Ethos of the Kingdom (Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Title: Ethos of the Kingdom
Date: 09-27-2026
Text: Galatians 5:22-23, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Preacher: Pastor Deepak Babu
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” This is what Inigo Montoya says to Vizzini, in the 1987 movie, The Princess Bride, when the latter keeps saying, “Inconceivable” when he actually means “Unbelievable.” The misuse of words is quite common. The problem is that people who misuse words are completely clueless that they are misusing some words. Not only does this cause confusion, but also careless use of words can cause them to take on meanings that were just not there originally.
This happens especially when one word is expected to carry the weight of multiple, quite different, meanings. One example is the English word ‘love’. This word is expected to communicate everything from God’s love for us to the affection between friends, from the erotic attraction between two people to the commitment of a parent for their child. It would be like saying chilli peppers in India and expecting your Indian friend to understand which of the over a dozen common chilli pepper varieties we use that you meant.
Ever since I started here earlier this month, we have been going through this sermon series that I have titled ‘Identity and Vocation of the People of God’. In the first sermon we saw that our identity is to be in the ring with God, that the life of faith is not a bed of roses but one that is essentially a struggle to understand God and God’s purposes in the world in order to align ourselves with those purposes. In the second sermon we saw that the bible never depicts Jesus as a lion, but only as a lamb. Hence, all of God’s purposes, which are implemented by the lamb, are to be accomplished through means that are in alignment with the character of the lamb.
In the third sermon we saw that there are certain principles that are elevated inside God’s kingdom, which Jesus articulated in the Sermon on the Mount and especially the Beatitudes. These principles war against escapist and dominion ways of understanding Christian discipleship. We are to be engaged with the world, but not to overwhelm the world with our priorities. Now, the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in particular are quite action oriented. Jesus explicitly tells us the kind of behavior his disciples ought to embody.
But as the Sermon itself indicates, it is possible to perform acts without having an inward transformation. We can do things that are expected of us without having the inner motivation to do those things but primarily because we wish to elevate ourselves in the eyes of others. This is most dangerous for us when we consider things like the Beatitudes. It is quite easy to think that we are somehow better than others because we act in accordance with the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount. And because this self-delusion is an ever present danger, we need something else. What we need is a transformation of our character from the inside so that our actions are not superficial but driven by deep rooted traits that are increasingly how we can be defined.
We see a similar thing in The Matrix. When Morpheus is first teaching Neo about the Matrix, Neo is unable to operate efficiently in it because he remains tied down to what he would expect in the real world. He keeps trying to understand the virtual world in terms of the physical world and always comes up short with Morpheus besting him time after time.
It is only later in the movie, when he realizes that the virtual world has a different ethos, that he is able to function properly to defeat the Agents. As long as he was attempting to define the virtual world in contrast with its ethos, he was never able to defeat any of the characters in the virtual world. However, once he aligned himself with the ethos of the virtual world, he was able to first rescue Morpheus and later completely befuddle the confused Agents, who had never before faced an adversary so perfectly aligned with the ethos of the Matrix.
In much the same way, our beatific acts - that is those acts that are in alignment with the Beatitudes - will never prove to be of any value for God’s kingdom if we act without aligning ourselves with the ethos of God’s kingdom. We will then be like dogs chasing after our tails but never actually catching them or a person in a rocking chair who thinks that the motion of the chair is actually moving her somewhere. We will be acting for sure, but our misalignment with the ethos of the kingdom will make us fail in the task of being faithful emissaries of the kingdom.
But you may ask me, “Deepak, what about what you said concerning swimming downstream and upstream? If swimming upstream is moving in the direction of life, then should not the difficulties introduced with what you call misalignment actually be positive?” Well, consider that you are driving uphill. Due to the uphill path, there is the built-in opposition introduced by gravity. However, if you decide to attempt to drive uphill with the handbrakes on, well then, there will be opposition for sure. But one of the contributing factors is not in alignment with the journey you are attempting to undertake.
The forces of gravity were a part of the journey because you wanted to drive uphill toward some desirable destination. However, the handbrakes are not in alignment with the journey you were undertaking. In other words, just because something is difficult, it isn’t a sign that you are on the right track. Rather, we must discern what is actually in alignment with our discipleship and what is not. In the case of the car going uphill, you may not see that the handbrake is on. But when you get the smell of burning rubber, you will know something is dangerously wrong.
