Hendriksen on Gal 5:13

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Semper Fidelis

2 Timothy 2:24-25
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Hendriksen meditating on Gal 5:13 "...but through love be serving one another."

For the concept love see the explanation of verse 6, where Paul speaks about “faith working through love.” Here in verse 13 note the paradox: “freedom … serving.” A paradox, indeed, but not a self-contradiction, for such service is voluntary, from the heart. It is a service rendered in imitation of him who “took the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7), and who, during the solemn night when he stepped upon the threshold of his most profound and indescribable agony, “rose from the supper, laid aside his garments, and having taken a towel, tied it around his waist, poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel” (John 13:4, 5). He was the thoroughly consecrated, wise and willing servant pictured by Isaiah (42:1–9; 49:1–9a; 50:4–11; and 52:13–53:12), the spontaneously acting servant who resolutely fulfilled his mission, so that with reference to him Jehovah said: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” It is such service that Paul has in mind when he says: “… through love be serving one another.” And what is meant by this love by means of which one brother voluntarily serves the other? Such ingredients as deep affection, self-sacrificing tenderness, genuine sympathy, readiness to render assistance, yearning to promote the brother’s (and in a wider sense the neighbor’s) welfare, spontaneous giving and forgiving: all these enter into it. But would it not be easier to count the glistening beads in the descending chains of rain than to catalogue all the elements that enter into that mysterious force which causes many hearts to beat as one?

When Paul warns the Galatians not to turn freedom into an opportunity for the flesh but through love to be serving one another, he is placing service over against selfishness, the positive over against the negative. Paul does this frequently: see Rom. 12:21; 13:14; I Cor. 6:18–20; Eph. 4:28, 31, 32; 5:28, 29; 6:4; Col. 3:5–17; I Thess. 4:7, etc. Vice can only be conquered by virtue, which is the Spirit’s gift, man’s responsibility.


Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 8: Exposition of Galatians. New Testament Commentary (210–211). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.

A useful reminder that our liberty is the freedom to love God and neighbor in service. It is the flesh that turns this freedom into an opportunity for selfishness (what makes me happy).
 
Thanks Rich. Timely reminder that what the world calls liberty the Scripture calls license, what the Scripture calls liberty the world calls confinement.
 
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