FREE TO LOVE
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· 1 viewThe greatest evidence of the Spirit-filled life is love for one another.
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FREE TO LOVE
In Galatians 5 we saw the effect the Holy Spirit on individual Christians. Galatians 6 is going to teach us how The Holy Spirit creates a deep and lasting bond that far exceed any other relationships on the planet.
FREE TO LOVE
We are not just a club, organization, institution, or religious group. We’re a people united by the very Spirit of God.
It is in concrete situations, rather than in emotional highs, that the reality of the Holy Spirit in their lives is demonstrated.
The Importance of Spiritual Community
The greatest evidence of the Spirit-filled life is love for one another.
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.
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,
envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The greatest evidence of the Spirit-filled life is love for one another.
Love for one another not gifts are the greatest evidence of the Spirit-filled life.This is where we need to realize that ...
Evidence of the Spirit-filled life is not primarily about emotional highs as it is about practical acts of love that we show to one another.
Four Enemies of Spiritual Community
I want to show you four enemies of spiritual community. If we allow these enemies to have a foothold in the community of faith, then we will become just like any other club, organization, or religious group in the world for that matter.
Self-Centeredness
First enemy of spiritual community is self-centeredness. Now, all of these enemies have a pride and self-exultation at the core. Look at verse 26,
Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Self-Centeredness
Becoming conceited or vain glory results in two actions - we begin to provoke each other, and we begin to envy each other.
PROVOKING
Provoking means to challenge someone to a contest; in order to show your superiority over them. We provoke one another, or we envy one another.
ENVYING
Envying is when we think we’re inferior to others. It’s the picture of looking at ourselves in comparison to others or in competition with others. Paul refers to this in 5:15
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
ENVYING
It’s a picture of the way the world approaches relationships. Then, you get over to Galatians 6:4, and Paul says,
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
ENVYING
Here’s the deal: Competition, unhealthy comparison to other people breeds conceit, breeds self-centeredness. Competition.
ENVYING
C. S. Lewis in Mere Christianity, writes a great chapter on pride. He starts by saying,
If you think you’re not conceited, it means you’re very conceited indeed.
ENVYING
So, let’s just confess we’re all conceited. Humility is the great unattainable. You try to be humble and then, when you get there, you’re proud of it, and you have to start all over. We’re all conceited people, and if you think you’re not, then you’ve proved the point. Then, he goes on, and he says,
Pride is the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.
Pride is the root of all sin.
Pride is the root of all sin. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden say, “No, it’s our authority, not your authority over us. We do what we want.” Lewis links pride with competition. I think it helps us understand what Scripture’s teaching us here. Lewis says,
Each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride. Pride is essentially competitive. It is competitive by it’s very nature. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. It is the comparison that makes you proud, the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.
Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.
We think we’re doing well if we’re doing better than the next guy; and we think we’re not doing well if somebody else is doing better than us, and we’re constantly looking around, and we bring this into the community of faith.
Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.
I am a competitive person. I come from a competitive family. We can make anything into a competition. Competition in other spheres of life is not a bad thing. However, there is no place for competition within the church.
Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.
“Let us not become conceited,” Paul says, “provoking and envying each other.” It’s exactly what was going on here in Galatians.
REMEMBER LEGALISM
Remember this picture of legalism? “Who’s done more to earn favor before God? What have you done? I’m glad I’m not like that guy over there. Did you see what he did? You know, I thought I was doing bad until I realized what this guy over here was doing.”
HEALTHY PROVOKE
Now, don’t misunderstand. There’s a healthy way in which we’re supposed to be able to look to each other and see Christ in each other and be spurred on toward Christ through each other.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
ENVYING
We’re not in a rat race in the church. Stop jockeying for position and status. Leave self-centeredness now.
ENVYING
You know where this exposes itself the clearest? Gossip. Look at Galatians 5:15
But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Any time you speak about me in a way that does not build up my character, or I speak about you in a way that does not build up your character, then all we are doing is exposing the self-centeredness that is at the core of our sinful nature, that we have been freed from.
Any time you speak about me in a way that does not build up my character, or I speak about you in a way that does not build up your character, then all we are doing is exposing the self-centeredness that is at the core of our sinful nature, that we have been freed from.
Self-Righteousness
Second enemy of spiritual community: self-righteousness. This was the underlying issue in Galatians. Because of the legalism that was permeating that church, people were asserting their righteousness because of what they did,
Self-Righteousness
and we know legalists delight in heaping burdens on other people. “You need to do these things in order to be righteous.” That’s what these Judaizers were doing to the church in Galatia.
Self-Righteousness
It’s what Jesus sternly rebukes legalistic Pharisees for doing. In Matthew 23:4,
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
Self-Righteousness
Legalists. Remember, we’re trying to please God, and we’re always trying to tell others about what they have to do in order to please God. “Do these things.”
Self-Sufficiency
The third enemy: self-sufficiency. Pride says, “Well, I’m going to put up a front, like everything is okay. I don’t need the people around me. I can do this thing on my own.”
Self-Sufficiency
We do need each other. We are weak. We are weak without each other. There’s a myth of self sufficiency that dominates our individualistic culture and our individualistic approach to church that we have to be careful to guard against.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
The fourth enemy may be one of the most subtly dangerous ones: Self-esteem. SNow, I want you to follow with me here. Galatians 6:3,
For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
Now, we live in a world that says, “If we want our relationships with others to be good, we need to think highly of ourselves.” The founder of Buddhism said,
You, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
One relational expert said ...
If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone else since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t giving to yourself.
That’s enough to send you to counseling right there. Another one said, listen to this,
There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will be to treat others with respect, kindness and generosity.
That is not what Scripture’s teaching. It’s not what the Scriptures teach. Scripture says,
For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
How’s that for the power of positive thinking? What if the way we love others is not about thinking, esteeming, or revolving our thoughts around ourselves.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
What if love for others is about realizing there is nothing good in you apart from Jesus Christ? Therefore, you need Christ for every good thing in you, and the key to relationships with other people is not a high self-esteem, but a high Christ-esteem.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
What if value in Christ, and esteem in Christ, and enjoying in Christ, and surrendering everything in us to Christ is the key to loving others? The key to generosity and sacrifice for others? This whole picture Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
The Spirit lives in us and produces fruit: love. He does the work. Spirit-filled community is marked by Christ-esteeming in our hearts and in our minds and, as a result, Christ producing love for each other. So, don’t focus on yourself. Focus on Christ, Christ in you.
Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem
Fix your eyes, your thoughts and your heart’s affections on Christ, and, in the process, you’ll begin to discover what it means to love one another with a Spirit-filled love.
One Essential in Spiritual Community …
Self-Examination
So, these are the enemies: self-centeredness, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and self esteem. Now, in order to combat those enemies, I want to show you one essential for spiritual community that combats all four of those and that essential is self-examination.
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
For each will have to bear his own load.
Self-Examination
Paul is saying don’t look at your thoughts, actions, and attitudes in view of how you’re doing in comparison to the people around you, put your thoughts, attitudes, and your actions before the lens of the holiness of God. Now, you will begin to see yourself rightly.
Such an examination shows us how much of God’s grace and mercy we need while providing a reservoir of grace to show others.
When we see ourselves rightly before God, then we’re freed up to begin to see others rightly before God, and we are not interested in provoking or envying in them; we are interested in loving and serving them.
Five Commands for Spiritual Community
Christ never commands us to do anything on our own. Every command from Christ is a call for us to trust Christ, who’s living in us to do this in us.
Five Commands for Spiritual Community
When we see a command that says, “Love one another”, love is not a work of the flesh. Love is a fruit of the what? The Spirit. He says, “I’m going to put my Spirit inside of you, and my Spirit in you is going to produce this kind of love.
Five Commands for Spiritual Community
So, everything I command you to do, I’m going to accomplish in you, and so, live by faith.”
Share your resources generously.
Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
Sow your resources eternally.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Spend your resources selflessly.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Confront one another in our sin.
Confront one another in your sin.
Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Confront one another in our sin.
It is not an option for a Spirit-filled follower of Christ to look at a brother or a sister who’s caught in a sin and say, “Well, that’s not my business. That’s their problem.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
The thought is that of someone running from sin but sin, being faster, overtakes and catches him.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
God provides a way out of the temptation and the trespass.
Trespass is a falling, a crossing of the line, to stumble on something (so as to loose footing) and figuratively describes a "false step", a slip or lapse rather than a presumptuous wilful sin.
TRESPASS
It is one of the many Greek words for sin in the NT, it suggests the less serious type of sin, that which is not deliberate or premeditated. Though it may be a less serious type of sin it shows the seriousness of all sin by the need for restoration.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
Notice that this brother was “overtaken” in a fault. This is quite a different thing than OVERTAKING a sin. Some people go looking for sin, and go out of their way to find it. But this is not the case in our Scripture.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
This brother was “overtaken,” implying that he was trying to get away from it, trying to avoid it, but because of weakness, failure of prayer, or failure to look to the Lord for victory, was overtaken. It was not deliberate sinning, but being “overcome” in a moment of weakness.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
The first verse of Galatians six is a solemn warning against legality and sitting in judgment upon weak, stumbling believers. It is a plea for compassion, forbearance and helpfulness to those who fall into sin.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
The sinner seeks sin—the believer flees sin. But even though he flees, he may still be “overtaken in a fault.” Toward such we should be patient, kind and helpful, realizing the weaker the brother, the more he needs our sympathy and aid.
