Serve One Another Through Love
David W Palmer
(Galatians 5:13 NKJV) “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Jesus gives us the preeminent example of serving through love:
(John 13:1, 4–5 NLT) … Jesus … had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end. ... {4} So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, {5} and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
In this passage, the Holy Spirit sums up the whole of Jesus’s ministry to his apprentices by saying that he “loved” them “during his ministry on earth”; and that now he “loved them to the very end.” Everything Jesus said and did with and to his disciples was an unadulterated act of pure love. So, when Jesus humbly washed their feet—as a menial servant would—this was an act of unadulterated love. Thus Jesus fulfilled the above passage that says: “through love serve one another.”
Having established this extremely important kingdom culture and principle for ministry, Jesus clearly charged his trainee apostles with the following:
(John 13:15–17 NKJV) “For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. {16} Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. {17} If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”
We certainly cannot say we do not “know these things,” having just read our Lord saying them (See also: Mat. 28:20). So, we too are responsible to serve one another through love.
Our options of how to express our love through serving others is almost endless: we can give to them, encourage them, cook for them, mow lawns, carry their loads, use our gifts, make them things, etc. Serving others is especially powerful when we use our God-given and supernaturally empowered gifts and talents to serve them—especially when motivated by nothing but love—for example: healing gifts, prophesying, teaching, music and singing, working, listening, showing hospitality, directing, encouraging, etc.
This is especially true when showing pure, practical love and kindness to a brother or sister whose love language is “acts of service.” In their case, the perception of your love for them is particularly related to your hands-on kindness to them; if you serve them practically with your gifts, talents, and actions, they feel your love.
I encourage you: imitate Jesus; demonstrate your love to others just as he did, by serving them—as a menial slave at times:
(John 13:16 NLT) “I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. …
(Matthew 20:26–28 NLT) “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, {27} and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. {28} For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
For us to serve others in love the way both Jesus and the Holy Spirit ask, we will have to quite literally give our lives—the way Jesus exemplified—as a “ransom for many.” He ultimately did it by dying on the cross, but we take up our cross daily by laying down our own desires, ambitions, and self-fulfilling visions to serve the needs, aspirations, desires, dreams, and love-vacuums of others. This comes down to a daily laying down of your own desire to be served, to receive, to focus on your own path; and instead, to give your time, energy, resources, and focus to serving. Thus, we are to look for opportunities for others to be served in all these areas. Jesus said:
(Matthew 7:12 MSG) “Here is a simple, rule-of-thumb guide for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you, then grab the initiative and do it for them. …”
