Freedom Isn’t a Free-for-All
Galatians 5:13-15
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
You were called to be free. What freedom is Paul talking about? In chapter 5, verse 1, Paul had said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” You could say theme of Paul’s letter to the Galatians is freedom. Freedom from sin, yes. But also freedom from the law. In chapter 3, verse 13, Paul writes, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’”
In chapter 3, verses 26 and 27, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
He adds in chapter 4, verses 4 through 7, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.”
You are free! The law is no longer your obligation. In fact, you can’t do anything to be declared innocent before God. Paul spells it out clearly: “We, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified” (2:16), and, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because ‘the righteous will live by faith’” (3:11). Christ has taken the burden of God's law from you. He kept it for you. By faith in Jesus, in God's eyes, you’ve already kept the whole law.
You are free from the law! But Paul says, “Do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.” Paul says that “the acts of the flesh are obvious” (5:19). They are “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (5:19-21). The acts of the flesh include sins against the 6th Commandment, sins against the 1st and 2nd Commandment, sins against the 5th, 7th, and 8th Commandments. They are sins against God and against our neighbor. But aren’t we free from the law? Why is Paul telling us to keep the Commandments?
The acts of the flesh are contrary to the Spirit (5:17). Paul says in verse 18, “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” The opposite is also true. If you are led by the flesh, you are under the law. It’s like the smoker who finally quits. He’s free from his addiction. He’s happy that he won’t be spending his money on cigarettes anymore. But after a few weeks of freedom, he decides he can have a cigarette. You know, just to take the edge off. He buys a pack from the store and wisely takes one out of the packaging and throws the rest away. But a week later, he buys another pack, and this time he keeps the whole thing. Just in case, you know. But before you know it, he’s finished that pack and goes to buy another. He’s back where he was before.
Freedom from the law and freedom from the guilt of sin are not freedom to sin. Paul writes in Romans 6:15-18, “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” Sin drives out the Spirit. The danger of sin, if you are unrepentant, is that it changes from a sinful action, a small moment of weakness, to a sinful attitude which hates God's law, and at the same time, ends up hating God. Paul says bluntly that “those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (5:21). Those who choose sin risk losing their salvation. They put themselves back under the law because they have lost their faith in Christ. And if they lose their faith in Christ, they will be judged by their own works.
Paul names another consequence of using our freedom to indulge the flesh. He says, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other” (5:15). If we are so selfish as to only look out for our own personal beliefs, our own personal comfort, or our own personal satisfaction, we run the risk of not only destroying ourselves, but our Christian brother or sister as well. There is a long, sad history of people who left the church because of their neighbor’s selfishness.
How, then, can we use our freedom? Paul says to use this wonderful freedom to love. “Serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (5:13,14) We do this walking in the wonderful forgiveness we have from Christ. We can do it because we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live, but Christ lives in us. The life we now live in the body, we live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us (2:20).
Paul teaches that the law of love even goes beyond the 10 Commandments. In his letter to the Romans, he writes, “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval” (Romans 14:13-18).
In this example, Paul is talking about eating “unclean” food. Some of the Christians understood that they had freedom, just as we do. They could eat the “unclean” food. Others’ consciences were burdened by eating “unclean” food. Their faith was harmed by the fact that their brothers and sister were eating the “unclean” food. And so Paul calls on the Christians who understand the freedom they have Christ to show love to their neighbor by not eating that food with them. He urges them to say, “Yes, I have freedom, but because of my love for you, my brother, I will voluntarily not make use of my freedom.”
Can you think of how we might use this freedom in our lives? We’re not so concerned with “unclean” foods. But we do live in a free country that allows us to do many things. More than that, we have freedom in Christ. How then can we use that freedom to love our neighbors as much as ourselves?
This is the freedom we have. Freedom from the burden of the law. Freedom to actually serve God and our neighbor without fear of punishment for getting it wrong. So much freedom, in fact, that we can even not make full use of our freedom for our brother or sister’s sake and still be free because Christ has called us to be free.