Love Humbly

Those of us who make the choice to walk with god and believe that Jesus died to save us from our sin are not thereby free to sin. We still have a responsibility now that we have been reborn in him to strive to live like him. It is time to put away the old ways that admittedly did not serve us well and better ourselves. How do we accomplish this ? We get into the word and see what it has to say to us. I will begin by examining some guidelines that have been set forth for us by God rnGal 5:13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love thy neighbor as thyself" First we see that with this gift we have been given of eternal life we have some added responsibilities that go along with that. In Gal 5:13 We are told not to indulge the flesh let us begin there. To understand this we must understand what our flesh is and simply put it is that old self ;that body that the spirit of Christ now dwells within, we must make this home suitable for him. So what are things that are in opposition to that? Again we can go to the word. Gal 5 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. I will go into these more in later posts. These are the things that we need to put away when we do make that choice to walk with god. In the second half of that verse we are told to serve one another humbly in love.http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/love By this we are asked again to put ourselves aside in a way. We are told to love thy neighbor as thyself also known as do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To understand this further let us examine the meaning of the word humble. By definition according to Webster http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humble Let us go further yet by looking into the word haughty also by Webster is http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/haughty?show=0&t=1315992745 This is not to say that we should not value ourselves but that we are not to value ourselves above all else or other’s; love thy neighbor as thyself thereby equally as much and in the same fashion with the same degree of forgiveness and understanding that we both give to ourselves and wish to be given to us. Also we must look at the four types of love as defined by the Greeks. Phileo is brotherly love that is to have a special interest in someone or something, frequently with focus on close association; have affection for, like, consider someone a friend.” Agape is the love from God it is an exercise of the will, a deliberate choice related to obedience and commitment, and not necessarily feeling and emotion. “Loving” someone is to obey God on another’s behalf, seeking his or her long-term blessing and profit.Eros is romantic love,sexual love or passionate love. Storge is the love from a parent to a child can exist between siblings, and exists between husbands and wives in a good marriage. With this information we can see God's plan for us more clearly. There are different ways in which to love as according to the person and situation involved. God does not expect us to love all on the same level but at the appropriate one.