The law of the spirit of Christ Jesus is, at its heart, the law of love: God created us out of love, redeemed us out of love, and sets us free so that His love can flow through us to other people. In this message, Dr. William P. Hohman shows that God chooses the weak and the outsider on purpose, and then follows Ruth, a foreign widow, whose steadfast love toward her bitter mother-in-law led to the birth of David’s grandfather and, in time, to Jesus.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for walking in love this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message belongs to a teaching series at NTC Ministries on the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which grew out of an earlier series on Isaiah 52, 53 and 54. It was preached shortly before Christmas and runs about 77 minutes, closing with communion and prayer. Pastor Hohman opens by recapping the series before turning to the Book of Ruth.
His thread is simple: God is love, love needs someone to receive it, and faith works best in an atmosphere of love. Ruth becomes the picture of that steadfast love in an ordinary life, and of what God can build from it.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Dr. William P. Hohman |
| Series | The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, #7 |
| Main text | Romans 8:2–4; Lamentations 3:21–24; the Book of Ruth |
| Key theme | God’s steadfast love, received and passed on to others |
| Length | About 77 minutes, ending in communion |
Love, Not Loneliness: Why God Created Us
Pastor Hohman recalls a college class in Dallas where the instructor taught that God created man because He was lonely. He says the Lord immediately spoke to his heart that this was not true and pointed him to Malachi 3, where God declares that He does not change (Malachi 3:6). If God had been lonely before creation, He would still have been lonely after it.
God is sovereign, existing without any outside aid or support. But He is love, and love needs an object to be expressed to in order to be realized. So God created man to receive His love. When man fell, God came as a man to redeem us, because He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16). It was love, not nails, that held Jesus to the cross.
That love has now been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5), and whoever loves is born of God, because God is love (1 John 4:7–8). The more we know Him, the more we love people. Pastor Hohman links this to faith: faith works through love (Galatians 5:6), and of faith, hope and love, the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). God wants us to build environments of love, because that is where faith works.
He is careful to separate this from self-love. Anything other than the love of God is just lust, self-desire, and that is why fights and wars break out, as James says (James 4:1–2). Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). Held-on offense, he says, works like rust on a car: unseen, it quietly eats away at our joy, attitudes and vision until it is exposed and dealt with.
God Chooses the Weak and the Outcast
When Jesus came to redeem man, He did not choose the people who thought they had it all together. When the religious leaders complained, He answered that the healthy do not need a physician, the sick do (Matthew 9:12). One of the first people He revealed Himself to as Messiah was the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, who had had five husbands (John 4:16–26).
At His birth, the angels announced the Savior to shepherds in the field (Luke 2:8–11). Pastor Hohman explains that shepherds were the lowest class of society, uneducated and excluded. He recalls how David’s brothers sneered at him for leaving those few sheep in the wilderness (1 Samuel 17:28). Yet God sent His angels to them first.
The religious system had become rigid. People argued over whether you could light a fire or make a meal on the Sabbath. They hired people to count out peppercorns so that a tenth of their mint, anise and cumin went to God, while they neglected the weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23–24). The letter of the law just keeps telling you that you are not doing it right.
Paul makes the same point in 1 Corinthians 1:26–31: not many wise, mighty or noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish and the weak things of the world, so that he who glories should glory in the Lord. He mentions that historians and theologians write that Paul, trained under Gamaliel, was angry that God chose Peter, a fisherman, to lead. Yet God met Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3–5) and used him to write much of the New Testament.
No church is perfect, he says, because we are all average people who need the Lord. Understanding this lets love and compassion flow. Even when believers are slow to change, he keeps his faith that He who began a good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6).
The Law of the Spirit of Christ Jesus: One Law, One Commandment
Pastor Hohman returns to Romans 8:2–4. What the law could not do, because it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son, so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk according to the Spirit. We are the weakness of the law, he says. Walking in the Spirit is not trying to perfect the law; it is letting Jesus, the perfecter, work out His goodness in us. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
This is not a license for careless living. Grace teaches us how to live, and the last days will bring terrible times because people lack self-control (2 Timothy 3:1–3). But our focus is God, not the devil. Is God mad at you? Of course not. The prodigal son told his father he was as good as dead to him, yet the father ran to meet him, not to beat him, and threw a party (Luke 15:11–32).
That is why every church service should feel like a wedding rehearsal for the marriage supper of the Lamb, not a funeral. He remembers being backhanded as a boy for whispering in church. Our sufficiency is from God, who made us ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:4–6). He renews your youth like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:5).
The kingdom of heaven, he teaches, has one law and one commandment. The law of the spirit of Christ Jesus makes us free from the law of sin and death, and the one commandment is John 13:34–35: love one another as I have loved you. They are the same thing. James calls it the royal law: you shall love your neighbor as yourself (James 2:8–9).
