The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 6 — Love Is the Royal Law

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the law of love. In this sixth message of the series, the pastor teaches that God does not change us by handing us another set of rules but by pouring His love into us and letting it flow out to others. Love is the royal law, the one commandment of the kingdom, and it creates the only atmosphere in which faith works, blessing thrives and lives are changed.

He traces the opposite atmosphere back to its source, the fall of Lucifer in Ezekiel 28, and shows how gossip, discord and contempt still divide families and churches today. This teaching continues from The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #4: Gifts That Work by Love. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary, every Scripture linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway, a timestamped outline and practical steps.

Sermon at a Glance

This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on December 17, 2024. It runs about 57 minutes and ends with a prayer asking God to change the heart and fill it with His love. The pastor opens with a short recap of the series before moving into new material on the origin of a false atmosphere and how love answers it.

His recurring picture is a light bulb. Current has to come in one side and go out the other for the bulb to glow. In the same way, God’s love comes into our lives and flows out to others, and that is how His goodness is seen in the world.

The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Is Love

The pastor begins with two promises. The Lord will perfect that which concerns me (Psalm 138:8), and He who has begun a good work in you will complete it (Philippians 1:6). The apostles understood the changing power of God’s love and wanted everyone to know it, not another law but a new law in the kingdom.

Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10), and He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Our part, the pastor says, is to let Him: Lord, love me, I am accepting Your love. Then we let it flow through us to other people.

The key text is Romans 8:2–4: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” What the law could not do, because it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His Son. The pastor is blunt about the weakness: it is me in my life, not you in my life. Blaming someone else for the weakness of the law, he says, is lust.

Being spiritually minded does not mean throwing caution to the wind. It means trusting God in His goodness. His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22–23). Religion steeped in law says God is mad at you and will destroy you unless you change, and that is condemnation. But God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (John 3:17).

The pastor explains that saved is an all-encompassing word. It is more than going to heaven; it means to be delivered, healed, prospered and made to grow and increase. When the seed of life comes into you, everything changes, but only in an environment of love.

An Atmosphere for Growth

To show why atmosphere matters, the pastor describes two identical houseplants. Shout at one every day about how ugly it is, and speak kindly to the other about how lovely it is. The one that hears good words thrives; the other dies. The law brings death, but the Spirit brings life, and the Spirit is love.

So we must be patient with ourselves, and we must want to change. The only person who will not change is the one who does not want to. The pastor calls imposing misery on others oppression, a wet blanket that puts out the fire, and says it is exactly what Satan wants to do. Evil company corrupts good habits (1 Corinthians 15:33), so protect your life in the love of God.

Wanting others to change so life gets easier for me is lust, he says, and it does not work. What works is wanting to be changed myself. Then wisdom and understanding come, and patience with them. He tells of nights he went without sleep to pray, Lord, help me understand Pam, rather than demanding that his wife change. When he prays for others now, it is that God would reveal His love to them.

That is why believers are 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). Bad seed in bad soil with little water and light will not produce much. Good seed in good soil with water and sunlight thrives. The atmosphere for our lives is to be love, not lust.

The table below follows the contrast the pastor draws between the two atmospheres through the whole message.

The Royal Law: One Commandment

In the kingdom of heaven, the pastor says, there is one law and one commandment, and they are the same. John 13:34–35 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” When that happens, the current runs in and out and the light comes on for everyone to see. He who does the truth comes to the light (John 3:21).

From The Passion Translation of Galatians 5:6, he reads that all that matters now is faith that works and expresses itself through love. Seek the love of God, and the changes you want will come, along with changes you did not know you needed.

He returns to Jacob, the heel-grabber and supplanter who stole his brother’s birthright by pretending to be someone he was not. What turned him? Love. He fell in love with Rachel (Genesis 29:18–20) and took a whole different path. Later, after wrestling with God and asking for a blessing, his name was changed to Israel, prince with God (Genesis 32:26–28). Royalty now.

That is why the law of love is called royal. James 2:8–9 says if you fulfill the royal law, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin. The pastor applies it plainly: helping only those who can benefit you puts you in an atmosphere that will produce the opposite of what you hope for. God is our very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1), but only the one who wants help can be helped.

