{"id":75,"date":"2008-02-06T20:41:55","date_gmt":"2008-02-07T02:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/02\/06\/galatians-514-free-to-love\/"},"modified":"2008-02-06T20:41:55","modified_gmt":"2008-02-07T02:41:55","slug":"galatians-514-free-to-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-514-free-to-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 5:14 – Free to Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ministry<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Galatians 5:14<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, <\/span>even<\/span><\/em> in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Freedom from the law means freedom to love others.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cfulfilled<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek pl\u0113ro\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto fill\u201d as one would fill a glass with water. However, this word is also used to express the fulfilling of an obligation or to completely satisfy legal requirements. This is the sense in which it is used in the current verse.<\/p>\n

\u201cShall<\/span> love<\/span>\u201d is translated from the future tense of agap\u0113<\/span><\/em>, the type of love that is focused on the welfare of the object of the love, rather than on self.<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201cneighbor<\/span>\u201d is pl\u0113sion<\/span><\/em>, which is an adverb derived from the noun pelas<\/span><\/em> meaning \u201cnear.\u201d Hence, plesion<\/span><\/em> refers to someone who is physically near to you, but it is also used of a fellow countryman or, as in this case, another member of the human race.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul has been strenuously arguing against the false teaching that keeping the Law of Moses is necessary for salvation. In the previous verse he introduced the new concept of freedom, or liberty. We have been set free from the bondage of the law, but that does not mean that we should live without any bounds.<\/p>\n

When Paul says that \u201cthe law is fulfilled,\u201d he is referring to the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. The Hebrew words from which we translate the expression \u201cthe Ten Commandments\u201d literally mean \u201cthe Ten Words,\u201d so when Paul says that the law is fulfilled in one word, he means that fully keeping a single commandment satisfies the spirit of all ten. That single commandment is this: \u201cYou shall love your neighbor as yourself.\u201d In his letter to the Christians in Philippi, Paul expressed it this way:<\/p>\n

Let<\/span><\/em> nothing<\/span> be done<\/span><\/em> through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each consider others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>(Philippians 2:3<\/span><\/strong>, 4<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

The Ten Commandments are often referred to as the two tablets of the law. The first tablet includes the first four commandments, which regulate our relationship with God. The second tablet includes the remaining six commandments, which regulate our relationship with others.<\/p>\n

What Paul is saying is that trying to keep the requirements of the Law of Moses with all of its rites and requirements does not produce righteousness. Righteousness comes through faith, which applies to the first tablet of the law. Now that we have righteousness through faith, however, we can fulfill the second tablet if we live in such a manner that we always have the good of others on the same level as our own.<\/p>\n

Application <\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the problems with the law, and the worldly messages with which we are inundated daily, is that they focus our attention on ourselves. Being free from the bondage of the law, however, means that we are now free to focus our efforts on loving others as much as we love ourselves.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2008 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Galatians 5:14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Truth to Learn Freedom from the law means freedom to love others. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cfulfilled\u201d is from the Greek pl\u0113ro\u014d, meaning \u201cto fill\u201d as one would fill a glass with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-5"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-1d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}