THINK TOGETHER
Have you ever had to learn a new way to do something? Did it help you?
READ TOGETHER
When we become a Christian we are literally given a whole new way to live our lives. What this means really is not that we have all new things to do. Christians aren’t given a new list of things to accomplish. Just like every other human being we are meant to love God and love others. We are meant to serve and give and share. And that never changes.
But what is new is our reason for doing these things. Our motivation. Here’s how Paul explains it as we move into Romans 7:
Romans 7:6. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
The old way: the way of law.
The new way: the way of the Spirit.
We “serve in the new way of the Spirit.”
Can we talk about the Holy Spirit for a minute? Who is the Holy Spirit? (He is God) And what does the Holy Spirit do all day? (He serves God the Father and God the Son) And why does the Holy Spirit serve the Father and the Son?
Does the Spirit serve from law? Is he trying to keep rules in order to make the Father happy? Is he trying to do better and better each day until he gets it right for Jesus? Not at all. The Spirit serves out of simple love and simple respect. The Spirit loves the Father and the Son so much that he loves to serve them and honor them by all that he does.
And that is exactly the new way that we are to live now that we have Jesus. Not from obeying God’s law, or performing for God, or trying to earn God’s approval and love. Instead we serve God simply because we love him and respect him and want to honor him as God. That is what Jesus allows us to do. Because Jesus already did all the earning, and all the performing, and all the pleasing God for us, now we can obey from the heart. We can serve from love not law.
Because of Jesus we have the Spirit living in us.
With Jesus we can live by the new way of the Spirit – love.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Here’s a good song of commitment you can sing together too.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You did it all for me. Now I can do everything from love. Help me to live this same way, the way of the Spirit.
Amen.
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