Free to Love

In recent weeks we have been considering the Transformational Good News of the gospel.  With changed hearts we now better grasp obedience and our freedom within that obedience. Now let's explore another facet of this Good News....love and the freedom to love.  We have heard and understand that this love is not just a feeling.  Consider Galatians 5:6. It says,     

 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. (Gal. 5:6 ESV)

This verse encapsulates the theme of the book of Galatians: we are right with God by faith, not by human rituals or performance—including circumcision, the food laws, and/or moral living... It is Spirit-motivated love (after salvation) that sets the standard of conduct for believers and gives the ability to obey. It is the new covenant, a new heart and new mind (Utley, Study Guide Commentary Series, New Testament, Vol. 7. )

Herein lies the difference between the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission. Jesus stretching out His arms in love on the cross gives us our standard, our marching orders and our freedom. We're not to love others as we love ourselves, we are to love them as Jesus did and continues to do. This is faith in action motivated by the author and demonstrator of love.

“But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence. It's a love that operates more like a sign language than being spoken outright.” (Goff, Love Does)

This is freedom...that we look into the Word of God and recognize all He has done to set us free and model our love for others on that standard. Let's be extraordinary in the way we love! Let's make it count!