He uses the lights in the room to explain it. They only shine because electricity flows in and flows out, a full circuit. Many people say they gave their life to Jesus, but no light is on, because love comes in and nothing goes out. In his own home, he says, the family worked at building an atmosphere of love, and that is where words of wisdom and knowledge flowed.
Steadfast Love That Never Ceases
Reading mostly from the English Standard Version that day, Pastor Hohman has the church read Lamentations 3:21–24 aloud. Jeremiah, grieving over Israel, calls something to mind and so has hope: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” He explains that the Greek word for hope, elpis, means always expecting better, no matter what happens.
God’s love does not change with our performance. He loves you today as much as on your closest day with Him. Pastor Hohman also stresses God’s humility. In Genesis 2:7, God knelt and breathed into dirt to create Adam. Jesus was born in a stable, washed feet, rode a donkey and humbled Himself to the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8–11).
The word behind steadfast love, he explains, is hesed. He calls it perhaps the most complete word for the love of God, translated elsewhere as loving kindness, mercy or goodness. It is not based on our significance. On the worst day of your life, you can still come boldly to the throne of grace for help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16), and when you pray, believe that you receive (Mark 11:24).
God chose Israel not because they were many but because He loved them (Deuteronomy 7:7–8), and He keeps showing that love. Tax collectors and sinners drew near to Jesus while the Pharisees grumbled (Luke 15:1–2). The goodness of God leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4).
In Hosea 2:19, God says He will betroth us to Himself forever. Pastor Hohman explains that betrothal was a formal arrangement with no way out, unlike a marriage the law allowed to be dissolved. God is like a fisherman who dumps all his bait in the water: He went all in for us. His steadfast love brings peace (Isaiah 54:10) and comfort (Psalm 119:76). When you condemn yourself, you do it without cause.
Ruth: What the Law Excludes, Grace Includes
Pastor Hohman asks the church to write this down: the Book of Ruth shows that what the law excludes, grace includes. Ruth was a Moabite, outside God’s people. During a famine, Elimelech left Bethlehem for Moab with Naomi and their two sons, who married Orpah and Ruth. Elimelech died, and about ten years later both sons died too.
Naomi urged her daughters-in-law to go home. Orpah left, but Ruth clung to her: “where you go I’ll go, and where you lodge I’ll lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:14–18). Pastor Hohman believes Ruth had given her life to Naomi’s God. She was thinking of others, not only herself (Philippians 2:4).
Naomi, meanwhile, had grown bitter and blamed God. Back in Bethlehem she told the women to call her Mara, saying the Almighty had dealt bitterly with her and brought her back empty (Ruth 1:19–22). It was not God who did that, he says. Like Israel complaining in the wilderness, she did not know who God was.
| Word or name | Meaning as taught | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Elpis (hope) | Always expecting better, whatever happens | Lamentations 3:21 |
| Hesed (steadfast love) | Compassion toward others; loving kindness, mercy, goodness | Lamentations 3:22 |
| Betroth | A formal arrangement with no reason ever to end it | Hosea 2:19 |
| Naomi | Delightful, joyful, splendor, grace, pleasant, sweet | Ruth 1:20 |
| Mara | Bitter, angry and discontented | Ruth 1:20 |
| Obed | Servant | Ruth 4:17 |
It was barley harvest, and the poor could glean behind the reapers. Ruth went out to gather enough for a meal. Boaz, the landowner, noticed her, told her to stay in his field, and ordered his men to let extra grain fall for her. Ruth fell on her face and asked why she had found favor as a foreigner. Boaz answered that he had heard what she did for Naomi, and blessed her under the Lord’s wings, where she had come for refuge (Ruth 2:8–13).
Naomi recognized Boaz as a close relative, one of their redeemers (Ruth 2:20). Under the law, a relative could redeem a widow by buying her late husband’s land and taking on its debts and assets. Naomi coached Ruth to wash, anoint herself and lie at Boaz’s feet (Ruth 3:1–5). At midnight she asked him to spread his wing over her, for he was a redeemer (Ruth 3:8–11). A closer relative declined, unwilling to split his children’s inheritance, so Boaz redeemed her.
Boaz married Ruth and she bore a son (Ruth 4:13–17). The women who once heard Naomi call herself bitter now blessed the Lord, who had not left her without a redeemer, and said Ruth was better to her than seven sons. Naomi nursed the child; God restored her. They named him Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David. From David’s line came Jesus, born in Bethlehem.
Love in Action: An Empty House and a Borrowed Van
Pastor Hohman asks what God might do when you walk in love toward your boss, co-workers, husband or wife. Everything we have is the Lord’s, and if we see a brother in need and shut up our compassion, how does the love of God abide in us (1 John 3:17)?