CAUGHT = OVERTAKEN
Instead of condemning and avoiding him we are told to restore such an one in the spirit of meekness.
YOU WHO ARE SPIRITUAL
This is not some elite corps of Christians! He is not even saying only those who are mature. Paul is simply speaking to believers who are filled with/controlled by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit.
YOU WHO ARE SPIRITUAL
Note Paul does not say "You who are sinless!" If this spiritual helper need to be sinless there would be no one to help this transgressing brother! But it is important that the one giving a helping hand to the fleshly believer is a Spirit filled believer, for a fleshly believer cannot help a fleshly believer!
RESTORE
Restore means to pick them up, lift them up. It means “to set a broken bone.” If someone falls down and breaks his leg, what are you going to do? God says, “You who are spiritual set the broken bone. Get him back on his feet again.”
Don't rejoice that they have fallen but restore those who are fallen!
SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS
A harsh, legalistic reaction to a sinning brother will only make things worse. A gentle, graceful response can help. We must be meek, but at the same time we cannot compromise the truth in order to appeal to the sinning brother.
SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS
Let us also remember that it is not our job to punish the erring believer, but to help him up. We are to get him back on his feet and back in God's house.
Many needful reproofs lose their efficacy by being given in wrath; but when they are managed with tenderness, and from sincere concern for the welfare of those to whom they are given, they are likely to make a due impression. - Matthew Henry
A hard, critical spirit will drive the failing one deeper into sin and make more difficult to recover him at last. But a loving, tender word, accompanied by gracious effort to recover, will often result in saving him from further declension. - H A Ironside
Fruit bearers pick up, hold up, and build up faltering Christians.
Legalists put down, weigh down, and keep down faltering Christians.
There is no sin which one person has committed that another person may not commit also. Therefore deal tenderly with those overtaken in sin because you may soon need the same tenderness.
a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory;
SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS
The prophet said of the Messiah, when He comes He will not break the bruised reed and He will not extinguish the smoking flax. The point is that when a person is bruised and when their candle is low, Jesus doesn't throw them away and that's the way we have to approach this process.
A CAUTION FOR THE CONFRONTER
Those who are filled with the Spirit and demonstrating Christ-like love that glorifies God as prime targets, from our mortal enemy within (fallen flesh) and without (Satan).
A CAUTION FOR THE CONFRONTER
So, before you deal severely with the erring brother, consider your own weakness and awareness to temptation, and restore him in view of that fact. Remember, Satan loves a shinning mark!
Comfort one another in your struggles.
Comfort one another in your struggles. When you get to Galatians 6:2, and he says,
Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Comfort one another in your struggles.
What he’s saying here is, you don’t just go and confront somebody. You enter into their lives in some kind of an accountability or discipleship structure—whatever the need is for the moment—and you are a servant to them.
Comfort one another in your struggles.
You “keep on bearing [their] burdens” in helping them to go on to maturity and by doing so you are observing “perfectly the law of Christ.”
Comfort one another in your struggles.
We bear an obligation to extend help to the brother so that he may overcome his spiritual weaknesses.
Comfort one another in your struggles.
Bearing up one another is in no way excusing sin but engaging sin. Bearing up communicates to our brother that they are not rejected by Christ or by us. When we bear up we fulfill the law of Christ.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
A Christian needs broad shoulders and husky bones in order to carry the burdens of his brothers and sisters.
Listen to this church covenant from a Baptist church in the 18th century.
We agree to walk in love toward those with whom we stand connected in the bonds of Christian fellowship. As to the effect of this, we will pray much for one another. As we have opportunity, we will associate together for religious purposes.
Those of us who are in more comfortable situations in life than some of our other brethren, with regard to the good things of providence, will administer as we have ability and see occasion to their necessities.
We will bear one another’s burdens, sympathize with and encourage one another. We will watch over one another for good. We will studiously avoid giving or taking offenses; thus, we will make it our study to fulfill the law of Christ.
These things and whatever else may appear enjoined by the Word of God, we promise, in the strength of divine grace, to observe and practice, but knowing our insufficiency for anything that is spiritually good in and of ourselves, we look up to Him who gives power to the faint, rejoicing that in the Lord we have not only righteousness, but strength. So, hold us up, Lord, and we shall be safe. Amen.
PRAYER
I want to make sure we don’t miss the connection. Look at 2 Corinthians 7:5.
For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within.
But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.