In much the same way, Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit. Recall Jesus’ teachings about good fruit and bad fruit. The fruit helps you decide about the health of the tree. If the fruit is good, the tree is healthy. If the fruit is bad, the tree is diseased. In the same way, the fruit we bear signifies what or whom we are connected to. If we bear the fruit of the Spirit, we are connected to Jesus through his Spirit. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul lists “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Neither list is intended to be comprehensive. While there is some overlap between the two, each list also has its unique aspects. The lists are much like an impressionist painting, where the overall effects rather than specific details are most important.
Let us first consider the nine words that Paul uses in Galatians and briefly comment on them. The first word he uses is love. We will hold off on discussing this to later in this message because it is too important to deal with briefly.
The second word is joy, translating the Greek word chara. English loses something crucial here because chara is derived from charis, which is the word for ‘grace’. Chara, therefore, is not just joy empty of context, but the delight that we experience and express when we recognize God’s grace in our lives and in the lives of others. When we see God’s grace in our lives, what the Spirit leads us to is a state of rapturous delight about the fact that God loves and favors his children. When you are blessed, I am led to drink deeply from the delight that only God’s Spirit can produce in us.
The third word is peace, which relates to the Hebraic concept of shalom. Peace, in the bible, is not simply the absence of conflict or war, but the presence of everything that makes for wholeness and flourishing. What the Spirit does is produce through us those things that make for wholeness in the lives of everyone around us. Indeed, the very idea of wholeness tells us that there can be no peace at the expense of the wholeness that another person experiences. We are in this together and it is only together that we can enjoy and explore the wholeness that God’s Spirit produces in us.
The fourth word is patience. The Hebrew phrase related to this is erekh appayim, which literally means ‘long of nose’. The idea is that, when we are angry, our nostrils flare up. However, it takes a long time for a person who is long of nose to reach the state of flared up nostrils. You can easily see how this idea relates to patience. However, it is crucial to understand the context too. A person can be deemed to be long of nose only if he/she is facing some aggravating situation that would cause others to have flared up noses. What is being described is a person who does not easily get angry and who does not easily lash out at others.
The fifth word is often translated as ‘kindness’. However, this has nothing to do with being friendly and helpful, as the English word would suggest. Rather, chréstotés involves having a disposition to do what is best for others. I think it is best to think of this as benevolence.
The sixth word is often translated as ‘goodness’. However, I think it is best to understand this word as beneficence. While benevolence addresses the inner disposition that we have toward others, beneficence addresses how we act in accordance with that disposition.
The seventh word is almost always translated as ‘faithfulness’. However, I think in this context it is better to use the idea of ‘trustworthiness’. Are people willing to take me at my word? Or do they suspect that I have some agenda all the time? Are people willing to trust that I have good intentions toward them? Or do they question my motives even when what I do may benefit them?
Now, I know that I have an accent different from what is common in Idaho. Hence, some of you may wonder what I am saying since it may sound confusing. Just this past Thursday, I met with Pastor Duane Anders from Boise. He is my District Superintendent and it was the first time we met. As we were talking, I told him about some events in my life and on a number of occasions I told him I did something after ‘walking Sherlock’. Not knowing that Sherlock is my dog, he had no clue what I was talking about.
He held off for the first few times I used the phrase until curiosity got the better of him. So he asked me what ‘walking Sherlock’ was, wondering if perhaps it was some sort of strange Eastern spiritual practice. We had a hearty laugh when I explained that it was just the mundane act of taking my dog out for a walk. But the thing is that, even though what I said was confusing, Duane did not conclude the worst about me, but asked me his question so that we could be on the same page. That determination to not jump to conclusions is what trustworthiness looks like.
The eighth word is translated as ‘gentleness’, though it would be better translated as ‘meekness’. The word Paul uses is derived from the word Jesus uses when he says, “Come to me… because I am meek” and when he says, “Blessed are the meek.” Meekness is strength under control. When someone corrects me, do I get defensive? Do I feel threatened? Or am I willing to take the correction - whether valid or not - in my stride and not let it affect the way I treat that person? Is my self-worth tied to my being praised by others all the time or can I accept negative comments?
The ninth word is self-control. Whereas meekness is strength under control, self-control is strength made visible in a measured manner. Meekness is more passive, while self-control is active.
Our brief discussion about the fruit of the Spirit reminds me of the interaction between Luke and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. Yoda tells Luke, “If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will.” Luke asks, “Is the dark side stronger?” to which Yoda quickly responds, “No, quicker, easier, more seductive.” The dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive. The way of the Jedi and the ethos of the kingdom takes time, is laborious, and, therefore, less appealing to those who aren’t willing to swim upstream.
