Galatians 5:14 - Homiletics

The spirit of the Law.

Mutual service was only possible through mutual love, and this love was expressly commanded in the Law, which says," Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

I. WHAT IS THE LAW WHICH FINDS ITS FULFILMENT IN LOVE ? It is not the law of Christ, nor the law of liberty, nor the law of the Spirit of life, but the very Law of which the apostle has been speaking all through the Epistle. His readers could not have understood him if he had used the term "Law" in a different sense. It follows, therefore, that the Law must still be in force, because its essential commandment, love, remains for perpetual fulfilment. Love was always, even in Old Testament times, the fulfilment of the Law. The sum of the Decalogue is love ( Matthew 22:40 ). The apostle says, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the Law" ( Romans 13:8 , Romans 13:9 ); but this does not imply, as Antinomians say, that if we have love we have nothing to do with the Law. Believers are exhorted, in the passage quoted, to love one another on the ground of its being a requirement of the Law. It is absurd, then, for the Antinomians to talk of love as being higher than Law, for love is just the fulfilling of the Law, and nothing more. A perfect love would keep the whole Law. It is, therefore, absurd for Roman Catholics to affirm that love justifies as well as faith, because love fulfils the Law. Sin hinders the perfection of our obedience, and therefore love cannot perfectly fulfil the Law.

II. HOW LOVING OUR NEIGHBOUR FULFILS THE Law. It is the want of love that leads men to commit murder, adultery, theft, false witness. If we rightly loved our neighbour, these sins would be impossible. But we cannot rightly love our neighbour till we have loved God. "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" "This is the love of God, that ( ἴνα ) we may keep his commandments." There is a necessary connection between love to God and love to our neighbour ( 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 ).

III. THERE IS NOTHING HIGHER IN THE SPHERE OF DUTY THAN THIS LOVE , The Positivists assume that they have discovered in "altruism" a principle higher than either Law or gospel ever taught. Whereas we are commanded in Scripture to love our neighbour as ourselves, the Positivists say that we ought to love him better than ourselves. We are to deny ourselves for the sake of others. This is Christ's idea; but, if there be no future life, it would be the mark of a fool, and not of a hero, to deny myself for anybody. The idea of altruism, however, fails to realize itself in the lives of Positivists. Besides, if one's own happiness ought not to be a good to himself, there is no reason why he should secure happiness for another. In a few years it will make no difference to me what I have been, whether I have practised altruism or not. The world has not yet discovered a principle for regulating human relationship that can supersede Christianity.