Galatians 5:1, 13-25
1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 13 For
you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one
another. 14 For
the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your
neighbor as yourself." 15 If,
however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed
by one another. 16 Live
by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For
what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is
opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from
doing what you want. 18 But
if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19 Now
the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21 envy,
drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned
you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law
against such things. 24 And
those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. 25 If
we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself."
·
What Paul says here in the letter to
the Galatians is not something new. He is quoting the book of Leviticus from
the Hebrew Bible and we know that this is the answer Jesus agreed with when he
was asked what the greatest Commandment was.
·
Paul is writing to the Galatian
Christian community because they have fallen under the influence of some
Christian preachers who told them that circumcision and the observation of the
entire Mosaic Law was required of all Christians, no matter what their origin.
Of course, this goes against what Paul’s teaching. Paul felt that the
Galatians, a rather fickle and impressionable people, were falling back into a slavery
to the law of works, the law that requires works, deeds, and things beyond
grace and faith. Paul considered this a type of slavery and he told the
Galatians this: For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do
not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
·
The shackles of this sort of slavery
could be two-fold. For some the question will always be “Did I do enough? Have
I kept the Law perfectly?” Since that is a question that can never have a good
enough answer, the shackles of slavery to “being good enough” could hold us
back. For these people, righteousness and salvation is always in doubt and what
Paul might call the Law of Works works against them.
·
For others, the question becomes “How
could anything else need be done?” For these people who feel that they have
kept the law perfectly, nothing else is needed. They’ve achieved their
salvation by their own efforts and they’ve earned the right to judge others by
the standard of their own perfection. For them, the Law of Works is made to
work for them, but their self-sufficiency works against them.
·
Paul is also working against another
twisted Gospel, one that says that since Christians are freed from observance
of the Law, no laws apply to them. About this, Paul says: For you were called to
freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity
for self-indulgence… There have always been those who disregard the
Law and what it teaches and replace it with rules of self-indulgence. In his
letter to the Philippians, Paul says Their god is the belly. ,
saying in a rather earthly way that these people follow their own way of the
self.
·
Paul opposes all these ways of
returning to slavery, whether it be to a warped view of the Law or to a warped
idea of the self. He states that we are free, that we live by the Spirit, and
are guided by the Spirit.
·
Our lives then are neither
fear-filled nor self-filled. In fact, our lives are given over to the love of
God that shows itself in the commandment to “love your neighbor as
yourself.”
·
If we love our neighbor as ourselves,
we wish no wrong to our neighbor and we do no conscious wrong to our neighbor.
We treat them as we would wish to be treated. This becomes very hard when our
neighbor does not reciprocate and treat us as they might not wish to be
treated.
·
Paul speaks of the fruit of the
Spirit. He is not talking about the gifts of the Spirit, those varied and
wonderful gifts the Spirit gives to individuals for the good of the whole church.
Here he is telling the Galatians… and telling us, by extension… that these
virtues will be found where-ever the Spirit is. These are the fruit of the
Spirit’s presence - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. These are not special manifestations of the power
of the Spirit; these are the ordinary signs of the Spirit’s presence, ones that
might be found in any disciple of Christ. These are worth praying about and
praying for.
·
Those enslaved by self-doubt fear of
the law ask “How good is good enough?”
·
Those shackled to their achievement and
self-sufficiency in following the Law ask “What more could I do?”
·
Those who say they are free from any
law in their self-indulgence ask “What wrong could I do?”
·
Those freed in Christ ask “What does
love lead me to do?” They are freed of the self and rely on the grace of God
that comes to them as a gift.
·
We who are freed in Christ are freed
for more than selfish indulgence; we are freed for service, given to God in our
service to those around us. Luther wrote in his document “On Christian
Freedom”: A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a
Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.
(1520)
·
And so we are, today and every day.
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You
shall love your neighbor as yourself."
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