“The Greatest of These”
(Part one)
February 5, 2012
Galatians 5:16-25
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature 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, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
February is the month of love. I guess, for most people, it’s because of Valentine’s Day on the fourteenth. For me it is because forty years ago this Valentine’s Day, I asked Julie to marry me. According to her story of the event, I didn’t ask – I told her she was marrying me. So on about our 15th anniversary, I got down on my knee and made it official. I asked her to marry me. She agreed. This June we will celebrate 40 years of marriage. We are not those young kids we once were. Our hair is grey, our waist line has grown, we have gotten a little weak. But we still can see the spark of that young love once in a while in each other. The other night, when Julie took off her glasses, I said, “Honey, when you take off your glasses you look just like you did when you were young.” She said, “When I take off my glasses YOU look pretty good, too.”
If this Valentine’s Day is like Valentine's Days of the past, over $1 billion was spent on chocolate, $1 billion on cards, and 218 million roses were sold in the pursuit of, or in an attempt to demonstrate love. It’s nice to express your love in tangible ways like we do – but real love – God’s love – is expressed a little differently. Someone said,
Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.” Donald Grey Barnhouse
I really like that. In our Scripture today we have listed the fruits of the Spirit. And they are so important. They describe what God is like. They describe what WE are to be like. And we are going to look at them in a little bit. But I want to look at the context of these verses. I think there are some important lessons for us. First, let’s define love.
The Dictionary defines it like this: 1. a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. 2. A feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. 3. Sexual passion or desire.
The Greek Word for the kind of love we are talking about is ‘agape’.
1. The love of God or Christ for humankind. 2. The love of Christians for other persons, corresponding to the love of God for humankind. 3. Unselfish love of one person for another without sexual implications; brotherly love.
I think to simplify it would be to say ‘agape’ love is a giving kind of love.
The Bible says, “God is love.” So if we want to get an idea of what God is like – we need to understand love. To do that, we need to go to the Love Chapter in the Bible – 1 Corinthians 13. I’m not going to read the entire chapter – but let’s look at a few verses.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love never fails! That’s God! Read that again with God in place of Love or It. To love – to really love – is when we are most God-like. It is when we are most Christ-like. Read that Scripture again and put your name in it.
We need to understand that it is not normal for us humans to love like this. It is not natural for fallen humans to love like this. Love is a choice! I think someone wrote a book with that title. Love is a choice – and that is the context of our Scripture.
Philip Yancey, in his book "Reaching for the Invisible God" describes the way God get’s blamed for things in this way.
"When Princess Diana died in an automobile accident, a minister was interviewed and was asked the question “How can God allow such a terrible tragedy?” And I loved his response. He said, “Could it have had something to do with a drunk driver going ninety miles an hour in a narrow tunnel? Just How, exactly, was God involved.”
Years ago, boxer, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, killed a Korean opponent with a hard right hand to the head. At the press conference after the Korean’s death, Mancini said, “sometimes I wonder why God does the things he does.”
In a letter to Dr. Dobson, a young woman asked this anguished question, “Four years ago, I was dating a man and became pregnant. I was devastated. I asked God, “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?”
Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who pushed her two sons into a lake to drown and then blamed a fictional car-jacker for the deed, wrote in her confession: “I dropped to the lowest point when I allowed my children to go down that ramp into the water without me. I took off running and screaming, ‘Oh God! Oh God, no! What have I done? Why did you let this happen?”
Now, the question remains, exactly what role did God play in a boxer beating his opponent to death, a teenage couple giving into temptation in the back seat of a car, or a mother drowning her children? Is God responsible for these acts? On the contrary, they are examples of incredible human free will being exercised on a fallen planet. And yet it’s in our nature as mortal, frail, fallen people to lash out at God." We want to blame God for what we have done of our own free wills.
