In the closing chapters of Galatians, we see the relationships between Law, the Holy Spirit (contrasted with the flesh), and Love in God’s plan for His people.
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Heart, soul, and mind are words of overlapping meaning; it is as if Jesus is saying that we are to love our God with everything we have got. And He is effectively defining for us the purity of heart of which He had elsewhere said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). Purity of heart is indeed a matter of willing one thing – namely to live everyday of one’s life loving God.
Note that loving God and loving our neighbour fulfill the Law, as expressed by the Lord Jesus; and loving God and others is essentially an aspect of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Contrast this with life in the flesh: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, fractions….all these are elements contrary to love, and these can be going on in our hearts although externally, we may appear ‘decent’, ‘loving’ and ‘politically correct’.
But in this sharing, we want to concentrate on what loving God means essentially. When we say we love God, it is a matter of saying and meaning what the psalmist said, “There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25) – nothing, that is, that we would not consent to lose if adhering to God required it. It is a matter of wanting and valuing ‘fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3) more than I want or value anything else in this world. It is in fact a matter of making knowing and loving and pleasing and praising God my task for life and of seeking to lead others into the same God-glorifying life pattern. This is at the heart of evangelism and discipleship; it is at the heart of God’s eternal purpose for His people – to be able to enter into the wondrous harmonious circle of fellowship of the Trinity, where love, at the highest degree, reigns. And it is only made possible and effective by the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s people – when this love blossoms, the Law is fulfilled,and the deep fellowship of God’s people with the Triune God becomes a reality (and the fruit of the Spirit is beautifully and elegantly displayed).