… rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Summary: Understanding Paul’s meaning is helped by clearing away what he is not talking about.
Sometimes, when I read a passage like this one, I stop for a moment. I hear my inner voice say, “Wait a minute … didn’t Paul just wish the Jewish believers would cut their you-know-what off? How is that serving one another in love?”
There are three groups that we need to consider here.
The first group is the Jews themselves. The Jewish leadership rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Ironically, this is why they had him crucified, providing the opportunity for Jesus to rise from the dead and prove he was the Messiah. They were mad about Jesus claiming to be the Son of God, and they were mad about people claiming to see him after they thought they had killed him. In general, this group is comprised of very unhappy and generally angry people.
Paul, aka Saul, was originally part of this first group until one day, while he was minding his own business and traveling on the road to Damascus so that he could track down more of these offensive Messiah believers, he saw the Light. (I use the term “Light” with a capital “L” because the Light he saw was Jesus, the “light of the world” [John 8:12].)
After seeing the Light, Paul became part of the second group. These are Jews who believed in Jesus and followed the law. The “law” we refer to is the Old Testament law about male Jews being circumcised. We don’t know how long Paul was a member of this second group. We only know that as a Jew confronted by Jesus, he became a believer.
Some time later Paul began to preach the Gospel to Gentiles. The Gospel he taught was not learned from anyone else but came directly from the Lord (Galatians 1:12). At this point, Paul became a pioneer of the third group. These believers relied only on faith in Jesus and were not under the law’s authority. Peter was also instructed in this same belief by Jesus (See Acts 10), so when Paul came to Jerusalem the second time and explained what he had been teaching the Gentiles, Peter was able to confirm Paul’s teaching (Galatians 2:1-3).
Returning to the passage, Paul’s teaching about serving one another in love is correct. It is certainly consistent with everything Jesus taught. The problem I see is that Paul doesn’t seem to be practicing what he has been preaching.
How can Paul be spitting mad at Group Two to the point of wishing the men would emasculate themselves, and still teach that we should serve one another in love?
The answer is that Paul is not talking about a proper understanding of the Gospel in this passage. The whole passage reads:
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
The choice Paul gives us is not serving an incorrect understanding of the Gospel, but serving each other in love (agapé) instead of serving the desires of our flesh. This is consistent with Paul’s other teachings, as well as with the Lord’s.
Application: Learn to distinguish between serving the desires of the flesh and serving our neighbors and fellow believers.
Food for Thought: What does it mean to “serve one another humbly in love?”
When we serve others we should do so out of love, and not out of a sense of obligation or a sense that our service places us “above others.” Remembering that when we serve others, we are serving Christ. Remembering that serving Christ means showing His love through our lives.
Ephesians 6:7-8 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
Recognize that what God has given us is to be used to His Glory. Ultimately, the waxing and waning of needs and surplus are a means that we can show love for each other.
Romans 13:8–10
Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Chris,
You point out, correctly, that serving others is also serving Christ. So important and so powerful!
Thank you!
Good verses CH.
I think when we are talking about love it is good to define the term. I often think of love as God’s intended good for another. That could be discipline or sharing your ice cream. It is selflessly serving another based on what God desires for them. Jesus is the example, and His example revolves around selfless, sacrificial, unconditional service.
1 John 4: 7 – 16: Dear friends, let us love one another, for 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 showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
1 Corinthians 13: 1 – 8: If I speak in the tongues a of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, b but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails.
Rich,
Thank you for sharing your definition of agapé:
“God’s intended good for another.”
That is extremely helpful!
Powerful words, Thank you CH and R!
What does it mean to “serve one another humbly in love?”
John 13:35, Jesus establishes mutual love as the identifying mark of all Christians: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”
Believers are called to “Live as free people, but do not use our freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves”. 1 Peter 2:16
We are free from sin’s guilt because of Christ’s forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7; Romans 8:1
We are free from sin’s penalty because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Romans 5:8–10
We are free from the demands and perils of the law. Through the indwelling Spirit of God, sin’s power over us is broken. Romans 6:1–23; Hebrews 2:14
Anytime we start giving all on our own, our energy gets drained fast. God knows this and has provided the unlimited power of His Holy Spirit as the source of His love to others through us.
All who trust in Christ have been set free from sin, and are now in danger of wasting this freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers pressuring them into physical demonstrations of a spiritual event as a sign of being right with God in order to be sure of being right with God.
On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God’s Spirit gives us the power to do this when we let Him lead us. Only life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian’s life
The entire law is fulfilled in that one word: LOVE. Those who serve
themselves, though, will always end up in conflict with each other.
Ephesians 5:15-29
We should each focus on beginning by living Gods Word in our homes, with our family, and in time the Spirit of God will lead us into living according to God’s will in an effective, ever expanding ministry of obedience to His will over our own.
Ron,
I love your emphasis on the power of God within us. That is so important! Thank you!