Love and serve

The apostle Paul put up with a lot of nonsense from the early Church. In Galatians 5 he's having a stern word with the Galatian church (funny that!) for insisting that believers be circumcised. (Not convinced he's angry? Just look up Galatians 5:12.) He's unhappy because people are misrepresenting the gospel. The Galatians had bought into a lie that said we need more than faith in Jesus to be saved. They thought they could be saved by obeying some rules. Paul sets them straight: 'For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love' (Galatians 5:6 NLT).

People often feel they have to earn their forgiveness from God. It doesn't work like that. We can't earn a free gift. We can however show our gratitude by saying something like: 'God, you've made me worthy, thank you so much! I'm going to love others as an expression of how grateful I am!' Which is sometimes hard to do.

We're really self-centred, us humans. Serving others doesn't come naturally and it takes time and effort to develop an 'others first' heart, but the more we appreciate what God has done for us the easier it will be.



So what now? Get some serving practice in this week. Every opportunity you see to serve another human take it. Make tea, carry heavy things and spread around heaps of encouragement on your loved (and not so loved) ones. You are saved to love and serve.





— SCRIPTURE —

'Serve one another in love.' Galatians 5:13 NLT
— SOULFOOD —

Jer 18-21, Luke 21:34-38, Ps 31, Pro 8:32-33