Don’t Be Different AloneSample

A Different Ethic

Let’s recap: Our default as humans is to operate according to our flesh, our selfish desires. But, for those of us who have been set free by Jesus, there’s a different default available—walking by the Spirit. It’s the Holy Spirit who empowers us to actually love our neighbor as ourselves and to use our freedom not to serve ourselves but to love God and serve others.

So, what’s left for us to do? We follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

That’s where Paul goes next in His letter to the Galatians:

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Galatians 5:24-26 NLT

The Holy Spirit is the source of our life in Christ and the source of our power as Christ-followers. He is producing in us what we cannot produce in ourselves—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Notice how each of those attributes has to do with how we relate to other people. So it makes sense—if the whole Law is fulfilled in keeping the command to love your neighbor as yourself—that the Spirit of God would be shaping us into the kind of people who can do that.

Jesus, in His most famous collection of teachings (known as the Sermon on the Mount), had a LOT to say about the Law, holiness, and how we treat others. In this sermon, He introduces the ethics of the kingdom of heaven and shows us what life looks like when God is in charge. It’s an upside-down, line-crossing, enemy-loving, reject-welcoming kind of kingdom. And in Luke’s account of Jesus’ teaching about loving our enemies, he notes something really interesting.

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”Luke 6:35-36 NIV

Wait, hold up. Did Jesus mess up the quote? Isn’t it, “Be holy … just as God is holy”? Yes, but Jesus knew exactly what He was doing, because the part of holiness His audience was missing was mercy. And how often do we lack mercy in how we treat others, too? We can be all about grace and mercy when it comes to ourselves, but as soon as someone hurts us, we want justice!

Have you ever heard the idea that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts aren’t our thoughts? That actually comes from a passage in Isaiah that says:

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:6-9 NIV

How are God’s ways and thoughts so much different from ours? It’s not some great mystery about the way He works; it’s His unmatched mercy. It’s how He freely pardons people. He uses His power to bring about peace, not to dish out punishment.

Does that wreck you a little bit? How does that change your perception of God and what it means to be holy like He is holy? Because the distinguishing trait that God in the flesh—Jesus—chose to draw our attention to in His sermon is mercy.

What does all this mean? It means that one of the most holy things you can do is show mercy to others.

Challenge: Who do you need to offer forgiveness to? Who do you need to ask for forgiveness from? God’s holy people are to be marked by mercy. So, give it freely and seek reconciliation quickly.