Radical Surrenderedness
"You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”
—Galatians 5:13
Erin sat before me in tears.
She had participated in a recent Luke 10 outreach—one of our Person-of-Peace “hunter” teams—and was also considering joining another strategy team focused on catalyzing Church-Planting Movements.
As we talked, Erin shared that the love of Christ she had experienced during this trip had become part of her healing. Her previous experience in cross-cultural missions had left her deeply disillusioned.
She had longed to participate in a beautiful expression of the Bride of Christ—a people reflecting His glory among the ethne, the nations. Instead, she encountered the painful underside of ministry relationships: the wounding that can occur when members of Christ’s Body act out of the flesh rather than the Spirit.
Sadly, every one of us is capable of causing such harm. Unless.
Wherever there is hurt, misunderstanding, disappointment, or conflict in ministry relationships, we face a choice. We can indulge the flesh, defend our rights, and protect ourselves—or we can surrender to the Holy Spirit and serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5 is a powerful manual for life together. Within one passage, Paul shows us both how to live as the Body of Christ and how quickly our relationships can deteriorate when we surrender to the desires of the flesh.
Radical surrenderedness invites us to make different choices.
Seven Ways to Serve One Another in Love
1. Choose Humility
We must remember that, apart from the guarding and transforming work of the Holy Spirit, you and I are just as capable of injuring others as those who have injured us.
Humility recognizes our own vulnerability to pride, defensiveness, jealousy, and self-protection. It allows us to approach conflict without assuming that we see everything clearly or that we alone are right.
2. Choose to Surrender Personal Rights
The cross of Christ and the determined defense of our personal rights are incompatible.
Jesus calls us to lay down our lives, surrender our demand to be understood, and release our need to prevail. This does not mean ignoring abuse, concealing sin, or refusing healthy boundaries. It means relinquishing retaliation and surrendering our desire to control the outcome.
3. Choose to Be Consumed by God’s Perfect Love
What we allow to consume our hearts and minds will eventually consume us.
We can become consumed by the conflict, the offense, and the injustice—or we can become consumed by the perfect love of God. His love does not deny the wound. It enters the wound, meets us there, and transforms how we respond.
4. Choose to Speak Words of Life
Words can either strengthen the Body of Christ or tear it apart.
Speaking words of life does not require us to avoid difficult conversations. Honesty may be necessary, but it must be bathed in humility and motivated by love. We are called to speak in ways that invite others toward Christlikeness rather than repel, diminish, or condemn them.
Words of affirmation, truth, encouragement, and grace are tangible ways we serve one another.
5. Choose to Suspend Judgment, but Gain Understanding
We often form conclusions before hearing the whole story.
Radical love pauses. It asks questions. It listens carefully and seeks understanding before assigning motives or passing judgment. We may not ultimately agree, but we can honor one another by refusing to assume the worst.
6. Choose Forgiveness, Even When Reconciliation Is Not Yet Possible
Forgiveness and reconciliation are related, but they are not identical.
Forgiveness may be offered even when reconciliation is not yet possible. Reconciliation requires mutual honesty, repentance, trust-building, and a willingness to repair what has been broken.
Forgiveness is often a process. It may require returning the wound to Jesus repeatedly, releasing our desire for vengeance, and asking Him to free our hearts from bitterness.
7. Choose to Handle the Hearts of Others Tenderly
Every person we encounter carries wounds, fears, hopes, and a story we may not fully understand.
We are called to handle one another’s hearts with tenderness, just as our Father is patient and long-suffering toward us. Love does not treat people as projects, obstacles, or problems to solve. It recognizes that every person bears the image of God and is precious to Him.
Living as a Demonstration of His Love
Our lives are a mere blip on the screen in light of eternity.
There is a time to speak honestly—to offer truth bathed in humility and grounded in a mutual desire to be pressed, refined, and shaped into God’s chosen instruments. There is also a daily invitation to remember that we do not live for ourselves. We live as people indebted to His incredible mercy, forgiveness, and boundless love.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Therefore, let us embrace His perfect love. Through the empowering presence and filling of the Holy Spirit, let us demonstrate the beauty of Jesus to one another.
The ethne are watching and waiting for a demonstration of this one, incomparable love—the love of Christ embodied through His people.
May they recognize Him by the way we love one another.
—R. A.
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