Sermon26-22 Gal 5 "Life by Love" Guide

Gal 5:2-15 theme verse Gal 5:6

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this seventeenth Sunday of the year 2026, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life.  Last week, on the third Sunday of Easter season, through Rom 5, we mediated on the life in hope. Yet on this fourth Sunday of Easter season, we would like to meditate on the life by love through Galatians chapter 5 together.

1)    During three mission trip, Paul proclaimed the Gospel throughout Turkey and the Macedonian region of Greece, and established churches wherever he visited. And he church in Galatia was one of those he founded during his first mission trip, when he preached the Gospel in the Galatian region—including Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, etc.. But when he returned to Antioch in Syria, Paul received disturbing news that certain Christians of Jewish background had revisited the region and arose confusion within the church by claiming that Paul was not one of the original Twelve Apostles, acknowledging that salvation comes through faith in Jesus, yet they insisted that Christians also have to receive circumcision and observe the Law to be saved.

Therefore, in response, Paul sent this epistle to address these issues, asserting the followings:

a) Salvation is not attained through the observance of the Law, but is received by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who accomplished the work of atonement;

b) So, we are no longer bound by the Law; rather, having been redeemed through Christ Jesus, we have already obtained freedom from the dominion of the law;

c) Therefore, we must not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but instead serving one another in love, since the entire Law is fulfilled in the single commandment: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Specially in today’s text of Galatians 5:2–15, Paul conveys the following points:

a) He affirmed that Christians, having obtained freedom from the Law through Christ, are called to live a life of liberty—specifically, a life lived by faith;

b) Furthermore, he explains that this faith ultimately manifests itself in love. And he reminds that, through faith, we have been redeemed from the curse of the Law and granted freedom; moreover, we have been called to live a life of faith which works in love so that he exhorts us to serve one another solely through love.

2)    To elaborate further on this point:

Because our ancestors, Adam and Eve, committed sin by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which God had warned that its consequence surely result in death, I mean, physical death, spiritual death, and eternal death.

Consequently, first, in order to resolve the issue of human guilt, God sent His Son to this earth in the likeness of human flesh in which God condemned sin and had Him crucified so that He opened a path to the forgiveness of sins for all who believe in Him.

Furthermore, regarding the human obligation to live a righteous life, Jesus Christ fulfilled righteousness by perfectly obeying the Law during His earthly life so that He imputes His righteousness to those who believe in Him.

Theologically, Christ’s first obedience is referred to as "passive obedience," while His second one is termed "active obedience." Therefore, since this active and passive obedience of Christ is entirely sufficient to resolve our guilt and to make us righteous, there is absolutely no need for us to add anything further to it.

Therefore, the claims made by the Judaizers who infiltrated the Galatian church that faith in Christ alone was insufficient for salvation and that believers have to have circumcision and observe the Law just was a "false gospel." So, in this reason Paul, in a resolute tone, urged that such individuals should be "cut off."

However, at this point, I think we need to think about what it truly means to receive salvation by faith. I mean,

Here to believe means that:

First, to believe that God the Father is the Creator and the Providential Carer; that God the Son is the Savior, the Ruler, and the Judge; and that God the Holy Spirit is the Comforter and the Sanctifier.

Second, it is to believe in the path of righteousness that God has opened.

Third, it is to believe that God alone establishes and judges the standards for all good and evil.

Fourth, it is to believe that our justification by faith signifies not only that we have received forgiveness for our guilt, but also that, through the imputation of the righteousness accomplished by Christ, we too have been declared righteous.

Fifth, it is to believe that the "old self” which once judged and acted according to its own thoughts, has been crucified, and that we have now been born again through the Holy Spirit as a "new self," living in complete humility before God and in obedience to His will.

And finally, it is to believe that after we thrive sanctification through obedience to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, on the Last Day our mortal bodies will also be resurrected, and we will live eternal life, while loving, reigning, and dwelling together with the Triune God in the new heavens and the new earth.

3)    Yet, the way we can discern whether we possess "true faith" is that when our faith works through love as verse 6 says, then we can know that it is true love.

That’s why, the Bible teaches that "true faith is faith accompanied by deeds" (James 2:17) which will be manifested specifically through love for God and love for one’s brothers and sisters as 1 John 5:1 says "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves his child," and 1 John 4:20 says "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen."

4)    Then, the reason why faith manifests as love is as follows:

First, since the salvation by faith makes His people trust in what God has determined regarding good and evil so that the salvation makes them in accordance with His will. And since this divine will is well summarized in the Ten Commandments, his people who were born again, cannot jhelp but live in love since the Lord summarized these commandments into the two great commandments of loving God and loving one’s neighbor.

Therefore, if you fail to live the life of love, after having received salvation, we have to examine ourself whether we are not obeying to God’s will.

5)    However, not only because love is a divine commandment, we obey His commandment to live the life of love, but also, love is an ontological identity of our Christians, I mean, who we are as redeemed Christians.

What I mean is, as 1 John 4:8 declares that God is love. And furthermore Genesis 1:27 says we human beings were created in the image of God, therefore, love constitutes the most important part of our human identity.

Consequently, all people in this world, even though the image of God within them has been significantly marred and tainted by the Fall, continue to live their lives of love to some degree. And also in particular, Christians, whose image of God was restored within through the regeneration, we start to live the life of love. Nonetheless the in dwelling Holy Spirit who bears the first fruit of love in us, enabled and empowers us to live life of love, we start and thrive to love even though our love remains imperfect due to the sinful nature that still lingers within us.

6)    And also one more fact we have to recognize is that we Christians have been called to love. In other words, love is our mission.

I mean, in this end era, when lawlessness will abound, causing the love of many to grow cold as Matthew 24:12 says, we are called to live in love, as our proclamation of Christ’s “love” through our life of love, in this world, since having personally experienced Christ’s love and being compelled by that very love so that we may proclaim His kingdom of love to the entire world.

7)    Yet, how far should we go in loving? In Matthew 5:45-48, our Lord said, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” And then in verse 44, He said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” adding, “So that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. For God makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” So we have to love even our enemies.

Of course, we heard stories of great Christians of the past who forgave those who killed their children and went a step further to adopt them as sons, raising them into excellent Christians. And also we also occasionally hear through media the news that Christians, being martyred in countries that still persecute Christianity, delivering messages of love and of forgiveness to those who persecute them.

However, living here in a Christian country, sometimes we struggle with how best to put the Lord’s commandment to “love even your enemies” into practice.

Regarding this, Jason Mitchell, in his book “No Easy Jesus,” provides an answer to that question, I mean, he says: in modern society, “our enemies are not grandiose villains. Rather, they are much more common and ordinary adversaries who have taken something away from us. For instance, I am referring to people who steal our parking spaces or steal our time, causing us to waste it.”

And he exhorts us that, “Love those who have hurt us, speak kindly to those who have caused us pain, and do good to those who have wronged us,” then this “living a life in complete harmony with God’s character”—that is, “when we forgive others exactly as we have been forgiven—our character is molded anew according to His character.”

And also “these ways of living are visible expressions that make God’s character and the work He is performing within us and in the world visible.”

8)    That’s why, our Lord, on the very night before He suffered, declared that “By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” in John 13:35. Therefore, I hope that throughout this year, we may all live by love that flows from faith so that we may be known as His disciples in the world for His glory.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that we have to live in love, since faith works in love. So after reflecting our life and checking where we are living in love, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And also, we became to know that the reason why we have to live is not only because God commanded it, but also, because it is our identity and also our mission. So after reflecting our life and meditating whether we are living in love, obey to God’s commandments to follow our identity as our calling, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.