Galatians 5:13-16 (NASB)
For you were
called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into
an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole
Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your
neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, take care that
you are not consumed by one another. But
I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Freedom-----what a magnificent word. Freedom has both a physical/secular meaning
and a spiritual meaning. Physically,
freedom, taken from the dictionary, is “the power or right to act, speak, or
think as one wants without hindrance or restraint; also the absence of
subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.” Americans and people from other free
countries take freedom for granted. The
only times in my life where I have experienced what it is like to not have
freedom has been when I have visited prisons.
It is a terrible feeling to have doors locked behind you and realize
that you cannot get out unless someone lets you out. Think of the billions of people throughout
history who have not been free for some or all of their lives due to
enslavement, false imprisonment, dictatorships, and other tyrannical
governments.
Paul uses the word “adelphos”, translated as “brethren”
that refers to all fellow believers in Christ.
He writes that believers in Christ are called to freedom. Spiritually, freedom is liberty (“eleutheria”),
but what kind of liberty? It is liberty
from the power and bondage of sin. When
Jesus said that “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free”
(John 8:32), He was speaking about being liberated from the bondage of
sin. To know the truth is to know Jesus
Christ as He said that He is the way, the life, and the truth (John 14:6). When James wrote about the “law of liberty”
in James 1:25 and 2:12, he was referring to referring to the same thing as Paul
writes here in Galatians 5:13. The law
of liberty is the freedom from the bondage of sin that primarily is manifested
in selfishness, self-centeredness, lust, and greed. The law of liberty is the freedom from self
to love and serve others. That’s why
Paul makes the connection between freedom and loving your neighbor as
yourself.
Conversely Paul warns against using your freedom in
Christ to sin (“opportunity for the flesh”).
People who are against Christianity argue that the faith impedes their
freedom to do exactly as they please, but such freedom leads invariably to sin
(Romans 7:18, 7:25, 8:1-13). People who think that they are free from the rules
of God are self-deceived as they are actually enslaved and in bondage to sin
from the flesh (Roman 7:14), the world (I John 2:15-16), and the devil (II
Timothy 2:26).
You are to “walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out
the desire of the flesh”. To walk by the
Spirit is to allow God within you to rule over you and such rule gives you
freedom from the power of sin. It will
take effort, but spend time reading, re-reading, and meditating over Romans 6,
7, and 8 and you will much better understand what true freedom really means
compared to enslavement to sin. True
freedom brings love, joy, and abundance into your life on earth (John 10:10,
Galatians 5:22-23) and eternal life in heaven (John 8:36, Romans 6:22-23).
I believe that every person
reading this who has accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord can significantly
relate to what life was like being enslaved to sin before your conversion and
being free from the bondage of sin after your conversion. Unless your conversion was insincere, I also
believe that you would never want to return to your former life where you
thought you were free to do whatever you pleased, but that freedom was
deceptive. The abundance of your life in
Christ and your ability now to love others as yourself substantiates biblical
claims about true freedom as a Christ follower.
If you are reading this and have not yet experienced true freedom, you
know what you need to do.
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