Reflection on Galatians 5:13-18: Understanding True Freedom in Christ
Reflection on Galatians 5:13-18: Understanding True Freedom in Christ
Reflection on Galatians 5:13-18: Understanding True Freedom in Christ (NIVUK)
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 neighbour as yourself.' If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Commentary
What does freedom mean to you? I think we’re all different, but for me freedom is undoubtedly an open road, an undiscovered country, a lack of demands on me and the opportunity to do what I want – it’s almost a spiritual thing. It’s something that makes my soul sing. It’s that sense that anything is possible, that there are no limits, and I think that kind of freedom is precious.
I think it’s hardwired into us. But it may also be the defining virtue of the modern world. Christianity is often painted as the opposite of freedom. It is seen as something oppressive, something that holds us back, something that we need to liberate ourselves from. How strange it is then that Paul the Apostle should say, “… brothers and sisters, you were called to be free.” Did you hear that in our reading of this epistle to the Galatians, probably one of the earliest Christian texts that we have – from about 48 AD.
Isn’t that interesting? Christianity, it seems, is actually about freedom. The Bible seems to suggest that we are hardwired for it. We are created for it. From the very beginning, God made us for freedom and respects our freedoms in astonishing ways, even when we make the wrong choices. The problem is not that God wants to limit our freedom but that the ways that we’ve chosen, the misuse of our freedom, has mired and enslaved us. And in Christ, he has set about liberating us from a mess of our own making. Verse one of Galatians chapter five says, “… it is for freedom that Christ has set us free”.