He ends the recap with Galatians 5:13–15. You were called to liberty; do not use it as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another, for all the law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed.

Where the Counterfeit Atmosphere Began

To show where the opposite atmosphere started, the pastor turns to Ezekiel 28:11–19, the lament for the king of Tyre. He explains what students of hermeneutics call the law of double reference, a word spoken to one person that also addresses another. The first instance is Genesis 3:15, spoken to the serpent and to the devil. Another is when Jesus told Peter to get behind Him, Satan (Matthew 16:21–23).

The king of Tyre, whom he identifies from the historian Josephus, lifted up his heart and said, I am a god (Ezekiel 28:2). The pastor sees here a picture of the coming Antichrist and, behind it, Satan himself, whose five “I will” boasts appear in Isaiah 14:12–14.

Ezekiel describes a being who was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, covered with every precious stone, the anointed cherub who covers. The pastor compares him to the cherubim over the mercy seat. He teaches that the Hebrew word for mercy, chesed, is the closest Old Testament word to the Greek agape, the love of God. Lucifer was perfect in his ways until iniquity was found in him.

He was cast out, and in Revelation 12:4–9 his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven, and his angels were cast down with him. The pastor teaches that Satan defiled even heaven’s environment. That is why the risen Jesus told Mary not to cling to Him because He had not yet ascended (John 20:17). In his reading, Jesus’s blood was presented in heaven to cleanse it, which is why He later told the disciples He had flesh and bones (Luke 24:39).

Discord and the Hand That Lifts

What went wrong in Lucifer? Ezekiel says, “By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within.” The pastor explains that trading here describes a traveling merchant, like the peddlers of the Old West who carried goods from one settlement to the next. Satan went from angel to angel, carrying stories: God is not using your gifts the way He should; look at what happened over there; I don’t want to say anything, but. He defiled the sanctuaries by the iniquity of his trading.

That counterfeit love is lust, a fire that consumes. It is why Paul said it is better to marry than to burn (1 Corinthians 7:9), and why Peter lists a busybody in other people’s matters alongside a murderer (1 Peter 4:15). The pastor recalls two weddings where relatives burning with jealousy disrupted the celebration.

Proverbs 6:12–19 lists six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination. The first is a proud look and the last is one who sows discord among brethren. The pastor explains that we communicate by gesture, by words, and most powerfully in the spirit. Walk into a room where people have been talking about you and you feel the heaviness at once.

He contrasts two Hebrew words for hand. Kaf is the hand that pushes down, as in his father’s old warning that he would cuff him upside the head. Yad, he teaches, is used of the hand of God, an outstretched hand that lifts up, like Jesus reaching down for sinking Peter (Matthew 14:30–31). That is what love does. Discord, by contrast, drives a wedge between people, just as Satan did between the angels and God.

Tolerated discord, the pastor says, works like pop-ups on a computer. You put up with it, and a week or a month later the same heaviness keeps reappearing. You cannot break it yourself, but you can take the step: Father, I need Your love; forgive me for allowing this. When Paul became a man, he put away childish things (1 Corinthians 13:11), including the baby’s “me, me, me.”

Love Covers: Noah’s Sons and David

1 Peter 4:7–8 says the end of all things is at hand, so be serious and watchful in your prayers, and above all have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins (Proverbs 10:12).

The pastor illustrates with Genesis 9:18–27. After the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, drank the wine and lay uncovered in his tent. Ham saw it and told his brothers outside. Shem and Japheth laid a garment on their shoulders, walked backward and covered their father without looking. Ham and his line received a curse; Shem and Japheth received a blessing.

He believes Ham was looking for a flaw in his father and joyfully spread it. He compares it to people who dishonor ministers of the gospel online, and reminds them that God says not to touch His anointed ones (Psalm 105:15). Faith works by love; it is the only atmosphere where blessing thrives. God did the same for Israel: when it was the time of love, He spread His wing over her and covered her nakedness (Ezekiel 16:8).

David is the other picture. A shepherd boy who lived in God’s presence, he was sent with food for his brothers while Goliath taunted Israel morning and evening for forty days. In 1 Samuel 17:26–32, David asked who this uncircumcised Philistine was that he should defy the armies of the living God. He did not call them cowards. He saw them as God saw them.

