Inspired by Spirit #4: love is the only rule

Paul is concerned about what is going on in the Galatian church. And he has every right to be, as we have explored in the previous blog posts in this series.

It had all started out so well. He’d preached the good news of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection to them and they had welcomed him and his teaching with open arms. They’d accepted him, despite his illness at the time, which he does not name but he does say that his illness was a trial to them. They’d been set free from all the rules and regulations of their religious tradition into the glorious freedom of life in Christ. And yet now they were turning back to these old ways. They were taking on the rules and regulations again, even though there was no need to any more. They were slipping back into old ways of thinking.

Paul can’t understand it. Why would they do that? Doesn’t that make everything he’s achieved with them a waste of time? He’s desperate for them to get back on the right path, but they’re listening to the wrong people.

CHOOSE LIFE!

Life in all its fullness.

A life of love and light and freedom in Jesus Christ.

He uses the example of Abraham and his two sons, one born to Hagar, a slave woman and one born to Sarah, a free woman. This can be seen to represent two covenants: one earthly and bound by regulations, the other divine and free from all that.

We are children of the promise. We are free. We are born again in the power of the Spirit to live a new life of freedom, the life all humans were created to live.

Christians often to seem to make the Christian life look hard. They don’t smile much. They have a long list of things they can’t do and an even longer list of things they should be doing. They beat themselves up all the time for the smallest of things. They have unrealistically high expectations of themselves and others.

And yet as followers of Christ, we have so much to celebrate. What’s happened to that sense of freedom and joy and celebration?

We are children of the promise. Everything has been done for us in Jesus. All that is left for us to do is love others as we love ourselves. And of course, at times, that will be pretty tough, but we have the God of all creation in our corner. That’s good news, great news, right there.

So how about we let go of the shoulds and shouldn’ts and embrace love today? Let’s see where that adventure takes us!