Galatians 5:13-14

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Have you ever played Monopoly? I like the “Get out of Jail FREE” card because I always seem to end up there a lot when I play. Sometimes we use our salvation in a similar manner: we know we have it, so we don’t take our sin seriously enough because we know that God has already forgiven us.

“I know my relationship with my family is bad…but oh well. At least I’m going to end up in Heaven because I’m a Christian.”

I know that most of us don’t actually think like that, but our behavior sometimes tells a different story. Paul is reminding us that our salvation gives us freedom FROM sin…not liberty TO sin. We must strive to take advantage of our new nature by serving one another in love…not by taking advantage of the fact that God will continue to forgive us of our sins.

Finally, Paul quotes Jesus as a way to drive home his point that the most important thing we can do as Christians is to love our neighbor as ourselves…which includes our family members, by the way.

APPLICATION: Discuss how we take advantage of the fact that as Christians we have been forgiven of all of our past, present, and future sins. Talk about the right reaction to our salvation = loving your neighbor as yourself.