What does it mean that all the law is fulfilled in one word (Galatians 5:14)?

He then touches on the point of the practical consequences of this doctrine, and explains how the doctrine of perfect grace was connected, without the law, with a walk worthy of the people of God. Ye have then been called, he says, unto liberty: only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh — which the flesh would readily do. God gave the law to convince of sin; the flesh would use it to work out righteousness. He acts in grace, that we may be above sin and outside its dominion: the flesh would use grace as an occasion to sin without restraint. The Christian, truly free from the yoke of sin, as well as from its condemnation (for Christ risen is his life as well as his righteousness, and the Spirit is the power and guide of his walk towards glory, and according to Christ), instead of serving his lusts, seeks to serve others, as free to do it in love. Thus the law itself is fulfilled, without our being under its yoke: for the whole practical law is summed up in this word: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

Verse 14. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." They had desired, in their ignorance, to be under law; which meant, if it had any meaning, a wish to serve. This wish the apostle now meets in a manner which must needs command their approbation, by citing for them the second of the two great commandments of the law. And although he does not here notice the other and greater of the two, because the old commandment has taken a new form since God Himself fulfilled it in His Son (1 John 4:10-11), yet he is bold to say that all the law is fulfilled in this one saying; because the law is one and not many, and the self-same Spirit pervades all its words. As, therefore, the apostle, when reasoning elsewhere on the impossibility of the law's fulfilment on the part of one carnal and sold under sin, had made the command, "Thou shalt not covet" a decisive vindication of his doctrine (Rom. 7); so now the fulfilling of the old commandment in the newness of the spirit is truly a doing of the whole law. Love is the end of the commandment, the fulfilling of the law (1 Tim. 1:6; Rom. 13:10); not any longer by the force of penal obligation, but in successful imitation, by the grace of God, of Him who took its heavy burden from our necks (1 Cor. 11:1). None who loves not God can truly love his brother; to keep the lesser charge is, therefore, to fulfil the whole commandment And how shall this be done, save in the power of a faith which works by love? Let their legal teachers exemplify to these Galatians their own doctrine of preceptive obedience if they could; let their modern followers do the like now if they can. Meanwhile let true believers ,know, and well remember, that their love to Godward is but a faint echo of God's perfect love in Christ to them; and that, if they love God, whom they have not seen, they must needs love their brother also, who is before them in His name and likeness to invite their kindness every day (1 John 4:20-21).

In resuming the subject of the liberty unto which they had been called, he has to warn them that the flesh would take occasion by it. Liberty is not license for the flesh, but freedom from the law of sin in it. It is freedom to serve one another in love. Thus and thus only the law, if they turned to law, was fulfilled, not by putting themselves under it, but by the love which was the effect of the presence of the Spirit of God; for "the fruit of the Spirit is love." They had, by turning back to Judaism and circumcision, given a place to the flesh; what wonder then if it had come out in biting and devouring one another as to questions about which the flesh could strive? The flesh in us is proud, vain-glorious, and self-sufficient, easily finding fault with each other; while love serves in the desire that every saint may be in the power of that grace which makes no demand upon us, but ministers everything to us.

The character of the true child of God is simple. There is no great, involved scheme of practice pressed upon him, no legal forms and ceremonies as contained in the Old Testament. In fact, the Law is fulfilled in one brief sentence, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (v.14). This is the root of things, which the law searches out. Love of others absolutely cuts off selfishness, which is the unvarying motive of the legalist, for he seeks blessing for himself, not for others. So the more legal-minded one is, the more thoroughly is he ignoring the claims of the Law in which he boasts!

Had it been possible to take away Christ's moral liberty - which was not possible - it would have been by preventing Him from obeying the will of the Father. This was the food He ate (John 4). As a perfect Man, He lived by every word which came forth out of the mouth of God. He chose to die, to drink the bitter cup which the Father had given Him, rather than not obey Him, and glorify Him in drinking it. Christianity is the liberty of a new nature that loves to obey, and to do the will of God. It is true that the flesh, if not kept in subjection, can use this liberty to satisfy its own desires, just as it used the law, which had been given to convict of sin, to work out righteousness. But the true liberty of the new man - Christ our life - is the liberty of a holy will, acquired through the deliverance of the heart from the power of sin, liberty to serve others in love. All the law is fulfilled in one word - "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The Christian can do still more, he can give himself for others; or, at the least, following the direction of the Spirit, he fulfils the law in love. But if they devoured one another in selfishness, contending about circumcision and the law, "take heed," says the apostle, "that ye be not consumed one of another."

This is the subject that the apostle takes up and handles henceforward in our epistle. We have seen the question of justification entirely settled; now we have the walk or practical holiness. Again he insists upon liberty. We might suppose that he had said enough about it, after having charged them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free, and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. But no. In the domain of holiness this liberty is needed, just as much as for justification; and therefore says he, "Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty." That is, it characterizes our calling. Only, says he, it is not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, or you are not to use license: do not turn this liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. There he showed that there is a faith that works by love, (as said a few verses before;) so now he shows that the object of that love should be the helping one of another. It is not for the purpose of putting you under the law, but that you may serve one another" "for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Had they not been trying the law? And what had been the result? He says, You have been biting and devouring one another: that is not fulfilling law, but lusts. When persons talk about it, or desire to be its teachers, do they ever fulfil it? It begins with confident words, and ends without deed or truth. Whereas, on the contrary, when Christ is the object of the soul, though the law does not occupy the mind, yet is it fulfilled. Christ is the power of God; the law is the strength of sin. I have exactly the same word of God to tell me of Christ and the law; and both are in the same epistle. (1 Cor.) But it does not matter where the subject is entered into; the great point that the Holy Ghost insists on is, not that the law was not a good thing, but that, our nature being horribly bad, there never can be any good got from bringing the law to bear on our evil nature, save condemning it. The question is, What will strengthen my soul for what is good? The answer is, not the law, but Christ. The law, I admit, is excellent. But you have been talking about the law as a means of walking well: what sort of holiness have you been producing? Biting and devouring one another! This is not love. But it is the effect of your use of the law you boast of. "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." Such is the result. The law is a killing, destroying power; not because of its being bad, but because our nature is. And remember that the law bears upon our nature. The law was given not to the new man, but to the old.