Now, we had skipped discussing the word ‘love’. Let us move to that by looking at what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul’s chapter on love in 1 Corinthians is a remarkable one, filled with invaluable nuggets of wisdom. In 2024, when I wrote a series of devotions on the chapter, I needed more than a month to explain all the details in it. We do not have such time today. So allow me to focus on just three key insights. And I would like to view these in light of John’s remarkable declaration in his first letter that “God is love.” If what John says is true, then what Paul says about love must apply not just to us who are called to love each other, but also to God who surrounds us with his love.
First, Paul says that love “does not insist on its own way.” Understand this as saying, “God does not insist on God’s own way.” Since we are called to love each other, it must be true that we are not to insist on our own way. This is a difficult lesson for me. I am quite an opinionated person. And quite obviously, I hold my opinions because I think they are the right opinions. Why else would anyone believe what they do? But I am expected not to insist on my own way. Can you believe it? How much more difficult could Paul have made it?
Second, Paul says that love “keeps no record of wrongs.” Or “God keeps no record of wrongs.” As someone with an excellent memory, this is also particularly difficult. How do you forget when it takes hardly any effort to remember? Does Paul really mean that we should make every effort - and succeed no less - to not remember when people have wronged us? And why would he expect this from us? Well, if I keep no record of wrongs, I can never ask Peter’s question, “How many times should I forgive my brother or sister?” And I can never say to the person who wronged me, “You always do this!” because ‘always’ indicates memory.
Third, Paul says that love “does not rejoice at injustice but rejoices in the truth.” God rejoices in the truth, not at injustice. In the opening sermon of this series I had introduced to one of my pet peeves, namely the section headings in our bibles. Let me introduce you to another today, with the understanding that there are many more pet peeves to come. There are a handful of Greek words - nouns, verbs, and adjectives - that have the stem delta, iota, kappa - I know that sounds like a fraternity or sorority. Anyway, in English this would be the stem with the letters d, i, and k.
Some of these words are dikaios, adikia, dikaiosuné, and dikaioó. All of these derive from the Greek word diké, which means justice. Hence, these words should be understood as meaning ‘just’, ‘injustice’, ‘justice’, and ‘make just’. However, our translations consistently remove the idea of justice from these words. Hence, here the word adikia is commonly translated as ‘unrighteousness’ rather than as ‘injustice’. But these two words have quite different connotations in English. I think the bible is more concerned with justice than with righteousness, whatever that means!
Anyway, note the contrast Paul draws between ‘injustice’ and ‘truth’. Love does not rejoice at injustice but rejoices in the truth. In other words, injustice can only be promoted by falsehood and love wars against this by championing the truth. But who decides what is unjust? Who gets to determine when an injustice has taken place? Here, Jesus’ beatitudes help us. He says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice.” If we can identify someone who is persecuted, we will likely be recognizing someone who is fighting injustice.
And persecution is always something those in positions of power do. Those who do not have power do not have mechanisms at their disposal that they can use to target others. In other words, wherever you see those in power attempting to silence - or perhaps something worse - people with differing perspectives you can be sure that you have identified the persecutor and the persecuted.
There is a contemporary case in point. Recently, rapper Macklemore was slated to open for Ed Sheeran. During two of the concerts Macklemore championed the words ‘Free Palestine’. Following this, facing pressure from Robert Kraft, Sheeran removed Macklemore from the lineup. Later, facing pushback from common people, Sheeran openly wept during one of the concerts. Macklemore has not publicly wept. Sheeran has. What do we do with Jesus’ Beatitude, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted?” How do we understand this?
It’s very simple. Who was silenced? Whose voice was deemed unacceptable? Whose livelihood was treated as dirt? You see, it is possible to fake the principles of the kingdom. It is possible to shed crocodile tears. It is possible to act like you are the one being persecuted. It is possible to act like you care about peace. However, the fruit of the Spirit is different. And love is different. Love makes the lover deny power for the sake of the beloved. Love makes one willing to be disadvantaged if by doing so the beloved will be benefited.
Love moves the focus from oneself to the beloved. Hence, while Sheeran focused on how he had lost friends and support of fans, Macklemore clearly declared that the real victims are the people of Palestine. Love is the ethos of the kingdom. Because we love, we admit that we are not the center, but that those who are suffering in the world, those who are facing injustice in the world, those whose voices are being silenced, are those who need to be at the center of all our concerns.
That is love. Have we not been using this word without knowing what it really means? May God who is love draw us so deep into God’s embrace that we will henceforth use the word correctly and act on it with the fruit that comes from God’s Spirit.