Love and Serve Without Prejudice
“But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” James (James 2:9)
Love and Lordship in Focus…Godly love requires us to see and serve all people equally without discrimination. This does not mean accepting the sin or sinful lifestyles of others but sharing and serving them even as we speak Truth in Love.
Building on last week’s message, our next “one another” as we continue in Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 12:25-26 and look where The Holy Spirit leads Paul to write just after reminding us to wait on others. He tells us that love is to “have equal concern for each other.” In a simple summary, James, the half-brother of Jesus and first Elder in the Church at Jerusalem says…don’t show favoritism for it is sin (James 2:9)!
In Paul’s text he is describing the various parts of the body, our literal body, as an example of how all the parts are absolutely needed and of great importance. No one part is greater than any other regardless of the function and recognition given to it. This is how the Body of Christ is to function and by giving equal concern and care for each other we avoid division and create unity.
He follows this teaching on the unity and importance of all the parts and gifts of the Body with what we know as The Love Chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. Here The Holy Spirit, through Paul, describes what happens when we place undue importance and priority on what we’re doing rather than why we’re doing it…in Love.
This is why we must not show partiality or favoritism in any way because it divides us and it diminishes His Love in and through us. We rejoice in their blessings and fruitfulness and we hurt when they hurt…this is love as we care for each and every “other” in the fellowship in His Church.
How are you caring for all those in your sphere of influence?
As Paul, in The Holy Spirit, continues to address the various early church plants we find more and more of these “one anothers” encouraging The Body of Christ in how we are to love each other and all others in Him, bringing us to our final “one another” this week.
In Galatians 5:13, just before Paul describes the lusts of the flesh and the fruit of The Spirit, he tells the believers, then and now, to “serve one another in love.”
Just before this passage he has spent time admonishing believers regarding 2 key issues; 1) to know the freedom they have in Christ and; 2) not to abuse that freedom so that it becomes license (a false freedom of unbridled sin).
How do we do this? By placing others above self in love and serving our fellow man. Doing this as an overflow of our love for Christ it keeps us from turning our freedom in Him into selfish satisfaction and seeking for our own fleshly desires.
This serving is not simply a duty on a checklist but as Paul states, it is done because of and in love. This is why it’s essential that we understand and continue to seek and grow in our love for God, know and love who we are so that we are “serving one another in love.”
Love and Lordship…Food for Thought – Are you waiting on and serving others in love…with equal concern? Or are we selfish and/or biased based on how we or the culture might rate and rank others?
Love in Action –
- Spend time with Him in His Word and prayer daily – read and study the Scriptures in this post as a way to start
- Ask The Holy Spirit to teach you
- How do you practice patience and deference to others? Where do you need to grow in these areas?
- Take some time to search (and ask The Holy Spirit to search) your heart to find out the source of your serving others? Respond to whatever you find out in line with God’s Word to serve selflessly.
Contact us at loveandlordship@gmail.com.
Love and Lordship Prayer Focus…Heavenly Father, truly loving others must come first from and by You in and through my life. Help me to love without bias, learning to love and serve all equally. Amen.