“You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” NIV
Freedom…a state in which somebody is able to act and live as he or she chooses, without being subject to any undue restraints or restrictions.
In this verse, Paul is writing to the churches in Galatia because many of the new believers here are Gentiles who are heavily influenced by Jewish church leaders. The Jewish leaders themselves struggle between growing up as strict followers of the law, and the liberty they have found with faith in Jesus. Now they love Jesus, and accept his teachings, but boy is it hard to let go of that legalistic training! How can these Gentiles be welcomed into this faith without having to go through all the red tape we’ve already endured? Why shouldn’t they have to suffer like we did? The message in this letter from Paul is that we all are free from trying to earn God’s favor through following rituals, or obeying a set of rules. He wrote to refute the Jewish leaders and move them back to the pure gospel – that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus and nothing else.
However, Paul says pretty clearly that we are not to use this newfound freedom to do as we please. “Well, I’ve got Jesus, it’s all good. I can do whatever I want…sin, not sin, doesn’t matter anymore because I’m free.” We are given this gift of freedom for a purpose – to glorify God by loving service to others.
Our freedom includes not only releasing us from the impossible task of following the law as prescribed by the Jewish leaders, but in a broader perspective, we have a freedom from the DESIRE to sin. If I am a Christ-follower, I am a new creation, the Holy Spirit lives in me and actively works at decreasing my desire to sin. That’s freedom!
I pray the Holy Spirit guards our hearts and keep us from being legalistic (high in truth, low in love). Help us to not be judgmental. Rather, bless us with unending opportunities to serve others so that we may glorify God!
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