comments

Source: John Piper’s Freed to Love

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/freed-to-love

Love is the overflow of God in our lives!

“When we love, we are not enslaved to use things or people to fill our emptiness. Love is the overflow of our fullness. Therefore, love is the only behavior that we can do in freedom. When God frees us from guilt and fear and greed and fills us with his all-satisfying presence, the only motive left is the joy of sharing our fullness. When God fills the emptiness of our heart with forgiveness and help and guidance and hope, he frees us from the bondage to accumulate things and manipulate people.”

Free to serve and refresh others!

“When God is our portion and we are truly free, then we will serve one another through love. Freedom flows forth in love just as surely as a bubbling spring flows forth in a mountain stream.”

Secret of Freedom is confidence in God’s love

“In Jesus Christ, God offers us forgiveness, daily help and guidance, and hope for the greatest future imaginable. And it is all free, purchased by the death of Jesus, received by faith alone. The secret of love is freedom, and the secret of freedom is utter confidence in the love of God.”