To Love and serve one another. – By: Pastor George Lehman
None of us are exempt, there are no spectators.
The roots of joy grow deepest in the soil of Love & service.
Where there is love and service there will always be great joy.
As children of God, we need to re-look at the motives of our heart. Are we truly loving and serving one another, are we really building Godly relationships?
Question: How committed are you to having / promoting Godly relationships? E.g. setting your own desires and needs aside for a moment to love and serve others?
Galatians 5:13-15 (Amp) – 13For you, brethren, were [indeed] called to freedom; only [do not let your] freedom be an incentive to your flesh and an opportunity or excuse [for selfishness], but through love you should serve one another. 14For the whole Law [concerning human relationships] is complied with in the one precept, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. 15But if you bite and devour one another [in partisan strife], be careful that you [and your whole fellowship] are not consumed by one another. (The sign that you are truly free. How you love and serve others.)
In our lives we have this wonderful freedom of choice:
We are the sum total of our choices
– Chose your bike/car.
– Chose your career.
– Chose what we will do with the 24 hours of a day.
Considering this scripture text, Paul is telling the Galatian people we are not under the law of Moses with its complex of “Dos and Don’ts” but in this new freedom, it carries with it an awesome responsibility. Now that, as a child of God you have been set free, Paul warns in verse 13.
Don’t let your freedom become an excuse for:
– selfishness,
– self-comfort,
– self-concern,
– self-pleasing,
– self-interests.
We will all face this temptation in our new Christian life to arrange our time and our lives around ourselves and our own pleasures.
Not leaving an opening for loving and serving others.
In contrast to a selfish, self-centred lifestyle, what does the Word tell us to do?
Galatians 5:13b (Amp) – But through love you should SERVE one another.
God always works where His people meet His conditions.
The 1st condition – UNTY amongst the people who are seeking Gods visitation.
We are not called to pray for unity, but rather to exercise it.
Psalm 133:1&3b (Amp) – Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 3)……for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore [upon the high and the lowly].
Unity is not optional. God commands it from us!
Steps to loving and serving relationships.
#1 Realize that loving and serving relationships are twofold. (It takes 2 to tango).
You cannot have a meaningful, loving, serving relationship by yourself. It takes at least one more person.Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.
Let go of any baggage, so you can be free to pick up your cross and serve others. Stop fighting with yourself.
Philippians 2:4 (Amp) – Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not (merely) his own interests but also each for the interest of others.
#2 Do to others as you would have them do unto you. (Practice the principle of mutual action.)
– Love others and they will love you.
– Care for others and they will care for you.
– Help others and they will help you.
NB!! If others don’t do it back, it’s because they have a problem, not you.
#3 With determination work on your God-centred loving and serving relationships.
James 1:19-20 – “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
It does produce; but not what God desires.
To carry grudges, bitterness, unforgiveness, hurts, harboring ill feelings, it destroys the one carrying it.
1 Peter 4:8 – “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
Which are your God-centred loving and serving relationships?
– Your relationship with God;
– Husband & wife;
– Parents toward children;
– Between children;
– With the church (brothers & sisters in the Lord);
– Your employer – or as the employee;
– Then the others.
#4 Love above everything else.
1 John 4:19-21 (Amp) – 19We love Him, because He first loved us. 20If anyone says, I love God and hates (detest, abominates) his brother (in Christ) he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen. 21And the command (a charge, order, injunction) we have from Him: that he who loves God shall love his brother (believer) also.
Jesus sums it up this way:
John 13:34-35 (NIV) – 34A new commandment I give you: Love one another as I have loved you. So, you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
Let us not just be Christians, confessing our new life by name only. But really begin to consciously, actively and obediently love and serve as God has commanded us to do.
Romans 14:19 (Amp) – So let us then definitely aim for and eagerly pursue what makes for harmony and for mutual upbuilding (edification and development) of one another.
Let us ask God to strip away anything that causes strife, dis-unity, contention [arguments/ disputes], and disharmony.
For next week – ‘The Tongue’.
One of those Power tools in our toolbox that if we use it correctly; mostly everything will go well.
