If the church at Rome was threatened by a lack of sacrificial love, as we saw last time, so was the church in Galatia. Some Jews in the church were insisting that the Gentiles had to become just like them if they wanted to be true believers. They insisted that everyone, like them, needed to be circumcised and needed to follow many other Old Testament laws and rituals.

In short, these holier-than-thou Jews were being domineering in their self-righteousness. They were lording it over one another. They wanted to be masters over one another in the church. As a result, the believers in Galatia were a contentious, miserable lot!

So Paul tells them to serve one another, just as Christ did for them. Consider what Paul had told them several verses earlier:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.Galatians 5:6

Love, especially the sacrificial love that we learn from Christ, does not dominate. Rather, it serves. Consider how Jesus Himself became a servant. And it was love that motivated Him to do so. It is because the Son of God loved me that He sacrificed Himself for me, Paul says in chapter 2:

The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.Galatians 2:21

In the original Greek version of Galatians 5:13, the emphasis is placed on this love. It says: “Through love serve one another.” In other words, sacrificial love is what will motivate us to serve one another.

But someone might ask: “Didn’t Christ come to set people free from servitude?” Yes, He did. He set us free from slavery to Satan and sin, so that we might become servants for Christ! And now Paul tells us, we who have become servants of Christ: “Through love you now need to make yourselves servants of one another.”

In Christ, freedom and servanthood are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they stand in the closest possible relationship to one another. As Christians then, we are both free in Christ and we are servants to one another. In fact, it is by being servants to one another that we fully experience the freedom that we have in Christ.

Yes, it’s a mystery, and to many in this world it seems scandalous. But was there anything more scandalous than the death of the pure and holy Son of God for the salvation of wicked, rebellious, and worthless creatures, such as we once were?

Jesus Christ made Himself a servant in order to give us freedom. He did it, so that we who are now free may become servants to one another. Scandalous? Perhaps. But it’s the path to glory.

It was for Christ. And it is for all who long for His appearing. Do you doubt it? Serve one another, as Christ has served you, and you will see.