Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
Freedom and Liberty are a big deal in America, to say the least. We don’t like being told what to do or how to live. Self-determination is the name of the game. We went to war in 1776 to win these freedoms and we have gone back to war time and time again to keep them…and to offer them to the rest of the world. Perhaps this is why the Gospel can be hard for Americans, in particular. In order to be saved, you have to admit you have a problem that you can’t fix yourself. Additionally, to call Jesus your Lord means that you exchange your freedom and liberty for a cross and agree to follow His plan for your life rather than your own.
It can be a tough pill to swallow.
However, on this side of salvation we are called to a new kind of freedom—the freedom from sin and from the Law—and we are to walk in that every day. That being said, Paul reminds us that we are not to use this freedom as an opportunity for our flesh…as an opportunity to return to our sinful lifestyle while holding onto the “get out of jail free” card that we got from Jesus. David Guzik writes, “The great fear of the legalist is that liberty will be used as an opportunity for the flesh. The idea is that people will just go out and sin as they please, then say to a spineless God, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me,’ and then go on doing whatever they want again. Paul recognized the danger of this attitude, so he warned against it here.”
It’s a warning we all need to hear.
How do you use your liberty? If you are in Christ, your new sins cannot fracture that relationship, so what do you have to lose? As Paul said, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Rom. 6:1-2). Freedom in Christ does not give us the right to do as we please, but to do what please God. “Believers are free from the law’s curse, its penalty, and its guilt-producing power. Fear, anxiety, and guilt are replaced by peace, forgiveness, and liberty. Who could be more free than one who is free in the depths of his soul? But here is where we often fail. We use freedom’s luxury to live selfishly, or we claim ownership of what God has merely entrusted to us. We slip into patterns of self-indulgent living, especially in affluent societies” (Our Daily Bread).
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus summed up the entire law in just a few words—Love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Mt. 22:36-40). This is what we have been set free to do. This is the land our liberty should lead us to. We are no longer slaves to the Law, but we are still bondservants of Christ. We have been freed from the prison of sin and damnation and released to walk in the light…so let us live in such a way as to love and serve both God and our neighbor.
