13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Far too many of us think, willingly or not, about the Bible as a big, fat rule book. This comes in the kinds of questions we often ask of the Bible. What does it say about giving, about sex, about marriage, about divorce, about whatever else crosses our minds. We buy little topical books to help us utilize the Bible as an encyclopedia. But God never intended that his word would be for us a topical dictionary or guidebook for life, not at least, in the way that many of us want to use it.
It was making the Scripture a set of rules, of “Do this but don’t do that” commands that tended to bring out of Jesus and the apostles some of the strongest words. Yes, God has rules, standards of what is right and wrong. But those standards are not burdensome or illogical. In fact, those standards are summed up by Jesus and by Paul in one command, the command of love.
In looking at how we are to treat one another, Paul in Galatians 5, makes the rules fairly simple. Love one another. If what you would do to another person is unloving, don’t do it. There is no question about using a certain kind of language. There is no question about marital faithfulness. The point that Paul brings forward, the point which must govern our first thoughts about the rules we follow, is, “This action, is it loving?”
Think it through, you cannot gossip about someone and love them at the same time. You cannot cheat on your spouse and love her at the same time. You cannot have sex with someone without a marital commitment to them and love them at the same time. You cannot lead someone away from God’s standards of righteous living and love them at the same time. You cannot physically abuse someone and love them at the same time.
It’s not all negative, though. You can teach your children to follow God, and doing so is certainly loving. You can love your spouse and let others see that this mirrors Christ’s love for his church. You can care for your parents in their old age, loving them in good times and bad. You can put a stop to a gossip’s tongue both out of love for the gossip and for the one who is the target of the gossip. There is much that we can do, and will do, if we love one another.
Some, of course, would attempt to pervert this statement about love into license to sin. They might argue that it is unloving not to let them be as they naturally are, even if God has forbidden their natural behavior. Such license is not love. Love is looking out for someone’s best interest. Sometimes they will not appreciate that. Love is pointing people to God. Love is telling people that they need Jesus. Love is telling a person that sin robs them of their joy, no matter how loving they have made it seem in their own minds. Love does not let a person walk over the edge of a cliff, no matter how much they want to do so. Love leads people to Christ.
So, examine yourself today. How can you love others? What words do you need to say? What actions do you need to take? What conversations do you need to cut off in order to be more loving toward others? “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Gal 5:14).
Pastor Travis Peterson 