Pastor's Corner
October 2004
“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word,
in the statement,
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
But if you bite and devour one another,
take care lest you be consumed by one another.”
Galatians 5:14-15
I believe it was Charlie Brown in a Peanuts cartoon who once said, “I love mankind. It’s people that I have a hard time with.” As Christians it is quite easy to say “I love my fellow Christians!” Where we struggle of course is when that is broken down to individual people within the Body of Christ who we frankly are having a hard time “loving”. Clearly we have the command of the Word of God to love one another. Jesus gave us in the Upper Room discourse what some have called, “The Great Commandment”. In John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “a new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This is what Jesus expects of us as His followers and Paul picks up the same truth in Galatians 5:14. The question is, “Why did God have Paul write Galatians 5:15?” It seems in that text that Paul clearly assumes (by making it a warning with “take care”) that our love at times will fail and turn to “biting and devouring”! In other words, instead of “love of the brethren” we have “conflict, disappointment, irritation and attacking of the brethren”!
As we struggle with the flesh we find ourselves being annoyed with those whom we are to love. A fellow Christian lets us down, “fails” us or even attacks us. On the other hand we find ourselves on the other side and instead of support, encouragement and “the benefit of the doubt” we get criticism, judgment and gossip. The result is hurt, frustration and disillusionment. The bottom line is Christians “consuming one another”! To borrow a phrase from Scripture, “My brethren, these things ought not to be so!”
So how can we practice Galatians 5:14 rather then 5:15? The answer is the very next verse in Galatians 5:16 - “But I say walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
Our only hope of loving one another is our allowing God the Holy Spirit to change us. It is to yield daily, moment by moment, to the Holy Spirit’s work in prompting us to put aside our irritation, frustration and anger with one another and to replace it with patience, understanding, self-examination and tolerance. I urge you to read Matthew 7:1-5, Philippians 2:1-4 and Colossians 3:12-14 for further detail!
Jesus’ command (and really His demand) that we truly love one another is not an impossibility! It is possible to love Christians as a whole and particular Christians individually! The key is our position in Christ. As He first loved us and as the Holy Spirit empowers us, we can love one another. It helps immensely when we quickly forgive one another, when we refuse to develop a root of bitterness toward one another and when we confess our own shortcomings, failures and sin. The enemy wants us to “bite and devour and consume one another: for this advances his cause and takes away our witness for Jesus! On the other hand, when Christians truly do “love one another” we demonstrate that we (and the church as a whole) are really disciples of Jesus! May God grant us a daily dose of unconditional and abundant love of the brethren!
Serving with you,
