I grew up in church, so I started picking up on church words when I was very young. One of the terms that stood out to me was someone called the “Holy Ghost.” That was a little spooky to me because almost every ghost I had heard of was mean and scary. People told ghost stories for a reason. Even the kids who dressed up as ghosts on Halloween were at least representing something scary. I knew that Casper was a Friendly Ghost, but he was the only nice ghost I knew about, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to have anything to do with this ghost in the Bible, even if he was supposed to be holy.
Of course, I later learned that the “Holy Ghost” was also called the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is most definitely good. He’s literally the Spirit of God, God in spirit form. The Holy Spirit is not an “it.” The Holy Spirit is not a power to harness, like the Force. The Holy Spirit is a “who,” a “he,” a person in the same sense that God the Father is a person and God the Son is a person. The Holy Spirit is God.
If you’re a Christian, the Holy Spirit took up residence in you the moment you became a Christian. Most believers know this, but I think we take it for granted. So let that sink in for a moment: you have the spirit of God, the Almighty, all-loving Creator of the universe, within you.
Now that we have that settled, let’s take a look at something Paul says in the book of Galatians. Basically, he says that we are to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13) and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14).
The importance of Christians loving others isn’t something that was just taught by Paul. John writes in his first letter, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Then he goes a step further and says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).
Of course, before either Paul or John taught about love, Jesus did:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
That verse is a favorite of a lot of people, but hang out there for a minute and listen to what Jesus says. He says that I am to love other people the way that he loves me. “But, Jesus, you died for me. You gave up your life for me. And I’m supposed to love other people like that?”
Oh, it’s easy to love good people who love us back, who are easy to love, who are loving and lovable. But if Jesus is asking me to love people who hate me, who hurt me, who hurt people who are important to me, who are just plain unlovable, I know I’m not able to do that. Especially if you’re saying that I should love them the way that Jesus loves them. Let’s face it, this commandment of Jesus is pretty much an impossible commandment to keep.
Fortunately for us, God doesn’t expect us to obey this commandment, or any other commandment for that matter – in our own strength. That’s why Paul, right after he told the Galatians to love others, wrote these words:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16-17)
Within the heart of every believer, there is a battle raging, a battle between the Holy Spirit and what Paul here calls “the flesh.” What he means by “the flesh” is the old you, the person you were before Christ, the person you would be without Christ, the natural you, your human nature. It’s the self-destructive part of you. There’s a battle in each of us between what our human nature wants and what the Holy Spirit wants. Unless the Holy Spirit has the upper hand in this battle, we will never be able to love as Jesus loves.
So how can the Holy Spirit win the battle within us? The answer is not to summon up all of your willpower and fight against your human nature on your own. The answer is not just to decide that “somehow, someway, from this point forward I’m going to love.” You can try that, but it won’t work.
The only answer is to surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow him to overcome your human nature. That’s what Paul means when he says to “walk by the Spirit.” To “walk by the Spirit,” to be “led by the Spirit” (v. 18), to “live by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Spirit” (v. 25) means to surrender to the Holy Spirit’s power and direction and guidance in your life.
When it comes to obeying Jesus, our lives are no longer about trying to follow the rules, with those rules as our primary focus, including the rule to love one another. Life is about allowing the Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out to be more like him.
Living the Christian life is not about following a list; it’s about following a person. More specifically, love for others is not something that will happen in your life just because you decide that it will. Love is something that will naturally happen in your life as you surrender to the Holy Spirit.