Galatians 5:14

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The entire law is summed up in one word—love—and it grows in us only as we walk in the Spirit.

The Whole Law Fulfilled in One Word

The principle in Galatians 5 is powerful for the believer, the one born again by the Spirit of God. Paul says in verse 14 that all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: love thy neighbor as thyself. The entire law fulfilled in one word—love. False teachers had come into the church in Galatia and said you cannot be right with God unless you are circumcised and keep all the law of Moses. Paul writes back and says the entire law is fulfilled in this one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Most of the believers in Galatia were Gentiles, which is why Jews had come to constrain them to be circumcised. This understanding of the law of love was not foreign to the Jew but foreign to the Gentile. Among the Jews, the question of the greatest commandment was one every Jew could answer. In Matthew 22, when a lawyer asked Jesus that very question, He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The entirety of the law—the 613 commandments of the Torah—and all the words of the prophets are fulfilled in this one commandment: loving God above all and loving your neighbor as yourself. In Romans 13:8 Paul writes, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law." He lists "thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal," and concludes that every commandment is comprehended in this saying. James calls it "the royal law" (James 2:8). Every Jew knew to go to Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus, but these Gentile converts in Galatia did not.

Loving Your Neighbor—Not Yourself First

Whenever this discussion comes up in our day, people say that before you can love your neighbor you first need to love yourself. That teaching has been big in American Christianity for the last thirty years, and it is not what the Scriptures say at all. There is not a person in this room who struggles with loving themselves. If we took a group picture and printed it, the first person you would look for is yourself. Last night you fed yourself, sheltered yourself, clothed yourself, and got yourself here—because you love yourself. We don't have a problem with that. We need to learn to love others as ourselves.

So could we go so far as to feed, shelter, and clothe another? Bring someone from our community who isn't here today, so they can hear God's word, or so they are clothed and fed? Remember, on the day of judgment Jesus separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25), saying to those on His right, "I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me." When they ask when they did this, He answers, "When you did so unto the least of these, you did so unto me." Notice He does not say, "You honored your father and mother; you did not murder." He says, "You displayed love." Those things are all fulfilled in the law of love.

It is the royal law, the law of Christ. Paul told the Philippians, "Let nothing be done through strife and vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each one esteem another better than themselves" (Philippians 2). Loving our neighbor has to start first at the thought level. A thought breeds an action, so it begins in the heart, the mind, even the prayer life.

Love at the Thought Level

Imagine driving the 15 freeway at 85 miles an hour—which of course none of you would do. You cut in front, keep going, and then you see CHP on the side of the road. You ease off the accelerator and pray, "Oh God, please, let them give me mercy, blind their eyes so they didn't see me." Now turn the tables. You're easing off because you saw the CHP, and someone flies by you in a BMW Roadster. Suddenly you think, "Oh, I hope that CHP gets him." Why not love our neighbor as ourselves and pray for them as we would pray for ourselves—even though a nanosecond before, you yourself were breaking the law?

Or you're on your way home and your wife calls and asks you to pick up a few things at the store. It's Friday at five o'clock, and Vaughn's is packed like Costco on a Sunday afternoon. You grab three things, and every checkout line is three deep. One opens up—"Can I help the next person?"—and you sprint for it. Then you realize there's a lady ahead of you with two fussing kids, a hundred items, and a stack of coupons. If the tables were turned and you had a hundred items, you'd want her to defer to you. So in love, displaying the love of Christ, you say, "Why don't you go ahead of me," knowing she still has to get her children home, fed, and put to bed. These are trivial things every one of us experiences, but the law of love goes much deeper in many different ways.

The More Excellent Way

The word translated love here is agape. It is used primarily of God's love, though sometimes of unbelievers—Scripture says those who love the world use the same word. But the truest representation is God's love for us, described in 1 Corinthians 13. In chapter 12 Paul described the gifts of the Spirit—healing, prophecy, word of knowledge, tongues—and then said, "Earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show unto you a more excellent way."

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I am as sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Though I have prophecy, understand all mysteries and knowledge, have faith to remove mountains, give all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned—if I have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind. It envies not, vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity but in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. And now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.

When that BMW flies by and you hope the cop nabs him, that is rejoicing in iniquity. These are the things we are called to. As we finished last week, God has called us to liberty (verse 13), and we are to use our liberty to "by love serve one another."

Who Is My Neighbor?

The question always posed is the same one the lawyer asked Jesus in Luke 10. "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" A lawyer is taught never to ask a question he doesn't know the answer to; this man likely had his answer ready. Jesus asked, "What is written in the law?" and the man replied, "Love the Lord your God... and thy neighbor as thyself." Jesus said, "You have answered right. This do, and you shall live."

But the lawyer, willing to justify himself, asked, "And who is my neighbor?" So Jesus told the story of a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho who fell among thieves, was stripped, wounded, and left half dead. A priest came and passed by on the other side. A Levite came, looked on him—a good California driver who looks at the accident—and passed by. But a Samaritan, considered by the Jews the scum of the earth, had compassion. He bound up the man's wounds, poured on oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and paid for his care, promising to repay whatever more was spent.

