1. Galatians 5:13 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What does it mean to serve in love?

Galatians 5:13 (ESV)

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

To serve in love is to serve in a manner that is consistent with what God has revealed love to be (see Galatians 5:6). Our clearest example of love is in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20)—self-sacrifice for the sake of another. God’s moral law gives us more details about what this love looks like in practice (see Romans 13:8–10).1