“Free to Love & Serve” – FBC Morning Light (11/27/2024)

Well, a good Wednesday morning and Thanksgiving Eve to you. I wonder today how many of you are going to be working on preparing some kind of a Thanksgiving dinner, stuffing the turkey and making pies and all that kind of stuff.

Well, I hope you have a good day of preparation and look forward to Thanksgiving Day. It'll be a great time of reflection, celebration of God's goodness and One of the things we have to be grateful for is the liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, and in our Bible reading today, we're reading in Galatians chapters 5 and 6 as well as 1 Corinthians and the first three chapters, but that's how Galatians 5 begins, talking about that freedom, that liberty that we have in Christ.

Paul exhorts us to stand fast in that liberty by which Christ has made us free. It says, don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now, let's be clear what he's talking about here. When he's talking about this liberty that we have in Christ Jesus, he's not talking about the freedom to do whatever we want to do, be it good, bad, or otherwise.

He's talking about the freedom from the Mosaic Law. We're not bound by the keeping of that Old Testament Mosaic Law, ceremonial law, and all the rest of that. We have the freedom from that in Christ Jesus.

We are not under bondage to the law. Paul's been arguing in the book of Galatians, we're justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and not by the strict adherence to all of the details of the Mosaic Law, including and beginning with the matter of circumcision.

That's been a big deal in the book of Galatians. We need to stand fast in that, and not allow ourselves to be drawn into a works type of salvation. That's what he's arguing against here. But then, when you get down to verses 13 and 14, he says, you have been called to liberty, and let's rejoice in that.

We do have freedom in Christ Jesus. We have been free from the law. Oh, happy condition, Jesus has bled and there is remission. I was cursed by the fall, and the law just intensifies that curse. I'm free from that.

But, he goes on to say, do not use that liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the laws fulfilled in this one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

But, if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed with one of another. I've been in the ministry for more than four decades, and one of the most grievous things to a pastor, and I'll just share this with you, that one of the most grievous things to a pastor is when people in his congregation who should be relating to one another in love for one another, instead they bite and devour one another.

They don't serve. There's not a serving of one another. There's a selfishness, there is an animosity, an unforgiveness, and all the rest that kind of stuff. This leads to conflict, and I've seen too many times when relationships are broken apart, even people end up leaving the church because they can't get along with somebody else in the church, and it's a travesty.

It's a travesty. Let's listen to what Paul says here. Don't use your liberty as an opportunity of the flesh, but through love serve one another. Serve one another. This is what the law tells us to do.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Think about that, meditate on that as you look at your relationships in the body of Christ, your brothers and sisters in Christ. Are there people who, well, you're kind of biting and devouring one another in your relationship, have an unforgiving spirit, is there bitterness in your heart toward them?

The whole argument is, you're free to live like that, you're free to treat them that way because after all, look at what they've done to you, etc., etc., etc. Listen, no, no. Stop using your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, and instead, in love, be serving one another.

Listen, this is what God has said for us to do, especially as his children, to love our neighbor as ourselves. All right, well, I hope that's a good challenge to us and helps us to keep a good focus and perspective in our relationships with one another.

Our Father and our God, please deliver us from the kind of selfishness that would use our liberty to be producing animosity and conflict and differences of opinion that separate relationships. Lord, let this not be, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday, hope your Thanksgiving Day preps get all done, and you can get a good night of rest tonight for your day tomorrow. God bless.