There is a struggle going on within each one of us; a struggle of right and wrong; of Good and evil. Our Scripture says,
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” (V.17)
I want you to know that this was written to Christians, according to Chapter one, verse two. Just because you are a Christian does not means you will not have a struggle between the two natures. We all do. We all will. Paul pleads with these Christians to “live by the Spirit”. Why? So they will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. You don’t have to give in to the sinful desires. People will tell you – you do. You sin every day in every way. But that’s not biblical. The Bible says if we live by the Spirit we will not give in to the sinful nature.
Paul says an interesting thing here. He says these natures “are in conflict with each other – so you do not do what you want.” But he just said “we will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Is he talking out of both sides of his mouth – like these Politian’s of our day do? No. You do not do what you want when you are NOT led of the Spirit. You can’t! We don’t have the power! We don’t have the ability! It is impossible. We may WANT to not sin; We may have a DESIRE to not follow the flesh; but the flesh and the intellect are not sufficient to win the victory. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the power over the flesh.
Paul says in the 18th verse, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.”
Does that mean if we are led of the Spirit we don’t have to follow the Levitical Law? No. The law Paul is speaking of here is the “law of the flesh”. Before we are filled with the Spirit we are slaves to sin. There is a law within us that is master over us. We can’t do the things we want. (Ro.6) But when we are led of the Spirit we are not under that law. We don’t have to do the will of the flesh. The struggle is still there. The possibility of sin is still there. But we don’t HAVE to cave in. We can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, live a victorious, sinless life. I didn’t say ‘perfect’ or ‘flawless’; I didn’t say we wouldn’t make errors in judgment. But we don’t have to willfully rebel against the Spirit of God if we are led by Him and empowered by Him and if we are filled with His presence.
And to be filled with the Holy Spirit is a choice. Jesus said we need only to ask – and we will be filled. But in the asking is a surrendering of our wills to God’s will. If we do – the Holy Spirit will take us down a path that culminates is ultimate love and joy and peace and …God. To not get on that straight and narrow path takes us on another path. The bible says that if you follow the law of the flesh it will produce this fruit:
“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.”
Galatians 5:19-29
This path; this choice; produces this kind of fruit in this life. It results, ultimately, in death. And you do not have to even choose this path. No choice is a choice. All who do not surrender to God, find themselves on this path.
Those who follow the Spirit experience this fruit:
“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.”
Galatians 5:22-23
Does this mean all who are Spirit filled are instantly transformed into a full fledged mature Spiritual fruit tree? Of course not! But the Spirit leads us to produce this kind of fruit. The flesh naturally produces the fruit of the flesh.
Did you notice that last phrase? “Against such things there is no law.” I think what that is saying is there is not a law, like the law of the flesh that will produce these things. They are not compulsory. They are not natural. The Holy Spirit leads us to each fruit, reveals this is God’s will for our lives, and if we will exercise our free will to produce them in our lives – He will empower us to do so. But each fruit is produced as an act of our will in cooperation with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Scripture says, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” (V. 24) That means, although the Spirit struggles with the flesh and its desires – it’s as if we die to it. Paul said, “I die daily.” We need to do the same if we are to win the spiritual victory. If there is a spark of desire for the things of the flesh it will steal our joy; it will steal our victory; and it will ultimately steal our soul. Crucify the flesh and live by and in the Spirit. Paul wrote the Romans,
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2
He said, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:5-6
We need to get our hearts and minds SET on what the Spirit desires. That is the greatest expression of love for God and the fulfillment of the Great Command of God.
Jesus, after His resurrection and just before His ascension, asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Three times He asked that question to his most passionate follower. I think He asks that of us, too. “Do you love me – more than these?” Do you? Do you love God more than the things of this world; more than the desires of your flesh? If so, set your mind on what the Spirit desires and do that. Be led of the Spirit – and walk with Him.
Amos asked, “Can two walk together unless they are in agreement?” The answer is no. We need to agree to walk with the Lord. We need to keep in step with the Spirit. Maybe you have realized that you have gotten out of step. Something is not quite right in your walk. Jesus made it so easy to get back on track. He said, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden – and I will give you rest.” Jesus is here with arms open wide. All we need to do is go to Him. He will give rest for your soul. Pray this pray with me.