His eldest brother Eliab accused him of pride and insolence, but David answered that there was a cause and volunteered to fight. That, the pastor says, is what God wants: to be so saturated in His love that you can face life’s challenges head-on and say, I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord (Psalm 118:17). Believers are kings and priests, but only under the royal law of love will they see the fruit of that calling.

He closes with 1 Corinthians 13:4–8: love suffers long and is kind, does not envy, does not seek its own, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Living the Royal Law This Week

The pastor ends by saying you will never have a miracle worker in your life if you never admit you need a miracle. You cannot change you, but God can. Here are steps drawn from this message:

• Pray to be changed. Ask God to change you rather than demanding that others change to make life easier.
• Let love flow out. Receive God’s love each day and pass it on, so the current runs in and out and the light comes on.
• Refuse to trade in stories. Do not carry faults from one person to another; cover them, as Shem and Japheth did.
• Help without partiality. Serve people who cannot repay you, not only those who benefit you.
• Clear the pop-ups. When the same heaviness returns, bring it to God and ask Him to fill you with His love.
• Speak good words. Build an atmosphere at home and church where people and faith can grow.

Timestamped Outline

• 0:00 God will perfect what concerns you
• 1:16 The light bulb and Romans 8:2–4
• 3:22 Mercy new every day; what saved means
• 4:37 Two plants and an environment of love
• 7:00 Wanting to be changed
• 8:22 The letter kills, the Spirit gives life
• 9:39 One commandment: John 13:34–35
• 10:52 Faith working through love
• 12:12 Jacob changed by love
• 13:22 The royal law: James 2:8–9
• 15:43 Called to liberty: Galatians 5:13–15
• 16:47 Ezekiel 28 and the law of double reference
• 19:05 The king of Tyre and the five I wills
• 21:26 The anointed cherub who covers
• 23:37 A third of the stars cast down
• 25:55 Lust, the counterfeit love
• 29:36 The abundance of your trading
• 33:40 Proverbs 6: one who sows discord
• 34:59 The hand that pushes and the hand that lifts
• 38:24 Pop-ups and love that covers
• 39:42 Noah and his three sons
• 47:30 David and Goliath
• 53:48 Love never fails: 1 Corinthians 13
• 55:11 Closing prayer: change me

Law of the Spirit of Life Series

This message is part of a series at NTC Ministries on living by the law of the Spirit of life. Start from the beginning or continue where this one leaves off:

• First message: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #1: No Condemnation in Christ
• Previous: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus #4: Gifts That Work by Love
• You are here: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 6 — Love Is the Royal Law
• Next: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Part 8 — Receiving Love and the Greatest Commandment

Frequently Asked Questions

Does living by the Spirit mean it no longer matters how I live?

No. The pastor says plainly that being free from the law does not mean throwing caution to the wind. It matters how you live. The difference is the source. Instead of trying to keep rules in your own strength, you trust God’s goodness, receive His love and let the Spirit do the changing. He describes love as the atmosphere in which real change actually takes root and grows.

How should I pray for someone I want to see change?

The pastor’s own approach is to stop asking God to change people for his convenience. He prays that God would reveal His love to them, help them understand His love, and give them a heart for His goodness and mercy. He notes that you can only give God permission to change you; other people have to want it themselves. Meanwhile, asking God to change you brings wisdom and patience to help them better.

What is the law of double reference?

It is a principle of interpretation the pastor mentions for students of hermeneutics. A passage addresses one person or situation while also speaking to another behind it. His examples are Genesis 3:15, spoken to the serpent and to the devil; Jesus rebuking both Peter and Satan in one sentence; and Ezekiel 28, which laments the king of Tyre while describing the fall of Lucifer.

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 — a new commandment
• James 2:8–9 — the royal law
• Galatians 5:13–15 — through love serve one another
• 2 Corinthians 3:4–6 — the Spirit gives life
• Ezekiel 28:11–19 — the anointed cherub
• Proverbs 6:12–19 — one who sows discord
• 1 Peter 4:7–8 — love covers a multitude of sins
• Genesis 9:18–27 — Noah’s sons
• 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 — love never fails

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 stirred you to walk in love, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries ready to watch. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in the life of the Spirit.