"We have different gifts according to the grace given to usÉ. If it is serving, let him serve." --Romans 12:6

 

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "

 

         The Christian life is guided and purposeful. We live by the grace of God, and each of us has received gifts of grace by the Holy Spirit. These gifts structure our lives, so that we do not fall into a life of sin or become discouraged. They also build unity and effectiveness in the church. Last week we looked at the gift of prophecy, and this week we look at serving, the gift of loving your neighbor.

         Serving others is good for us, and the secular world knows that, too, and promotes all manner of community service. Serving others brings renewal, keeps you vital, and improves your attitude. Serving also transforms our relationships with individuals, neighbors and communities.

         There are some cautions about serving. Some serving leads to building dependencies. The gift can be abused. It can wear you out.

         So it is important to see that serving is a gift of the Spirit. We serve as we are empowered by the Spirit and called by the Spirit. It takes discernment to know that not every need is a call. These passages tell us that serving others is a gift and it is also a command, a summary of the law. According to Jesus, serving is a characteristic of greatness in the Kingdom of God. Paul writes here that serving is a way of life that expresses true freedom and keeps us in step with the Spirit.

         There are two questions that come out of this Galatians passage for me. The first is, where do the gift of serving and the command to serve come together? In other words, is serving a gift that only certain people have, or is it a command intended for all?

         Perhaps we could say that the command to love our neighbor applies to all of us. But the gift of serving is given to some who create opportunities that allow people to find ways to serve others in love. Or it could be that some by gift create models of serving that help us find our way. I think of the ministry of Love, INC. as a good example of this. I believe that what began years ago as a vision of networking Christians to help meet needs in a community, has now matured and been guided by gift into a very wise and discerning ministry that creates many opportunities for people to help the poor in a way that builds people up and meets real needs. In our area that means a clothing closet that enables children to be dressed for school, and adults to be ready for a job interview. It means a car repair shop that enables people to get to their work. It means the next step of housing after PADS and transitional homes to enable people to have a stable place to live. Such serving lifts people. It does not build dependencies.

         On a worldwide scale a ministry such as Covenant World Relief uses simple technology, co-operative banks that fund home businesses, and projects that provide clean water. This type of serving lifts people and allows them to take simple steps forward and builds hope. Those with gifts in serving have enabled our service.

         The second question is, why is the gift of serving placed next to that of prophecy in this text? Why is serving right behind the prominent and highly valued gift of prophecy? The churches Paul wrote to were very impressed with prophecy, and it was highly desired and esteemed. Those who spoke a word from the Lord were given prominent places and authority. For that reason it became a gift that was abused.

Paul puts serving next. But serving is mostly unseen, goes on quietly in places out of the spotlight. Serving is most often very practical help, not spectacular. It is not regarded highly in a culture that promotes self-indulgence and individual excellence. Service in our society tends toward short bursts of energy and then periods of neglect. When we serve people or love our neighbor, we do encounter problems of endurance or consistency. We like to start new things, dream big dreams. It is more difficult to continue serving in a situation that may be difficult or rather ordinary.

         So Paul elevates serving to near the top of the list. Jesus put serving first with his disciples, and lived himself as a servant. In Galatians 5 we see that serving is important because it guides our freedom in Christ and it keeps us in step with the Spirit.

         The temptation that goes with freedom is always to become self-serving or even self-indulgent. So serving connects us to a larger issue of the Christian life, that of freedom in christ.

         In Galatians 5 we see that freedom is given to us in Christ through the removal of the burden of slavery, by the cross of Christ. Mark 10 says that Jesus came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Freedom is God's will for us.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free." 5:1

"You, my brothers, were called to be free." 5:13

Our calling in Christ to be free is not so that we might indulge the sinful nature (flesh.) It is rather so that we might serve one another in love.

         The entire law is summed up in a single command: to love your neighbor as yourself. So it is imperative in the church to stop "biting and devouring" one another.

It is the fruit of the Spirit that defines freedom in Christ: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

         Scot McKnight points out in his commentary on this passage that Paul's message of freedom in Christ found opposition in the church. There were those who felt that taking on the yoke of the law gave them an identity as proselytes included in the broad umbrella of Judaism. This afforded some legal protection under Roman rule. They feared that Life in the spirit with its emphasis on freedom would inevitably lead to immorality. They believed that they needed the law to complete the Gospel. He writes that the rabbi's taught that every person faced a battle in their heart, where both bad and good influences were present. The bad influences would lead to sexual immorality and idolatry unless they could be overcome through study of the Torah and repentance. They looked to the day in the age to come when these evil impulses would be destroyed.

         Paul says that in Christ, and through the cross, this in fact happened. So it is life guided by the Spirit, a life characterized by love for others, that leads us in the freedom that honors and glorifies God. So it is this freedom in Christ that is "the launching pad for serving one another in love."

         The question is, to which power do you belong? Do you live according to the flesh, that is, "outside of God's will and apart from Gods guiding influence through the Spirit?"

         Or do you live by the Spirit, which is a life characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, a life that keeps in step with the Spirit? The life in Christ is marked by a consistent surrender to the Spirit. It is a life of neighbor love, a life of serving, that guides us in that heart surrender.

         Martin Luther King Jr. said, "You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't have to know Plato and Aristotle. You don't have to know Einstein's Theory of Relativity. You only need a heart full of grace, and a soul generated by love."

         We thank God for the gift of serving in our midst. We thank God for evident obedience to his command to love our neighbor. Such serving is not always seen, it is not often recognized, sometimes it is not rewarded or even valued. But it is the mark of greatness in the Kingdom, and we thank God wherever it is found among us.

         We also pray for the Holy Spirit to grow this grace of serving more and more in us, so that God might be glorified, so that our community might be transformed, so that our souls might be healed.

         Amen.