Galatians 5:13-26 Serve in Love!

Galatians 5:13-26  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.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 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.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. 

In the above focus,  Paul warns the believers to beware of the tendency of their flesh, for they had just recently transitioned from living by the dictates of the flesh and not by the power of God by which they now live.  The former is one of bondage to the evil one and the latter is freedom under the Spirit of God.  The flesh (their old nature) desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  These two natures are as far away from each other as the east is from the west.  The fruits of the old nature are many: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  Under the control of this evil nature, societies need police, regulators, patrols, armies, laws, and so on to keep mankind civilized, working in harmony with a modicum of peacefulness and quietness.  Without such controls, civilization is faced with chaos and destruction.  The devil’s intentions for men and women is to destroy them, to take away God’s creation from him.  The personality God planned for his creation was his nature:  love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  No controls or supervision are needed when people function within the fruit of the Spirit.  Men and women have been made to be free.  It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  Paul is telling them very directly that their old nature is detrimental to their new life.  The old nature runs contrary to their born-again spirit.  The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  Appeasing the old nature will lead to death, not life.  The old nature is not in right standing with a righteous and holy God. Therefore, if their intentions are to abide in the fruit of the flesh, their souls are in jeopardy.  As Paul said earlier in this letter, get rid of Hagar and Ishmael in your life.  Do away with the old works of your flesh; set yourself free from the works of the law, for your born-again life is a gift from God, just as Isaac was a gift to Abraham and Sarah.  Ishmael came about because Abraham and Sarah planned it, but man’s efforts will not satisfy the demands on sinful flesh of complete holiness.  Ishmael would never please God, for he was the work of the flesh and not of God.  Only Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Spirit of God would please God and his requirement on humans: complete holiness, a sinless life.  Paul is telling the Galatians, walk in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, not in the ways of the flesh, for the latter will lead to death, the former to eternal life.

What lifestyle is evident when people are walking in the Spirit and not in their flesh, no longer under condemnation but under the assurance that they are safely in God’s family?  What makes us no longer under bondage to sin, not indulging in sinful matters, but instead fixated on loving others, especially those in the family of God?  Paul says, 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.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Love covers a multitude of sins.  Righteous living under the auspices of love satisfies God’s demands on humans for HE IS LOVE.  A self-willed life will be judged.  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.  So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  (2 Corinthians 5:8-10)  People after their born-again experience ought to be invested in doing the works of God.  They should be displaying the fruit of the Spirit, emulating the very nature of God.  All Christians will face the Lord and give an account of how they displayed him in their redeemed nature.  This judgement does not involved the eternal designation of the soul, for that  judgement has been won at the cross, through faith in the Lord’s work.  Righteousness (right standing with God) is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.  (Romans 3:22-25)  But an accounting of how one lives his or her redemptive life will be assessed.  Paul is telling the Galatians to stay far away from living by the constructs of the old nature, for the benefits are few and will lead to sorrow for failing to edify the world through imaging God to everyone.  Serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  The Bible says, obedience is better than sacrifice.  Throwing off the old nature because of loving God is better that going through the rituals of a religious  life.  As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.  Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit,  just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.  (Ephesians 4:1-6)  Paul wants followers of Christ to live in peace and cooperation with each other, for that is the nature of the family of God. Jesus was one with his Father.  He lived in absolute peace with his Father, willing to submit himself to God.  We too are to live in a spirit of submission or servanthood to others.  Jesus demonstrated this by washing the feet of his disciples.  He washed everyone of his disciples' feet that day, and told them that this kind of servanthood should be their nature, regardless of their stature in the world, rich to poor, poor to rich.  If people are unwilling to express servanthood love to everyone, they might consider who is deserving of their love and turn to their fleshly evaluation of others.  Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.  The greatest light that has ever come to a dark world is Jesus Christ, and He was a servant to all, even died for his enemies.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are asked to be lights to the world, this comes only through emulating the greatest light that has ever lived, Jesus.

Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are all expressions of light.  They also manifest God, the Father’s nature.  The Galatians by retreating back into works of the carnal mind as a way to satisfy God’s demands on their lives, were retreating to the answers of the flesh.  However, this was a great deception of the devil for he knows the flesh is susceptible to evil.  The works of the flesh always lead to the deeds of sinful humans--the weaknesses of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, and the like.  Why?  Because as Paul reveals in Romans 7, once law became pronounced in a person’s life, the weakness of the flesh becomes an active ingredient in the nature of people, working against the freedom won by Christ on the cross.  Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  (Roman 7:9)  We see Paul in Galatian 5, fighting the nature of men and women on two fronts. First, the willingness to bring the law back into their spiritual existence, and secondly, the willingness to allow ungodly actions of the old nature into their existence.  Both will alter, even destroy, their relationship with God.  Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.  (Ephesians 4:30-32)   Paul in his letter to the Galatians is emphasizing to them not to grieve the Holy Spirit, to stop their sinning, to stop their dependence on the law; instead, unite with each other in love and cooperation.  If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.  So Paul says, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  Law is accompanied by judgements and condemnation, determining constantly who is in the family and who is not in the family of God.  But Jesus did not come to condemn but to save.  We also ought to come to the world not in condemnation but as lights, exposing darkness as the Spirit does, but mainly as lights for those who are lost in the darkness, pointing them to a better world by encouraging them to know Jesus Christ.  All of us were once in darkness, the hopeless condition of being lost in a chaotic world that seems meaningless.  We were not righteous, better than others, even the Hitlers of the world.  We were lost in violence and turmoil, but God saved us, even the worst of us.  His kindness and generosity reached down into our lives and pulled us out of the muck that we were sinking in.  So breakfast companions, keep that focus so that you will love each other as you should.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.  (1 John 1:8-11)   Paul was desperately throwing out the lifeline of eternal salvation to the Galatians.  He did not want one of them to revert back to trying to please God through the law or to abide permanently in the works of the flesh.  His heart is felt strongly in today’s focus.  Our companions who are partaking of this breakfast, consider your lives.  Are they based on Jesus Christ and him alone.  If so, honor him by keeping in step with the Holy Spirit, for surely your reward will be great when you meet YOUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.  Amen!