Reflections on Love from Galatians

Some reflections on love, after Valentine’s Day: (previously posted on www.facebook.com/lgcfarvada)

Paul writes to us in Galatians about the love of God, contrasting that love, along with grace, with the law that someone had been preaching to them, which was going to “enslave” them, 2:4. Paul says that God’s love is given to us freely through Christ, 2:20, “who loved me and gave himself for me.”

When he gets to the application portion of his letter, he writes in 5:13 - “through love perform the duties of a slave to one another” (this translation courtesy of Gordon Fee). Most translations use the word “serve” in the place of the underlined words, as if Paul had used a verb form of “diakonos,” the source of our English word “deacon” and was used of service in general. But here he meant that, in Christ, we are one another’s bondslaves - yes, the legally-bound, 24/7 slave that was so common in Roman society; the slave who was given the menial tasks around the house of cleaning and hauling water and taking out rubbish and washing feet.

Thinking of marriage, I suppose a husband or wife can choose to do these kinds of chores around the house grudgingly, grumbling in resentment, or do them poorly out of spite, but Paul writes that “through love” we are to serve each other, even in unsavory tasks.

Where does this love, to serve in this self-sacrificing way, come from? Not through effort, but from the same source Paul wrote of in Gal. 2:20: “I’ve been crucified with Christ, but still, I live; and it’s not ‘me’ who lives, but Christ who lives in me; and so the life I live now, in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Jesus Christ himself, who loved us so much that he gave himself for us, in life and in death, lives now within us by the Holy Spirit’s work in us. Jesus-in-us is so powerful that Paul could write that he lived his life by Jesus’ faith in and full surrender to the Father. And Jesus served us just like Paul tells us to serve one another.

The love that lets us serve one another comes not from our own determination but only from Jesus, who loved us before we were born, and who gives us life and salvation, freely. Paul’s instructions are to all; so living a life of love and service to others, is not an option reserved for the few. Service is the Christian life, the life we all are called on to live “in Christ” every day. “But I can’t do that!” you may protest. Exactly. But Christ-in-you will. Surrender to him, and he does.