Freedom To Serve

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13 )

In his Commentary on the Book of Galatians, Dr. Martin Luther comments on this verse writing,

Therefore the godly should remember that for the sake of Christ they are free in their conscience before God from the curse of the Law, from sin, and from death, but that according to the body they are bound; here each must serve the other through love, in accordance with this commandment of Paul. Therefore let everyone strive to do his duty in his calling and to help his neighbor in whatever way he can.

In this essay On The Freedom of a Christian, Luther was even more pointed about the Christian life when he summarized in this way:

To make the way smoother for the unlearned—for only them do I serve—I shall set down the following two propositions concerning the freedom and the bondage of the spirit:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.

In these two simple propositions Luther is summarizing what God teaches us through the Apostle St. Paul who wrote, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all."

This is the season of harvest and for thanksgiving. The crops will soon be in from the fields. The church year is coming to an end, so also is the tax and calendar year. This is the season wherein we pause to think on all that God the Father has bestowed upon us. But have you noticed how God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit go about their business of giving us these temporal and spiritual blessings?

Blessings don't just fall from the sky. Our house and home did not just appear before us one day. The food on our dinner table just doesn't show up by itself each night. We don't rise from our beds to find that in some miraculous way all of a sudden God has caused food to appear on the table. We don't open our closets to find that new clothing came into existence while we were sleeping.

The same is true for the church too. Things just don't materialize out of nothing. "Out of nothing," ex nihlo is how the world came to be by the hand of God. But ever since that day, God has used means to provide for His children. Take, for example, the forgiveness of your sins. God used the waters of holy baptism with the spoken Word to produce forgiveness. He joins His body and blood to the simple elements of bread and wine to give you the forgiveness of sins. He uses the person and office of the pastor to speak His holy absolution (In the stead and by the command . . . ) We thank and credit God for all that we have in both realms, the spiritual and temporal, and indeed we should.

But we, for our part, must work and do. Christian faith frees us from works of the law for the purpose of saving ourselves. But we are not free from working or labors of love. God provides for all our spiritual and temporal needs, but He does so through means and through the efforts of human beings. If pastors and the church were to stop preaching and baptizing, consecrating and communing, absolving and teaching, there would be no forgiveness of sins in any real and concrete sense.

Immanuel has continued to survive because God has preserved her through the faithful preaching and teaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments. He has preserved her through the offerings of His people and the volunteer work of some of her members. As I look around, I take note that those congregations wherein the people stopped working, stopped participating, stopped volunteering, and stopped giving, I see that it is true. God provides through the work of the people. When the people stop working together to build the congregation, the congregation begins to die, even in congregations where the Word of God is being preached.

If you stop working, the bills will stop being paid, the refrigerator will be empty, the car and house will be reclaimed by your lender, and so on. So it is with a local congregation. But where there is work, prayer, and the Word of God, there we find God's harvest.

In Christ Jesus Our Lord,