Galatians 5:22-26
This morning I’d like to spend some time on the fruits of the Spirit and do that throughout the summer. Each week we will concentrate on one of the fruits: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control. The title of each sermon will begin with the word “free” – “Free to Love”; “Free for Joy”; “Free to be Generous” because the Apostle Paul’s assumption is that in Christ we are freed from our old habits to bear fruit in our life with God.
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Summer is upon us. Our children (and maybe even their teachers) are singing “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Chances are you have your vacation plans made and your summer picnic schedule started. Here in America summer means BBQ’s, the pool, vacations, and lots of patriotic holidays that celebrate what we Americans call freedom.
Freedom is the watchword that has been ingrained into our American DNA. The rallying cry of 1776 was freedom from the British Crown’s tyranny. The voices of millions of enslaved Africans rose to cry for freedom in 1861, and again in the Civil Rights era as the forces of tyranny did their best to keep Jim Crow as law. The Cold War pitted free nations led by the United States against the dictatorial communist regimes of the Soviet Union. Ask any American (or aspiring American) what makes our country great and they will say it is our commitment to freedom.
The first amendment guarantees all kinds of freedoms – freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of speech – and the other nine amendments in the Bill of Rights are all limits on government power intended to uphold personal and communal freedom. Whichever side of the political aisle you fall on, notice this election how much of our national debate is about what exactly these freedoms we enjoy mean and what is the responsibility that comes with enjoying them? That is, how do my rights and responsibilities and your rights and responsibilities and the rights and responsibilities of the other 340 million people who call this country home exist together?
If we would have taken the time to read Paul’s entire letter to the churches in Galatia, you would have picked up on the theme of freedom. He uses the words “ law, slavery, and freedom” frequently. You may even recognize some of these verses: “How can you want to be enslaved again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits of the universe?”; “Who has bewitched you?”; “For freedom Christ has set us free.”; “The fruits of the Spirit are…there is no such law against these things.”
The fundamental problem in Galatia that the apostle Paul fights is their insistence on making the law and religious regulations the source of their salvation. They turned from the freedom they enjoyed in Christ to become concerned with self-absorbed religious things like circumcision, holiday traditions, and astrology. Mostly, they became distracted from what is important – what God has done in Christ.
I believe that to be in Christ means that you and I have been freed from whatever it is that distracts us from what is really important – the call of God in Jesus Christ to come and follow. Choose the word you want right now for what is distracting you – sin, people pleasing, self-absorption, work-a-holism, deadening rituals – for freedom Christ has set us free. Freedom is a means of God’s grace. God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt. God sent the prophets to call the people back from their inward bent and moral scoliosis to the covenant and blessing of God. God gave Jesus to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor to all those who are poor, imprisoned and oppressed. For freedom Christ has set us free.
But, before we get too nervous that all of this talk of freedom means all hell can break lose and we can do whatever we want, fear not. “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become servants to one another.” There we have it. Real freedom is not the ability to choose or do or say whatever we want; real freedom is being freed for a more noble pursuit. And, according to Paul, the first thing we are free to do is love.
Few words in the English language are more crystal clear and astonishingly ambiguous than love. One author noted that it’s fitting that the typically unemotional British would have only one word to describe such an intense emotion as love1.
But, what does it mean we say the word ‘love?’ Is it good feelings? Is it an emotion? Is it liking someone? Is it romance? Is it the love you have for your children? Is it the love between two good friends? I can use the word ‘love’ to look into the eyes of my beloved and say “I love you” while also demonstrating love for my best friend by taking the time to help him sort out a problem, all the while describing my intense liking (and craving) for ice cream as a form of love.
The ancient Greeks were more emotionally expressive than we Anglo-Saxon Germanics. They gave us six words that can be translated as love. The four most common are Eros: which is romantic love; Philia: friendship love; Storge: affectionate love, like the love parents have for their children; and Agape: the love of God in Christ and the love Jesus calls his followers to bear. The first fruit of the Spirit is agape love.
Agape love is the kind of love by which all of the other loves are measured by. That God is love means that as a creature of God all of my relationships are to be infused with this kind of agape love. Without it, romantic love is opened up for abuse, friendship love becomes a selfish means to an end, and the love needed for our common life as a country quickly falls into feelings of entitlement. Agape love is not a warm feeling, a Facebook status, or a personal liking. It does not accept continued wrong doing, nor does it excuse bad behavior; but agape love is a choice to act for the good of the other person be they friend or foe. The Good Samaritan was not good because he got the warm and fuzzies and had pity on the man laying half-dead along the road; the Samaritan was good because he did something about the man’s condition.
Agape love is a choice that goes beyond falling in love or having warm feelings for a friend. Agape love is a choice to act in the best interests of another person even when the going gets tough and the cost is high. It is born out of the heart, but also the mind and the soul or whatever it is that you call the core of your being – who you are as a person deep down inside. But, agape love is also a divine gift, a fruit born of the Spirit who dwells in our hearts. Love comes from God who both searches and knows the heart.
A wise mentor of mine gave a book when I graduated from seminary. It’s filled with eighty-one different thoughts for pastors. Listen to part of thought sixteen, “How do you feel about this person deep within your heart? That is what they will become.”
It’s as if to say, if in the deepest corner of your heart, you see someone as beneath you, you will treat them as beneath you, no matter how much you claim to care for them.
Or, if in the deepest corner of your heart, you see a fellow citizen as unworthy, you will treat them as unworthy in spite of your claims of equality.
Or, if in the deepest corner of your heart, you harbor resentment toward a loved one, you will resent them in spite of your claims of forgiveness.
But, if in the deepest corner of your heart, you seek to hold someone in love, you will love them. Then, you will be living our Jesus’ commandment to love God and love others. Then, the Spirit will bear fruit through you.
When John Calvin was asked what his calling in life was, he replied “To leave the garden better off than I found it.” We Christians have a special responsibility to use our freedom as a means to leave our part of the garden better off than we found it. This is always an act of love. And, love is always ultimately a gift of God.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
1 Stuart Briscoe. The Fruit of the Spirit: Cultivating Christian Character. (Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers, 1983), 13.