But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. (Galatians 5:22, 23, NKJV).
Divine Lawlessness
It used to be that protecting the unborn was noble and good. Now the world calls it extreme and narrow-minded. "Keep your stinky Christian laws out of my uterus!" touted a pro-abortion placard not too long ago, except it said something more pejorative than 'stinky'.
It used to be that supporting and dignifying the nuclear family unit was a good thing. Now if you're not 100% behind all kinds of marriage and family configurations then you're a Neanderthal bigot. (My apologies for the gross broad-brushing of all Neanderthals by that characterization.)
Christians should not be surprised at this turn of events. It was prophesied by Isaiah 2500 years ago: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20, NKJV). Whoa! That's a pretty concise summary of the truth underneath what passes for modern wisdom these days. Its shocking really, how accurately the Bible anticipates the rampant reversal of values we are seeing come to fruition right before our eyes. Fairly soon, I expect to see some international laws passed that would require behavior that only a generation ago would have been considered aberrant or humiliating.
Fortunately, human legislation can never, and will never, supersede divine law. No matter what insanity some elite political body devises or imposes in the future, against such things as outlined in the focus verse above there is no law. From the Lord's perspective, it will NEVER be illegal to bear the fruit of the Spirit.
In ancient Israel, devout Jews would live or die by slavish adherence to the body of religious and ceremonial regulations that blossomed around the 10 Commandments, and the 613 statutes and judgments surrounding life in their Theocracy. (If you think 613 laws are a lot, consider the number of pages that comprise the latest attempt at government controlled Healthcare in the U.S.) These embellishments were contained in writings like the Talmud or Mishna and sought to clarify God's laws. Of course, there's a fundamental flaw in thinking that God's laws needed clarification, but that's besides the point.
This body of proscribed behavior contained 100's of rules and definitions, for instance, about what God meant when He said, "you shall do no regular work on the Sabbath." Leave it to the legal geniuses of our species to take something beautifully simple and throw lots of mud on it. It was from this flimsy foundation of faulty thinking that the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day tried to trip Him up and turn public opinion against Him. Sounds a lot like the opinion czars of today, no?
They contrived a scandal out of the fact that Jesus actually made a man who had been an invalid for 38 years completely well on the Sabbath. I'm sure some of these legalists were intensely sincere about their reasoning, condemning Jesus by the letter of the law, while completing missing the underlying and profound spirit or intent of the law. Nevertheless, Paul's statement above is in direct opposition to that kind of misguided and malign thinking. His point, then and now, is that bearing the fruit of the spirit, being filled with agape love. godly joy, peace that surpasses understanding, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control ALWAYS trumps any man-made legislative attempt to curtail, define or limit such things. It is NEVER illegal to do good or be kind or love the way God loves, no matter what religious, cultural or legal tradition or statute of men may declare. God's laws cannot be abrogated or sublimated to man's laws. Ever.
That is very good to know and understand and here's why: it frees us to be like Christ. We are not bound by ritual or ceremony. We needn't wear some kind of religious uniform, or walk in lock-step to some external, superficial attempt by others to control our godliness.
But it goes even beyond that. It is an implicit warning by the Holy Spirit Himself not to even try to invent such restrictions. It's useless and futile and makes us part of the enemy in this ages-long war against God. Against emulation of Christ, there IS NO LAW, and NEVER WILL BE.
