For you were called to freedom, brothers.
Only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
~ Galatians 5:13-15
As followers of Christ, I often wonder if the world will want what they see in us.
Isn’t that a convicting thought?
God’s love made a way for our freedom through Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. What a humbling thought to know that our freedom came at at such a high cost!
The foundation of the Christian life is a call to freedom. But do we really live like we’re free?
The fight against the flesh…
God’s Word spends ample time reminding us of our freedom in Christ. Why? Because our Father knows us all too well. We proclaim freedom, but it doesn’t take long for the flashy things of this world to once again catch our attention, causing us to wander from the foot of the cross, forget the high cost of our freedom, and slip back into the works of our flesh.
Our flesh either tempts us to return as slaves to the law (Galatians 5:1), or to view our freedom as a green light to sin just because we’re already covered by grace (Galatians 5:13).
Either extreme is a dangerous place to live and distorts our communication of the gospel to a lost world.
What freedom living looks like…
“When God is our portion and we are truly free, then we will serve one another through love. Freedom flows forth in love just as surely as a bubbling spring flows forth in a mountain stream. The book of Galatians is written to show us how to become a mountain spring that serves the valley with the water of love.” ~ John Piper
You see, this freedom living doesn’t end with us and the benefits we receive from no longer living as slaves (Galatians 4:7). True freedom living overflows into the lives of others, creating a case for Christ to all who view its beauty.
How can you tell if someone is truly living in Christian liberty? They look and LOVE a whole lot like Jesus…
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” ~ Philippians 2:3-11
As followers of Christ, I often wonder if the world will want what they see in us.
Let’s give them a glimpse of Jesus by loving and serving each other well.
This is true freedom living, to the glory of God the Father.
At His feet,
Thanks for the beAutiful reminder! Your words are so aptly written. As my mom would remind us as kids ” joy is spelled J-O-Y, Jesus, others, yourself! ‘ When we truly love Jesus and serve others out of love, we will find joy ourselves.
Lauren I love that and I’m definitely going to be using that! Thank you for sharing! Blessings!
Thank you for your comment. I love that: JOY (Jesus- Others- Yourself).
I had a Bible teacher as a child who taught us JOY as well! Thank you for reminding me of that as well!
My late Mom was an embodiment of that acronym. When she went Home to be with our Lord, my Dad had that inscribed on her gravestone. So even now, while resting in His arms, she continues to tell everyone that passes by, about the true meaning of JOY
What a timely blog post! This is where I am right now in my walk with Christ… the theme of my life this past week especially. Thank you SO much for the encouragement you share with us.
Thank you for sharing JOY.
Thank you, thank you Whitney!!!
Oh Whitney, I just love the verse in Philippians 2:3-11 You have mentioned in your today’ blog….this is such a powerful verse for me. I think the people can see that there is something different in us, when I serve in children’s ministry, when I see children just come up to me all of a sudden, I feel and see that they see Jesus in me and how it would remind me of how Jesus loves little children, Jesus let them stay with him and say we need to become like this little children. Thanks for this beautiful reading today!
Whitney, Thank You so Much for what you shared today! The thought of “Do others see something in me that they want” is something that I really am going to ponder on today. And how I can make my life/freedom in Christ more evident in the things I do to serve others? Before I read the blog, Todays verses reminded me of when I gave my life to the Lord a few years ago after I had turned my back on Him for several years. In the past I had given my life to the Lord but, I continued to live my life of sin and rebellion thinking during the several years I did this that its okay, God will forgive me one day. When I finally came back to the Lord and rededicated my life to Him sincerely, the desire to want to continue the life I had lived for so many years left me. I noticed that I desired and wanted to do what pleased God more than anything else. I wanted to stop the sins I had done for several years. The people who I once had hung around just didnt interest me anymore because of the decisions they were making against God. I wanted to read my Bible and couldnt wait to get up to get in the Word every day. I wanted to love others because I knew how much God loved me and I wanted to serve others and help them in anyway that I could. Several years have gone by since then but, I still have that same desire in my heart today desiring and wanting to do what pleases God more than anything else. I still want to serve others and help and love them like God did, even though I am human and not perfect and loving others is hard sometimes! I really have a passion of sharing my testimony with young women who struggle with the same things I did and feel called by God to start a ministry for this as many of you know. I want to love these women as God loved me and show them that if God loved me enough to transform my entire life then He loves them just as much and can do the same for them! I mean afterall He did give His life for us and after I understood the sacrifice He made for me, I wanted to serve Him and worship Him and Praise Him in anyway I could and can because He deserves it Forever and Ever!!!! When people say they have given their life to Christ but, continue to live in sin intentionally and think to themselves that its okay because God will eventually forgive them, I do not think they understand salvation and they dont understand the gospel completely. Either that or they just deliberately choose sinning and other things and possesions over God. I can’t imagine how that breaks Gods heart!!!!
Thats right Whitney. Freedom and Love. And we can serve others to express this.