(Vv. 12-15.) Seeing, then, the evil effect of this false teaching, the Apostle can only wish that these troublers were cut off from the saints. His love for the truth and the welfare of believers made him intolerant of those whose teaching was destructive of Christian truth, robbing the saints of true liberty, and leading to practice, not only inconsistent with Christianity, but entirely contrary to the law to which they were turning back. "All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." But while the law demands love, it gives no ability to meet its demands; and, being holy, it can only condemn us, seeing we have all failed to meet its demands.

"For brethren ye have been called to liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (vers. 13-15). The Galatians sought power against the flesh to keep it down, and had turned to the law for it. But with what success? What was the practical outcome? Such a low and contentious condition that the very law condemned them, for if it did not teach men to serve one another in love as Christ, the law said at least "thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This the Galatians were evidently not doing, but the opposite; hence the apostle's earnest word of warning. As Rom. 7 shows, law instead of subduing flesh provokes it and draws out all its badness. The law is thus the strength of sin, not of holiness, though in itself holy and just and good (1 Cor. 15:5-6; Rom. 7:7-13).

The blessing could not be more complete, and they had experienced the joy and power of it. This causes him again to express his astonishment at their now refusing obedience to the truth. They had been running well. Who now was hindering them? It certainly did not come from God, this new persuasion. On the other hand, the power of evil was such that a little leaven would soon leaven the whole lump. Evil, in fact, makes continual demands. One departure from truth will necessitate many, in order that there may be perfect consistency. There can be no possible compromise in a path like this, but how great the folly of those who, having experienced the joy and power of divine grace, could now take up with that which was in its nature absolutely contrary! If he looks at them, he may well be disheartened; but in grace itself he had found his refuge. In the Lord he could have confidence that they would be none otherwise minded, and the troubler, whoever it might be, should bear his judgment. He sees easily that there was temptation enough indeed, in a certain sense, to adopt such a thing as circumcision, which would remove, as between Jews and Christians, the whole offence of the cross. The apostle puts it as a thing impossible rightly to cease, and we see the persecution of which he is thinking is on the part of the Jew; and we have seen, it was so distinctly in the history which the Acts has given us. It was to the Jew that the cross was a scandal — the sign, as he has already told us, of One upon whom the law put its curse, of a curse needed to be taken because of the condition of those under law. How impossible for the Jew to allow that the law had nothing but a curse for man, and that the very Saviour of men, to be that, must bear the curse! The cross was the complete condemnation of man before God. It was also complete deliverance for those who accepted the condemnation, but this was the destruction necessarily of all legal righteousness. "I would," he says, they would even cut themselves off which trouble you." He has no possible tolerance for that which was the destruction of Christian truth and principle; his love to the souls of men made him what people would call intolerant. But, in fact, while these men would uphold the law, the very thing that the law required from man was in practice set aside. The Galatians were finding it so. They had given up their true Christian liberty, and yet, after all, were not keeping the law, for all the law was fulfilled in one word, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." They had surely realized the power of divine grace in this way, but now the effect of their legal addition to the gospel was a total change in their awn spirit. They were, as he intimates, "biting and devouring one another." What use to talk about the law in such a state as that? They might well be afraid lest they should "be consumed one of another;" but this is the necessary effect of law ever. The law is claim, demand, and expects, therefore, a full ability on man's part to meet the demand. The spirit of self-righteousness, which alone could take comfort in it on such a principle, has necessarily in it no tenderness, no recognition of one's own infirmity and no compassion for the infirmity of others. The law itself had none and could have none. It was its business to condemn, and it did it well. If a man continued not "in all things written in the book of the law to do them," he was under the curse. How simple, that to accept the law, then, as that under which one was, would be the destruction of all tenderness, of the very spirit which the law really required.

Now, what will avail, what will really serve us for a holy walk? Will the law help us? No; "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love." If, then, we take the law as the rule of life, it cannot help us, as, in that case, we take the responsibility of keeping it perfectly. We fail, and it must curse us. If, on the other hand, we say we are not under it, and therefore at liberty to sin, surely that will not help us; and the flesh may take even such license. What will avail, then, for a holy walk? "Faith which worketh by love." But the law is not of faith, but on the principle of, "Do this." Just here the apostle thinks of the Galatians, and in the depths of his heart's love, he says, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?" How deeply he felt this! What would he feel now? This persuasion to put themselves under law was not of God, who had called them in grace. And how those words are fulfilled now. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Is not this leaven the established religion of Christendom? Yea, the whole lump! He would they were even cut off which troubled the Galatians. He looks up to the Lord, and has confidence. And now he returns to the subject, and warns them against license. "Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this-"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." To love one's neighbour is the very opposite of all lust or self-seeking.