Galatians 5:1, 13 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 13 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.
With the war raging in Ukraine, freedom has taken center stage in the world’s attentions. And we in the West have valued freedom above almost everything else in life. Freedom fuels our economies, the freedom to buy from China! Freedom drives our personal choices, even when those choices torpedo societal values.
But freedom has its limits. We have laws that curb freedom for the benefit of society at large. We may be free to do certain things, but doing those things brings us within the bounds of state obligations to prosecute. And freedom costs the lives of men and women who have fought to protect us and our right to make free choices.
The freedom in our text is connected to the topic of this letter to the believers in the city of Galatia. Their faith was in danger of being corrupted by a group that demanded that they keep the Old Testament laws, even if they weren’t Jewish in upbringing. Faith in Jesus was not enough. They had to add to that faith a specific kind of obedience, obedience in keeping the letters the Law.
Freedom does not mean flapping in the breeze. Freedom is not the ability to do anything you want and desire, anytime you want, any way you want. Our text tells us some boundaries that accompany freedom.
We are set free in Christ so that we can stand firm. Freedom has an anchor. They have come to understand the Gospel, that freedom has a proper domain, proper limits. But these false teachers are attempting to get them to use their freedom to move backward into a posture of slavery toward the Law. This is freedom in the wrong direction.
But they are free to move in that direction, even with the spiritually disastrous results. But Paul doesn’t want them to bo there. They can choose to e slaves again, but why! They have moved away from that slavery mindset into a freedom in Christ. Why go back!
Freedom has proper limits. We are called to be free, but not freedom to do whatever we want. We are not free to act in an unrestrained way, flaunting our freedom in indulgent living. When we exercise our freedom at the expense of others, that freedom has gone too far.
You see, when the “me” becomes more important than “we,” that is when freedom has been ridden too far afield. Freedom isn’t about us doing what we want, but about the freedom to serve God unhindered by our sin and selfishness. We become free to be servants, just like Jesus was a servant of us and our need.
Freedom is a wonderful thing when it is exercised responsibly. When freedom becomes a “me” and “mine,” then it is no longer freedom. It is slavery to the passions and desires that reside in us. These are the very things that Jesus came to deliver us from.
So, why would we choose to move backwards into the very things that once kept us as their prisoners? We need to move forward into the service of others. That is freedom. Not thinking about ourselves is freedom. Not being driven by those desires is freedom. Listening less to self and more to the other is freedom.
The Arnold Journey 