Galatians 5:14 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

NIV: For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

NASB: For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

CSB: For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

NLT: For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

KJV: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

NKJV: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul has repeatedly warned the Galatians not to waste the freedom they have through faith in Christ by living in slavery under the law. Jesus has fully paid for all their sin. They are completely justified before God by being in Christ. They cannot earn any more of God's approval through the law (Galatians 3:23–29).

Now Paul begins to warn the Galatians, and modern readers, as well, about another way to waste the freedom Christ has won for us. Many Bible teachers call it "license," as in having a license to sin. Since we are in Christ and free from condemnation, why not just indulge in everything that might bring us pleasure?

Paul shows why that is a waste of God's gift of freedom and our own lives. Instead, Paul calls his readers to trade all of the law of Moses in for a one-word law: love. He quotes Jesus who was quoting Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39).

The brilliance of this command is obvious. It assumes that we love ourselves in the sense that we know how we would like to be treated. It requires us to take the focus off of ourselves and to use that knowledge of what we would like in order to serve each other. Those who have been loved by God are meant to respond by loving others.

Galatians 5:1–15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. Paul also warns us not to waste our freedom in Christ to selfishly serve ourselves instead of serving each other in love. The entire law is fulfilled in that one word: love. Those who serve themselves, though, will always end up in conflict with each other.

Those who trust in Christ have been set free. Paul's readers were in danger of wasting that freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers were pressuring them into circumcision in order to be sure of being right with God. On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God's Spirit gives us the power to do that when we let Him lead us. Life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian's life.

Galatians 3—4 focused on theology. Galatians 5—6 focus on how Christians should live in response to those truths. In short, we must resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ to follow the law. We must also resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires instead of serving others in love. We can do this by the power of God's Spirit with us. When we give Him the lead, powerful, positive characteristics show up in us. Galatians 6 will show how to use those characteristics to serve each other.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.