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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Use freedom for love |
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Frontline Devotion for Sunday, March 8, 2009 by Susan Hill
Galatians 5: 13-15 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Recently some friends and I talked about spiders and their webs. It seems spider silk, from which webs are spun, has surprisingly positive properties. Its tensile strength, when compared by diameter, is five times greater than steel. It is lightweight; a strand of spider silk wrapping the entire world would only weigh one pound! Spider silk stretches up to forty percent of its length without breaking. There is tremendous potential for spider silk applications in the engineering, medical, and military fields. Spiders, however, are predatory and aggressive animals. Attempts to “farm” for spider silk for the common good have been frustrated because the creatures attack and eat one another when gathered into community.
There’s disagreement within the Galatian Christian community about the proper way to live as Christians. The point of contention is circumcision and the law. Paul believes the infighting could rip open and destroy not only the Galatian church but more importantly the hope of salvation for its members. He claims his new converts are forgetting the essential point of Christianity: to love one another. Spiders act venomously by animal instinct, but Paul admonishes the Galatians to remember that they are more than animals! They are God’s people; freed from the limitations of Jewish law but, nonetheless, bound by the Spirit to love one another. Kingdom living is liberating, but it requires discipline. Their self-indulgent behavior denies the selfless example of Jesus’ life and death and threatens the integrity and potential of the church.
In our contemporary Christian community, we acknowledge our continuing human tendency to act like wild animals … even when gathered together in God’s name. Our church suffers from the same type of stinging, biting conflicts as the church in Galatia. Our witness to one another and to others is tainted and compromised by our predatory behavior. At the same time, God is with us. Bound by the grace of God, we are connected by a love stronger than death. Lightened by the burdens of our sins, we reach out to one another; stretched beyond ourselves into mutual service. Thanks be to God for rescuing us from self-destruction and for offering us the hope of spirit living! Amen.
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All are welcome to join and share in our Devotional Ministry on the "Frontlines" of the world. Frontline Devotions are sent via email daily. Sign up by clicking on the box to the left. Pastor Dave welcomes feedback. Contact him at pastordave@goodshepherdonline.org. |
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