“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13

True, we Christians are at “liberty!”

We are no longer under the shackles of the Law!

But this fact DOES NOT mean that we can live however our flesh pleases!

We must not “abuse” our Christ given liberty, “overextending” it into areas of life labeled “sinful” or “carnal” or “fleshly” by Scripture.

So far, I have summarized Galatians 5:13, today’s Text. “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh …”

But there’s more … to this little jewel of a Text … “But by love serve one another.”

That is … if I as a Christian am not under the Mosaic Law (particularly in the sense of that Law getting me into Heaven), what keeps me from living exactly “as I please.” Yes, the pronoun here is purposely emboldened and underlined!

And Paul’s last clause above supplies that answer!

LOVE is now my guiding principle as a Christian!

The LOVE that is derived by abiding in Jesus, by being filled with the dear Holy Spirit! 

Love which will demonstrate itself practically by “serving” my brothers and sisters in Christ!

Again … “By love serve one another.”

“One another,” one of slightly over a dozen times in the New Testament where we are told to be doing “something” (good and constructive) to each other … as mutual members of the Body of Christ!

Wow!

Study these sometime, very profitable!

And of course, “love” here is “agape.” Just as well say “God’s Kind of Love!” Selfless, giving, faithful, and a whole lot more adjectives too!

But “serve?”

As in “servitude?”

That’s “slavery” (again), is it not? The very state from which we have been delivered?

Yes, Paul indeed uses the verb “douleuo” here, for “serve.” (“Doulos” is the name of the very lowest slave in the whole Roman social order!)

But now we are serving voluntarily, NOT being driven by a cruel taskmaster!

Serving each other because we want to do so, not because we are compelled!

And by the way, if we should actually serve one another this way … we would not need any kind of law to retard us from pursuing selfish lives! 

Would we?

“By love serving one another” … that lifestyle, would solve all the problems at Galatia! At any other Church too, I suspect!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell