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Preserve Your Freedom

   Galatians 5:1, 13-25

   Good News Translation (GNT)

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  1  Freedom is what we have - Christ has set us
   free! Stand, then, as free people, and do not
   allow yourselves to become slaves again.

13  As for you, my friends, you were called to be
   free. But do not let this freedom become an
   excuse for letting your physical desires control
   you. Instead, let love make you serve one
   another.
14  For the whole Law is summed up in one
   commandment: "Love your neighbour as you
   love yourself."
15  But if you act like wild animals, hurting and
   harming each other, then watch out, or you
   will completely destroy one another.

   The Spirit and Human Nature
16  What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your
   lives, and you will not satisfy the desires
   of the human nature.
17  For what our human nature wants is opposed
   to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit
   wants is opposed to what our human nature
   wants. These two are enemies, and this
   means that you cannot do what you want to
   do.
18  If the Spirit leads you, then you are not
   subject to the Law.
19  What human nature does is quite plain.
   It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent
   actions;
20  in worship of idols and witchcraft. People
   become enemies and they fight; they become
   jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate
   into parties and groups;
21  they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and
   do other things like these. I warn you now as
   I have before: those who do these things will
   not possess the Kingdom of God.
22  But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace,
   patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23  humility, and self-control. There is no law
   against such things as these.
24  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have
   put to death their human nature with all its
   passions and desires.
25  The Spirit has given us life; he must also
   control our lives.

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Commentary taken from
'The Applied New Testament Commentary'
(Kingsway)

Preserve Your Freedom

     Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Jesus has set us free.
He has delivered us from the death sentence of the law.

For anyone set free in this way, to try to get back into jail would indeed be crazy! But the Galatians were doing that very thing.
Having been set free from the prison house of the law, they were once again putting themselves back under the same bondage.
Stand firm, then, says Paul. Do not let this happen!

Life by the Spirit
God created man to be free. But, says Paul, do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. In place of the words 'sinful nature', some versions of the Bible say "flesh," which is the literal translation of the original Greek text.

The meaning is the same. However, we are not free to sin. We are free from bondage to the law, but we are not free to break the law. Followers of other religions often accuse Christians of leading loose lives, lives without any law. They accuse Christians of bad behaviour, of doing whatever they please without regard for others. And it must be said that all too often such accusations are true!
But it should not be so.

We Christians are free, but we do live according to a law.
And that is the law of love. We are free to serve one another in love. A slave does not serve his master out of love, but rather out of duty and fear. Only free men can love freely.

Christians have been set free from sin, but at the same time we have made ourselves slaves to God. Now we obey Jesus, not because of fear, but because we love Him

The Jewish teachers in Galatia should have known that their own Jewish law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself"

But this new law of love is not like the old Jewish law, nor is it like the laws and regulations of other religions.
In the first place, the Jews and the followers of other religions follow their laws and traditions in order to be saved.

Christians are already saved. We are saved through faith in Jesus.
The Jews and those of other religions attempt to follow their laws and traditions in their own strength. We have received Jesus' Holy Spirit; it is by His power alone that we follow the law of love.

The law says: Love your neighbour 'as yourself '.
We are to love our neighbour more than we love ourselves.
The expression 'as yourself ' means that we should love others as much as the natural man loves himself.

The natural man loves himself first of all - above others. We need to remember that if we don't love God, we certainly won't be able to love our neighbour.
Love for God always comes first.

Yet, on the other hand, we cannot say we love God if we do not love our neighbour. Our neighbour is anyone in need. Where there is no love, men will keep on biting and devouring each other - that is, they will oppose, accuse, and slander each other.

Jesus said:
"If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand".
We must place our sinful nature (our flesh) under the control of the Spirit who will restrain us from gratifying the desires of the sinful nature.

Our old sinful nature does not completely die and disappear: it is always present with us. and it always opposes the Spirit. The Jews and the followers of other religions believe that by obeying laws and traditions they will be prevented from falling into sin.

But this is not true.
Perhaps laws can keep men from committing some outward sins, but cannot keep men from committing inward sins. Let us remember this: God looks primarily on our hearts, not our outward actions.

Is there anyone among us whose spiritual life is dried up or wilted?
If so, let him look into his heart and find there the hidden sin which has caused the Spirit to depart.

Now Paul lists some of the sins that separate us from God.
We quickly and easily see sins in other people, but we are not so quick to see the same sins in ourselves. We ought not to look at the sins of others - we should look only at our own.

If we oppose any brother, for other than good reasons, we shall be guilty of committing one or more of the sins that Paul has mentioned .... those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

The fruit of the Spirit will appear in the lives of those who remain 'in Christ,' both in the church and in our individual lives. As we are indeed the children of God, then we should live like children of God!

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