Galatians 5:13 English Standard Version (ESV) For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Love in this verse is agape, God’s perfect love. We are in this family of God and yet we live in the world at the same time. Practicing agape love happens in the family of God. The freedom I spoke of yesterday has everything to do with developing the abiding love of God as a shared experience. First within the family of God and then to the world. In the family you will find that agape love is reciprocal. The world will not reciprocate. It cannot because it does not have His abiding love.

That does not relieve us of the responsibility of sharing agape love. We so often fall back into worldly attitudes when in the world and withhold agape love because we deem others unworthy. We were unworthy and that did not stop Jesus from loving us perfectly. Jesus said if we got to know Him we would know the Father.  Can we say the same through our demonstration of love in the world?

We are set free to love. Love of the flesh does not demonstrate Christ.

John 8:12 English Standard Version (ESV) Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Matthew 5:16 English Standard Version (ESV) In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Does our acts of love glorify God?

Let your light shine does not mean that you are the light, it means He abides in you. Letting it shine only means that we are not to allow our flesh to get in the way of letting it be seen.

John 13:34-35 English Standard Version (ESV) A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I left you yesterday with the thought than commands will come as we grow in Christ. Here is the first one. As babes in Christ we were in the nursery, safe and secure with little if any contact with other babes. As we grow in Christ we will find ourselves in the playground of the Lord. This is where we learn to interact with other growing Christians. None are mature but they have grown enough to be told to get along with one another.

How can you learn to love the lost if you cannot learn to love your brothers and sisters in Christ?

One of our failures in loving one another is in our effort to use worldly standards. We judge people as being worthy of our friendship and affection. Jesus said don’t judge. Jesus said love your enemies. This is in direct contrast in how we choose friends. We are in the family of God now and these people in the playground of the Lord are family.

Family dynamics are complicated. We don’t get to choose our siblings. The larger the family the harder it is to find our place in the hierarchy. Being in the family of God is not supposed to be competitive but that is where we came from in the world. Treating our brothers and sisters in Christ like we were a worldly family doesn’t work. We don’t have to scratch and claw our way for attention, position or freedom.

Family freedom is granted to those who have matured enough to behave themselves.