Lesson 34: Serving Others Humbly in Love

“Remember that before Jesus died... He instructed His disciples: A new command I give you. A new command: Love one another, as I have loved you so you must love one another. By this love, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another… “And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us [in the New Covenant].” 1 John 3:23 NIV ...When Paul is speaking of fulfilling the law, about loving our neighbor, he is not pointing back to the Old Covenant. He is referring us to the New Covenant. In the Old Covenant the law was an external list of rules to guide God’s people, to curtail their behavior as it were. But it could not change hearts. This is the law that Paul says we are freed from. The Old Covenant law. Jesus set us free from the law of sin and death but we are not to use our freedom as a license to live selfishly, to live in the flesh. Instead we are to look to the cross of Calvary and remember Jesus’ love for us, remember how He loved you and what do you see when you look at the cross? You see Jesus humbling Himself. He humbled Himself from God to Man, from Man to servant. He humbled Himself from servant or slave to a criminal’s cross. He humbled Himself to the pouring out of His blood to the breathing out of His Spirit for you. He was humbly serving you in love, forgiving you of every sin, cancelling your debt completely. Freeing you from all guilt entirely. And once we receive that love out of the overflow of the love God pours into our hearts by His Spirit, we can now humbly serve others in love.”