Jesus asked, "Which of these three was a neighbor to him that fell among thieves?" The lawyer answered, "He that showed mercy on him." Jesus said, "Go and do thou likewise." Whomever you show mercy to, that is your neighbor. There are those who, like the Pharisees, are willing to justify themselves and be loving only to those who love them, and so they ask, "Who is my neighbor?"

The Example and Motivation: Christ

What is our motivation, our example, in this law of love? Philippians 2 is powerful. After saying, "Let each esteem the other better than themselves," and "Look not every man on his own things, but also on the things of others," Paul writes: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above every name.

Why reach out to people in practical ways? Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." In Matthew 6 He says not to do your good works before men to be seen of them, or you will lose your reward. This is not a contradiction. If you do good works so that men will praise you and put your name on a building, then yes, you have your reward—that is all you get.

There are unbelievers who give millions to universities to build a building with their name on it, and everyone says how philanthropic they are. It has nothing to do with love; it has to do with being esteemed by men. We, on the other hand, do our good works so that men see them and glorify our Father in heaven. We do the things no one else will do.

How Christianity Changed the World

In a meeting yesterday, the leader referenced a book by Alvin Schmidt about how Christianity changed the world. In the age of decadence in the Roman Empire, infanticide was common; parents threw unwanted children into the Tiber River. Historians record that Christians in Rome took boats to rescue those children and care for them—caring for the unwanted, the unlovely, that which nobody else would look after. The overwhelming majority of world religions want nothing to do with the outcasts, the sick, the dying. Only Christianity, stirred by the love of Christ, sends the believer out to those in need. For good reason, nearly all the early hospitals in America were established by the body of Christ.

The reward comes from our Father, not from anything we receive today. We do good deeds before our Father in heaven, who sees in secret and rewards openly—but we don't do it for the reward. We do it because it honors Him and because He is worthy. Even if He never gave us eternal life, He would still be worthy of our honor. The reward of eternal life with Him is icing on the cake. God wants to spend eternity with you, which is amazing when you consider who we are.

Biting and Devouring One Another

Paul continues in verse 15: "If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of another." Walking in the Spirit is others-focused, but walking in the flesh is completely selfish. Imagine if everyone came into this room asking only, "What are you here to give me? You're supposed to take care of me." Sadly, some come into the body of Christ with that motivation, and God awesomely changes it. But if all 200 of us showed up week after week only to see what we could get, this place would empty quickly. Selfishness and self-absorption destroy and divide. No one wants to be the friend of a user.

Barna Research tells us that every year in America three to four thousand churches close their doors, and 2.7 million church attenders decide not to attend any longer. Perhaps you were once numbered among them, saying, "I'm not going back to that place." If we polled them, the overwhelming majority left because of a lack of love or selfishness—either in themselves or in the body of Christ. Our hearts are wicked, and in our carnal nature we seek to get from everybody. But when we come to know God, He transforms us from the inside out, because He is the great giver and God is love. As He works, we become willing to do what we never would have done before, and unbelievers ask, "Why would you take your vacation time to go on a mission trip?" The love of Christ constrains us.

Walk in the Spirit

In verse 16 Paul says, "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." The word "walk" is present imperative active—Paul calls them to begin something new and to keep doing it from now on. The word "lusts" could be translated desire, craving, or longing for that which is forbidden. Nine times out of ten this Greek word epithymia is used negatively, though in Philippians 1:23 Paul uses it positively of his passionate desire to be with the Lord. Generally it speaks of desire after forbidden things.

It's important to recognize that forbidden things are not bad because they're forbidden; they're forbidden because they're bad. Many think God is the big cosmic killjoy who forbids everything that's fun. That's not the case. Sin is forbidden because it will kill you. As Paul says in Galatians 6:8, "He that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption." If you plant the things of the flesh, they will destroy you.

In verse 17 Paul describes the battle between the flesh and the Spirit. They cannot be mixed; you cannot serve two masters. As Paul says in Romans, "The good I want to do I don't do, and the bad I don't want to do, that I practice. O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?" Every person here has felt that back-and-forth pull. But those led by the Spirit are not under the law.

A New Heart and a New Spirit

The Old Testament prophets spoke of the coming day of the new covenant. In Ezekiel 36:25-27 God says, "I will sprinkle clean water upon you... a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you... and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes." Jeremiah 31:31 says God will make a new covenant, putting His law in their inward parts and writing it in their hearts, forgiving their iniquity and remembering their sins no more. Isaiah 30:21 says, "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it." Applicably, God by His Spirit says to us, "This is the way, walk ye in it."

Jesus told His disciples He would not leave them comfortless but would send the paracletos, the Spirit of truth, to guide them into all truth and teach them all things. He told Nicodemus, "You must be born again," for his religion would not profit him—pointing to the new heart and indwelling Spirit Ezekiel prophesied. After His resurrection (John 20), Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." They received a new heart, the indwelling Spirit, and became babes in Christ—just as every one of us did when we placed our faith in Him.

