LIBERTY AND LOVE

Galatians 5:11-14
"And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
why do I yet suffer persecution?
then is the offense of the cross ceased.
I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty;
only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, in this;
Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."
Now, we want to focus on one statement but
we also want that statement understood in it's context.
The context is the law and it's relationship to
the liberty of our lives.
Circumcision is representative of the law.
If I preach law
there is no offense to the cross of Jesus Christ because
keeping the law appeals to the pride of man whereas
the cross demands I trust what someone else has done for me.
Liberty is what GOD has called me to.
Liberty from law.
That means I am free to do what I would because
I no longer live under the rules of conduct (ie the law).
The law will still get fulfilled but
not by me and not by my attention to it's commands.
I am free from that.
The issue that arises in this context is
what I do with that freedom - liberty.
I can use it to serve the desires of my flesh, or,
I can use it to serve my brethren.
First let us note that the service we are to do is
toward our brethren.
Yet we preach from the pulpit to serve a 'lost and dying world'.
The emphasis of the church of Jesus Christ seems to be on
winning the lost for Jesus.
[The great commission.] Amen and amen; so we ought do;
HOWEVER GOD has also made quite clear,
in this statement alone, that
we are to serve one another.
Furthermore we see in this statement that
there is a basis for that service.
We have not been godly because we serve -
we HAVE BEEN godly if
we serve with love.
LOVE is the motivator,
LOVE is the basis,
LOVE is the origin of our service;
And
LOVE is the fulfiller of the law.