by Luke A Welch
HOW TO KEEP THE LAW WHEN THERE IS NO LAW: Understanding the Fruit of the Spirit in Context
Moses with the Tablets of the Law – Rembrandt
We live in a time when our governments on all levels are driven by the business of making rules. This is how they make revenue; this is how they justify their existence; this is how large corporate interests maintain their permanence and power — by keeping the right people in a place to keep giving the citizens more regulations. There are so many rules that it is a burden to try to keep up with the rules – apparently now under the ACA, we have minute codicils added for bizarre minutiae: you may have heard that there is a separate insurance code to be entered for being “hit in the head by a turtle.” And not even the regulators seem to be aware of what the new stipulations will do to their own departments. In recent months congressional staffers have started quitting and looking for other jobs because they won’t be able to afford to work for congress anymore once the ACA regulations kick in. They write bad laws, and nobody knows what all the laws say.
Why do we resent such laws? We resent being “mothered” by the state, especially when it seems like “mother who knows best” is really a crook. We call it the Nanny State. Well, this illustrates two things helpful things for us – 1) Law, whether good or bad, acts like a parent or guardian to tell us what to do, and 2) erroneous, tyrannical or overflowing laws are painful burdens.
In Galatians 5, Paul was writing to a people who had been under laws that they were now no longer under, and he was teaching them how to keep godly law without having regulators looking over their shoulder any longer. We must learn this. Such a task is the basic task of discipleship: teaching a person how to be wise for the time when they will have no more teacher. This is parenting. With children we are teaching them how to live and learn and be wise when they no longer live with and under their parents.
And while everyone knows of successes and failures in these areas, we are all familiar with the idea that being “grown up” was about becoming “autonomous” or self-governed. Grown-ups know how to go to work, and how to get up in the morning, and how to take themselves to the doctor when they are sick. Grown-ups know how to have a disagreement without hitting, and grown-ups know how to feed and clothe dependent people. We are talking about maturity. And this is what Paul is addressing in Galatians 5.
Sometimes a child gets to the time of majority and hasn’t learned because he has had no father, or because he was never made to obey. Then he is thrust out into the world with the alarming realization that “ready or not, you’re an adult.” These young adults need a mentor to help guide them and remind them about the messages that they missed or ignored while they were children under the regulatory oversight of parents. Sometimes they still need warnings – you may be an adult, but you can still fail to get where you are supposed to be in life. Don’t stop caring now – more than ever, you need to love and be patient and be faithful and be self-controlled. And the good news, young man, is that no one is going to stop you from doing those things.
Paul is being such a mentor for grown up Israel – and he is doing such a job in the flesh and in ink on paper so that we can see and know and talk about the same work that the mentor called God the Holy Spirit does for us. We are grown up Israel, needing to keep on using the wisdom of the Law, now that there is no regulator looking over our shoulder.
Now we are people who have not lived under the Mosaic law in the Church for over two millennia, so we have no concept from memory of the way it functioned, but a few clarifications should help us, and we find the same dichotomy as we illustrated above, God had given a good parenting law, and there were also false lawgivers making it needlessly burdensome:
1) The law of Moses was good. Romans 7 teaches us in this way:
– “I agree with the law, that it is good.” (v.16)
– “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being…” (v.22).
2) Also there were competing authorities confusing the matter.
The oral law tradition (written down as the Mishnah) was supposed to be extra laws that were from Moses but were not written down. These extra rules, kept in place by the Jewish teachers were in opposition to God’s work of parenting that was to be done by the law.
A brief reference to this additional burden is found in Luke 11.46:
– “And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”
So if we are looking at Israel as a child then we see a good parent giving wise instruction for a growing child. And we also see a wicked teacher come along afterward and say, “has God really only said this? He doesn’t want you to be wise like he is; here’s the rest of it – now you can be like God, knowing good from evil.”
Of course that’s the kind of thing the Devil told Eve – God’s instruction is treating you like a child, when you and I both know you can handle yourself – just grasp for the knowledge of good and evil before God has given you permission! And she did, and what she thought was great personal wisdom was really just following folly, and the extra teaching of a wicked false parent – that ancient serpent known as the devil and Satan.
But that’s the situation we have had up to the time of Jesus. And we need to know this because when Paul comes to the post-Pentecost Israel, and is now counseling a grown up Israel in what to do with himself, he has not only to talk about what to do now that Israel has been launched by his father, but he also must say what to do now that Israel has been freed from his captor.
The positive advice, after leaving the father’s good house is, “Take the wisdom you learned at home and live a life of goodness that no one will be opposed to.” And the negative advice, after leaving the abusive tutor is “Don’t assume rule following is for weak goody-two shoes. Good rules are made for wisdom and aren’t a burden. But don’t go using your power and your manhood to act like someone who was never taught goodness, kindness and self control.”
And so Paul begins this passage, Galatians 5.13-6.1 with a warning.
“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (Gal 5.13).
This is saying, you are free from childhood, and now don’t use your manhood to live ungodly lives. He says they might take up “opportunity for the flesh,” which means, since you aren’t going to be held accountable to the Mosaic legal system, don’t go choose to be a fool.
The benefit of the parenting analysis we did earlier is to recognize that rule giving doesn’t harm children, but foolish rule giving does. The reaction that Paul is worried about is the reaction of a child that ran off to be a rebel. This is the child who posts pictures of himself on facebook doing everything he can to shame his parents in his new found freedom.
If the people remember the Oral Law’s burdens and it’s non-parental, unloving ways, and think that is the tenor of the whole law, they will use freedom for a “cover-up for evil.” (1 Peter 2.16)
Paul does say they are grown up and out of their minority in the house of the Law, but they are to use the good time in that house to have learned wisdom. When he encourages them to be mature and grown up and autonomous he is encouraging them to live like people who know the law so deep in their soul that they can look like glorious and wise people, not like fools who threw the baby out with the bathwater.
The fear of the Lord, after all, is the beginning of knowledge, and fools, after all, despise wisdom and instruction.
The wise son says, I am free from daddy’s house to go be a strong daddy for my future sons. The fool is just free to go back to being a baby on his own.
The wise son says, I am not a priest under the laws of Moses any longer, I am now a king, wise like Solomon, who had the knowledge of good and evil at the proper time. I know the law so that I can be wise where there is no law.
The fool says, I am no longer bound by the priestly laws of Moses, I am now free to go live like a Gentile who knows no law from my God at all.
TEACHING CHILDREN TO CRUCIFY THE FLESH
Both men follow a path. Their trail guide has let go of them, and they are going to decide to follow the path, which is obvious, or to follow their curiosity out into the thick and dark of the woods.
This is how we can remove the law (in history), and still see God’s people ariving at law-like godliness. Because the regulations were trainers. They are still reminders, but they are not masters. The principal of God’s law still remains in the hearts of his wise children, but the Mosaic law does not.
In Galatians 5, just like in Romans 7-8, the choices we get of whom we may follow after leaving the house of the Law are these – we may follow the flesh, or we may follow the Spirit. Flesh as we see here, and in Romans 7-8 is basically consonant with sinful passions – desires and lusts.
“For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ” (Gal 5.17)
Which is parallel to the remedy in 5.24:
“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
So we are told as mature adults, to be those who have “crucified the flesh.” But the wise child is already taught this, and thus is able to graduate to manhood and follow the Spirit on the same trail, instead of wandering after the flesh off into the thick.
We must teach our children to crucify the flesh, or they will grow up to use their majority as an opportunity for the flesh. And similarly in discipleship of other Christians- if ever we have the privilege of shaping the lives of other Christians in our communities, one of the basic and first lessons is, “crucify the flesh together with its passions and desires.”
You may not have had a childhood that taught you this. This is very hard for us, so it may take learning this first, and asking God to teach you. You will have to say, “Lord, be the childhood father and teacher I did not have. Teach me to crucify the flesh together with its passions and desires.”
HOW TO CRUCIFY THE FLESH
What does it mean to crucify the flesh? And how do we go about doing it? It is not merely a mystery that God must secretly work in your heart without any consciousness on your part of what’s going on.
The answer is in the narrative, the childhood teacher God sees as fit for his people is the Law. And that principle still stands. It means teaching yourself to live by God’s rules. Even though we are not under the Mosaic law, we do still have law from God. It’s not the Pharisaical type of “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” law, arbitrarily assigned to food or pleasure.
It’s the kind of wisdom you get from drinking deeply of Proverbs and pronouncing each syllable aloud like you believe it. It’s the wisdom that comes from buffeting your body with the goal of godliness in mind. It MIGHT mean avoiding a food or a drink or a late night, but not because food is bad. Rather you will do it because in some situation it is necessary to have functionality. You might avoid a late night – even though Paul had sleepless nights – because you have to be up at 5 in the morning for work.
But wisdom will come from knowing God’s word and holding yourself to loving it’s wisdom.
For the modern Christian who is unfamiliar with the Mosaic law, as we all are, this necessarily and naturally entails going back and learning the Mosaic law. Why? Because it was always wisdom for God’s people, and it still is “profitable for teaching, correction, rebuke, and training in righteousness.”
Even when Paul tells us we are free from the code, he tells us to consider it good for our training in righteousness. Learn, he says, how God thinks. And you will be taught to think like a grown up.
HELPING ONE ANOTHER
But we are not growing up in a vacuum. We have s family of Christians to live with and to live for. They have lives of wisdom or folly just as we do. And they have eyes to judge and mouths to exhort just as we do. So we are all bound up together in a family that needs growing up, and we have to use this wisdom with each other. Paul says the works of the flesh are evident, so that if we are engaged in them we will either be able to notice it, or it will be obvious to our brothers.
Go back to verses 13-14 and see how this works out:
“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.”
One way to love the neighbor is to keep your eyes and mouth open and ready for his own benefit, as we hear in the Parallel verse Gal 6.1:
“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.”
It is important to see the parallel, because we are often told that love your neighbor as yourself is an incitement to pamper yourself so you can learn to be good to your neighbor. Now I won’t argue with the fact that we must learn that God loves us as individuals before we can effectively help our neighbors see that God loves them too. But “Love thyself” is not a command to “do what pleases you.” It is the command to hold yourself to wisdom and law of God’s heart first, and then use that wisdom to build up your brothers in gentleness. We must obey the Lord so that we are free to love our brothers. And as we learn to correct our brothers, we must not neglect to continue watching out for ourselves.
JUST HOW SERIOUS IS THIS?
And this is very serious, because this passage in total is actually a warning passage. Paul begins, middles, and ends this passage with warnings of the same kind. The chief warning being found dead center at verse 21:
“I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
It is serious, not because the people of God are naturally hell-bound, but because it is not abnormal that some in any church may have not truly come to know the Sabbath-rest of knowing the Lord. We should be comforted that the people of the church ARE full of the Spirit of the Lord’s wisdom. Elsewhere the Bible tells us, if we walk with the wise, then we will be wise.
But as a wise people we should fear that anyone should seem to have come short of his rest (Heb 4).
But we should also take note that the works of the flesh are evident, and so is the fruit of the Spirit. If we are those who follow Paul’s word to “keep in step with the Spirit,” we will have eyes to see the obvious fruit of the flesh, and to “love” the brother with “patience and gentleness” and will have the moral, and spiritual authority to help him, because we have been equipping ourselves by “self-control.”
The two lists in this passage are not just a list of who’s good and who’s bad. It is a list of qualities the Spirit cultivates by his word, by the Law, so that we can grow up to help our children and our fellow church members also to avoid the heart orientation that passes through the works of the flesh on the way to death.
HOW SHOULD WE PRAY?
The connection that is necessary between church members, necessary for the whole body to minister together to each other, then, is the place that Satan attacks. This passage is full of warning not to bite and devour, and not to provoke and be in envy of one another.
This is a central issue to pray for in the body of Christ, that we would love our neighbor as ourselves. That we would love by not devouring. That we would love by gently exhorting and restoring. That we would love by pursuing the hint of evident evil, and that first in ourselves. That we would love ourselves by pursuing gentleness of Spirit, and self-control against the lusts of the flesh.
And we can be thankful that we are not left with a book, but we have been left instead with a book held in the hands of its author. And the author is marching ahead of us. And as we keep in marching step with the Spirit, let us rejoice that we also live by that Spirit.
—
The above is the text of a Sermon on Galatians 5.13-6.1, for the 14th Sunday after Trinity.
I have explained the chiastic structure of the passage, here.
—
Luke Welch has a master’s degree from Covenant Seminary and preaches regularly in a conservative Anglican church in Maryland. He blogs about Bible structure at SUBTEXT. Follow him on Twitter: @lukeawelch<>