As babes in Christ, we all found a new desire to obey God and yet were completely powerless to do so. We wanted to do right but couldn't. But God gave us the power of His Spirit. We still carry flesh strengthened over many years, and we enter a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil, who uses the world to get to our flesh. Yet now we have a new heart and the Spirit, and we desire to obey. "If you sow to the Spirit, you shall reap everlasting life; if you sow to the flesh, you shall reap corruption."

So if you are failing to love God, your neighbor, your spouse, your kids, and to display God's love, it indicates either that you are not saved or that you are sowing to the flesh—feeding it and powerless to overcome. The flesh lusts against the Spirit, so that you cannot do the things you desire. But if you are led of the Spirit, you are no longer under the law, because God has placed His law in your heart. I find that the Christian struggling here is the most joyless person in the world, because he knows and desires to do right yet remains in captivity to sin.

The Works of the Flesh

In verse 19 Paul says the works of the flesh are manifest: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like—of which they that "do" such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. That word "do" is present active tense; it means a continual practice. Those who continue living in such things shall not inherit the kingdom.

Another translation renders these as sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except your own little group, envy, drunkenness, and wild parties. We see these on the news, but the sad fact is that in our nation these things are also entertainment. People watch adultery, fornication, and demonic activity as entertainment. I'll tread on toes here, but if you're watching those things for entertainment, that is feeding the flesh. And if you find yourself not loving your neighbor, spouse, or kids, not desiring to give or serve, it may be because you've been feeding the flesh until it is stronger than the Spirit.

The Fruit of the Spirit

Notice verse 22 gives us the fruit of the Spirit in the singular: love. I believe love is the singular fruit, and the traits that follow—joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance—come as a result of love. Paul says, "Against such there is no law." There are laws against murder, adultery, coveting, and false witness—the works of the flesh—but there is no law that says you cannot have joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, and self-control. These grow as we sow to the Spirit: as the word of God is planted in our lives, as we give selflessly in time, service, and assets, sowing to the kingdom and seeing God transform us from the inside out.

You may say, "I haven't committed adultery or murder." God has given every human a conscience that governs morality, so the unbeliever who wants to punch someone hears, "No, I shouldn't." But people try to shift the blame for the flesh. They say society is at fault—if we just spread the wealth, there would be no more stealing. That's foolish, because covetousness is the root of theft, and it starts in the heart. Give everyone the same wealth and I'd still be upset that you got a different color. Give two kids balloons, one blue and one yellow, and the one with yellow wants blue and the one with blue wants yellow—and they'll fight, each insisting on keeping his own while wanting the other. Some blame society, some blame the devil, some blame their parents or the kids at school. The list goes on because our flesh is full of lies and hypocrisy. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace—and if we're not seeing them, it's because we've been sowing to the flesh.

Crucify the Flesh and Walk in Love

Verse 24: those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. We are to mortify it, put it to death, and say, "Although my flesh desires this, I will choose by the power of God to follow and obey Him." We have that power by His Holy Spirit. "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Paul adds one last caution: don't be desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. Don't walk in love so that people praise you and puff you up. The fruit of the Spirit is love, because God has called us to liberty—by love serve one another, by love make yourself a doulos, a slave, following the pattern of our Lord, who though equal with God made Himself of no reputation and became a servant.

As we step out to serve one another in love, God brings about the fruit of the Spirit, and the world will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. You cannot manufacture joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faith, and self-control. You can buy a car at the auto park, but where did you get that joy? Not at Palomar College—that's the opposite of joy. It's only found in Christ, and it points to Him. Joy is a lost thing in our world. People see happiness or pleasure for a season, but the world does not have joy. The body of Christ should, and it is evident only as the Spirit works in and through our lives.

Loving Our Enemies

In the holiday season even unbelievers become a little more compassionate—though they won't say "Christmas," for fear of being politically incorrect—letting you go ahead in line because it's the season to be nice. But the believer, twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, extends the hands of Christ's love to a world that is lost and dying and doesn't know what real love is. Jesus said, "They shall know that you are my disciples by the love you have one for another."

The greatest demonstration of love, Jesus said in John 15, is that a man lay down his life for his friend. But God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners—His enemies—Christ died for us, laying down His life for His enemies. And He calls us to love our enemies. Do you have an enemy at work, in your family, at school whom you wish God would bless with a comet out of heaven? God has called us to love them, and Paul said by loving them you heap coals of fire on their heads. That doesn't mean what we might think. In that culture, when you hospitably shared a meal with someone, the loving thing as they left was to fill a clay pot with coals from your fire so they could carry it home on their head and kindle a fire, since they had none. It was the loving thing to do.

Here at the beginning of the holiday seasons, it is no accident that God has us in this passage. I didn't plan it—I can't even plan what I'm going to wear tomorrow—but God planned that we would show the love of Christ to a world that needs to see active love displayed.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank You for Your word; Your word is truth in a world that's in need of truth. Lord, we have it right before us, and we can read it every day if we choose. God, help us to walk in this truth and to go from this place seeking to display Your love. Lord, we desire to do so—would You give us opportunity? And I know that in giving us opportunity, someone is going to cut us off leaving the parking lot today, so give us the grace to think and pray in a loving way and to act and walk in a way that is glorifying to You. We ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.