Serve each other through love. (Galatians 5:13 GW)
It is always the work of God's enemy to clog up our lives by introducing love of
self or love of the world, and it needs ruthless determination to remove the
accumulated rubbish and re-dig the well in purity of devotion to Christ. It may
well be, though, that the hindrances arise from lack of love to our fellow
believers. We must remember that the Holy Spirit can never have free course in
us and through us if we harbor unloving thoughts concerning other of God's
children, let alone put those thoughts into actions. He is the Spirit of
fellowship, so that if we fail in that realm then we fail in the matter of love.
It is so easy to allow unworthy considerations to quench brotherly love, to be
clogged up with resentment or to be wrongly influenced by our susceptibilities
or hurt feelings.... We have to be active in positive cultivation of fellowship.
To some it is quite natural to be independent. For them deference to others
represents a major difficulty. Sometimes they may deliberately ignore or despise
others, but sometimes they just prefer to do it alone and never seriously think
of inter-relatedness and inter-dependence.
The Word of God, however, is most explicit in ordering us to esteem one another,
to submit to one another and to live and work together. The Holy Spirit demands
that the people of God live according to a team order of things, that they
should be governed by a family spirit. Anything which is of an isolated or
detached nature, which fails to recognize and fully accept the family thought of
God, is a check on Him. By failing to observe fellowship we quench the Spirit.
It is not only a matter of avoiding giving offence but of active pursuit of
fellowship. Some may be wondering why there is so little up-springing from the
inner well, when they are sitting back in a wrong kind of modesty, failing to
bring in their own personal contribution to fellowship life and ministry.
Unkindness is not the only obstacle in this realm. Shyness and diffidence can
equally rest like a stone on the flow of Life. The only thing to do is to dig it
up and move it away. Get in, get right in, and let yourself go! Do not always
choose the back seat because you like to be left alone, but come forward in the
Lord's name and give the Holy Spirit a free course in your lives. He is well
able to check you if you become too self-assertive, but there is little He can
do if your well is all stopped up with fears and inhibitions.