Something to think about…

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” ~ Galatians 5:14-15

I read about a children’s Sunday school class that was learning the Apostles Creed. In an attempt to help them learn this ancient confession of faith, the teacher gave each child a phrase they were to take home and memorize. The next Sunday as they gathered together the children lined up ready to say their part. The first child said, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” The next one said, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord…” Then there was a long silence. Finally, one of the kids in the back piped up, “Teacher, the boy who believes in the Holy Spirit isn’t here today.” Something significant is missing in our world today, and I believe it is the presence of the Spirit manifest through the lives of Christ-followers.

This past Sunday was Pentecost. It began as a Jewish festival also called Shavuot or the Festival of Weeks, which was celebrated seven weeks or fifty days after the Passover. It was a time for the people to reflect on the covenant God made with all Israel. They brought in the first fruits of the harvest and were reminded of God’s loving faithfulness. Jewish tradition also recognized it as the day that Moses received the Law. However, for the followers of Jesus, it is the day that God poured out gift of the Spirit. In that moment, the church was born through a new covenant in Christ and the first fruits of a Kingdom harvest began.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the Law and the Spirit. There is a significant tension in our world right now about what is right and just. We all know that in a broken world laws are necessary. And where there are laws they will need to be enforced. We want equal rights and just laws. I think what many fail to recognize is that better laws and better law enforcement will not get us what we ultimately want.

The philosopher, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, once wrote: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts.” The heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. A promise was given through the Prophet Ezekiel: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” ~ Ezekiel 36:26-27

The solution for our world is not new laws, but new hearts. We desperately need a church filled and motivated by the Spirit of Christ. We need to listen again to what Paul teaches in Galatians 5: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

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.

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 flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” ~ Galatians

5:16-25