He tells of a home in town they had remodeled and needed to sell. As they put up the sign, a van circled twice and a man asked if his family could live there. His wife had fallen from a loft while they built a cabin and was paralyzed from the neck down, and they had lost their home to the bills.
After talking with his wife Pam, the pastor let them live there. A year later the man insisted on paying $100 a month, later $300, before moving on. Pastor Hohman says finances began to come in afterward, including an unexpected inheritance on Pam’s side of the family.
Another time he stopped for a young couple with two small children whose car had broken down on the highway on the way to Chicago. He lent them his van, his first brand-new vehicle, and three days later it came back. When the man asked why, Pastor Hohman told him about his best friend, Jesus. More was said in those three days, he believes, than any conversation could have done.
God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Pastor Hohman ties this to Ruth: in His humanity, Jesus came from the line of a woman who said she would love and stay with a bitter mother-in-law no matter what. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:8). Moses prayed for God to satisfy us in the morning with His mercy (Psalm 90:14), and that is something to meditate on daily.
Walking in Love This Week
The message closes with communion (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Pastor Hohman quotes David asking what he could render to the Lord for all His benefits, and answering that he would take up the cup of salvation (Psalm 116:12–13). Refusing what God gives, he says, is like choosing to stay Mara when God wants to make you Naomi again.
- Start the day in His love. Before anything else, remind yourself that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and His mercies are new every morning.
- Refuse self-condemnation. When you fail, run to the throne of grace instead of away from it. God is not mad at you.
- Close the circuit. Let the love you receive flow out in one concrete act of compassion this week.
- Look for the outsider. Like Boaz with Ruth, notice the person no one else is noticing and make room for them.
- Stay committed to difficult people. Ruth stayed with a bitter Naomi; keep loving someone who is hard to love.
- Expect better. Practice elpis: expect today to be better than yesterday because God loves you.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Recap: the series and Isaiah 52–54
- 1:09 God did not create man because He was lonely
- 3:09 Romans 5:5 and 1 John 4: God is love
- 4:19 Faith works by love; why wars happen
- 6:37 Jesus chose the sick, not the healthy
- 7:39 The woman at the well and the shepherds
- 9:57 Straining at gnats: mint, anise and cumin
- 12:19 1 Corinthians 1: God chooses the weak
- 14:23 Why Paul was angry, and how God used him
- 17:10 Romans 8:2–4 and the weakness of the law
- 18:06 The prodigal son and a Father who runs
- 21:41 2 Corinthians 3: the letter kills, the Spirit gives life
- 22:56 One law, one commandment: John 13:34–35
- 26:19 Lamentations 3: hope and steadfast love
- 29:37 A humble God breathes into dirt
- 32:15 Hesed: the word for steadfast love
- 33:29 Deuteronomy 7 and Luke 15
- 35:39 Hosea 2:19: betrothed forever
- 41:37 No condemnation; turning to Ruth
- 47:14 Ruth clings to Naomi
- 48:42 Naomi becomes Mara
- 52:05 Ruth gleans in Boaz’s field
- 1:00:34 The birth of Obed, grandfather of David
- 1:04:31 The house given to a family in need
- 1:09:19 Communion and the borrowed van
Frequently Asked Questions
Does walking in the Spirit mean rules no longer matter?
No. Pastor Hohman says plainly that freedom in Christ does not mean throwing caution to the wind. Grace teaches us how to live, and Scripture warns of hard times when people lack self-control. The difference is the source. Instead of trying to perfect the law in our own strength, we walk after the Spirit and let Jesus work His goodness in us, which fulfills what the law was always aiming at.
Why does this sermon spend so much time on Ruth?
Because Ruth shows steadfast love in an ordinary life. She was a foreigner the law kept out, yet she committed herself to a bitter mother-in-law and found refuge under God’s wings. Pastor Hohman uses her to show that grace includes the people the law excludes, and that one person’s faithful love can shape history, since her son Obed became the grandfather of David.
What does an atmosphere of love have to do with miracles?
Pastor Hohman teaches that faith works by love, so love is the environment where faith grows strong. He says that is where miracles take place and where words of wisdom and knowledge flow. A believer who receives God’s love but never passes it on is like a light with power coming in and none going out. The light only comes on when the circuit is complete.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Romans 8:2–4 — the law of the Spirit of life
- John 13:34–35 — the new commandment
- 1 Corinthians 1:26–31 — God chooses the weak
- 2 Corinthians 3:4–6 — the Spirit gives life
- Lamentations 3:21–24 — mercies new every morning
- Hosea 2:19 — betrothed forever
- Ruth 1:14–18 — Ruth clings to Naomi
- Ruth 4:13–17 — the birth of Obed
- Romans 5:8 — while we were still sinners
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message encouraged you, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the love of God.
