Read Gal 5:14-16, 19-23
(v 14-16)
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. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
(v 19-23)
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, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The world we live in is a far cry from the perfection of the world God created. …Sin will do that. But as people choosing to be an apprentice to Jesus, our lives are meant to look different than the rest of the world. We are meant to introduce a culture of Jesus and influence the world around us. On our own, that is wildly impossible because we are just as flawed as the rest of the world. But the Holy Spirit is a beautiful gift to those who choose to follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit is what makes change possible in our own lives. He is the goodness, the kindness, the love, the joy, the patience…all of it…anything good that is in us only shows up because of His presence in our lives. And it is that presence, the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in us, that God wants to use to help lead and shape the culture around us to look more like Jesus.
The church is God’s plan to show the world what He looks like and how to live the most abundant and full life possible. We are His plan to show the world that the best life is only possible through Him. He doesn’t have an alternative plan. It has always been you and me; His people…His church.
