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Past Ponderings

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Are You Free To Just Do...Whatever? (Galatians 5:13-15)

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Are You Free To Just Do...Whatever? (Galatians 5:13-15)

GIST:  We are freed from bondage to sin to serve in love. 


This morning, after a week off for snow ☺️, we’re coming to the next section in Galatians 5. In his application of what it looks like to be saved by Grace, Paul has been telling us it will result in Christians living free. Here, he takes up a very common misrepresentation of what that freedom will look like, and tells us we’re not freed from sin just so we can now sin without worrying about the consequences. Check out verses 13-15→ 


“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. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”


Here’s our gist for this morning: We are freed from bondage to sin to serve in love. As we remarked several weeks back now, salvation isn’t just about being set free from the consequences of sin. Our freedom is a freedom of transformation which means we’ve been set free to something more than from something. What we’ve been set free to is far greater because we’ve been set free to live like Jesus. To follow His design. We were made for this, so let’s not waste our lives messing around like we’re still slaves to sin. We have been called instead to be slaves to love. I know that sounds weird, but let’s try and break down those contrasting points today. First→ 


I. We’re Freed From Bondage To Sin

Again, Paul has been talking about our freedom in Christ, and he turns here to address what is still a frequent abuse of this teaching. Namely, that it’s→ 

Not Meant As An Opportunity For The Flesh. Just to clarify, the use of the word flesh here refers to our sinful nature and not our actual physical forms. So Paul is bringing us face to face with two extremes: legalism and licentious living. The first has been well documented in this letter. Legalism is believing you need to do specific things or obey particular laws to be really saved. It is the belief that you can save yourself if you try hard enough. That… doesn’t work. We need rescued and only Jesus can do that. Basically, the entire letter up until this point has been laying that out for us. 

Licentious living is the opposite perspective. It says, you’re covered. You’ve been “saved.” Do whatever you want. Paul is very clear here. The word translated “opportunity” in English is an expression that could be translated as don’t let your freedom be a springboard and a launching pad for sin. I don’t want to muddy any waters, so let me just try to break this into two observations (because apparently my brain must function in pairs given how often my subpoints come in doubles ☺️).  

1. We are freed from needing the law to save us, but we’re not freed so we can just sin “freely”.  You’re forgiven. His grace is enough. No matter what you’ve done or the mistakes you will continue to make, that never changes. Praise the Lord! However, don’t make a mockery of His grace by using it as an excuse to fall right back into sin. See→ 

2. Sinning freely is walking right back into captivity. Apart from Christ, we are all slaves to our sinful desires. We’re stuck. We’re hopeless. Doing whatever you want because you’ve “got grace now” is a sign that you’ve not come to understand grace at all. Jesus’ amazing grace comes to bring life where it wasn’t. Yes, you will still stumble, but you shouldn’t want to “get away with” living like a dead man if you’ve experienced life. Instead→  


II. We’re Freed To Serve In Love

    Look at the transition here. “13b... do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Now, that would have been a great Valentine’s Day sermon for last Sunday, right? One of the rare occasions when I actually would’ve seemed like I planned around a holiday...and the snowpocalypse took it away. 

Again, in this application portion of the letter, Paul is showing us what Christian freedom will look like. Here, he tells us we’re freed to now love Jesus and those around us because we’ve been rescued and changed. We have new desires, so while we don’t have to obey to earn salvation, we are called to obey, and therefore should want to obey, because we love the God who set the standard. The law showed us the standard we couldn’t achieve apart from Christ. It was never meant to save us. However, it’s not meaningless to us today. It reveals the character and expectations of God. And when you boil it down, the law can be summarized as: Love God & Love People. We’ve been→ 

Freed To Serve In Love. The idea of “service” isn’t mild. We’re not talking about serving others by like picking up some trash or holding up the door from time to time. The concept here is absolute service. We’re talking about slavery. We were set free from the destructive slavery to sin, but we’ve been called to the redemptive slavery to love. Oh, we don’t like the sound of that. We don’t want to feel under anyone or anything… And there’s our sin nature again. We’re called to serve in love...because that’s exactly what Jesus, God of the universe, did for us. Instead of just chasing after our own selfish desires, our hearts should long to be used by God to point others to His grace. That means our lives should be spent exploring how better to know and love Him and show Him and His love to the people around us. And, yeah, that means all of the people around you. I could draw this out, but I’m not sure it would be helpful. You’re going to see people today and the rest of this week. Instead of being locked into your own bubble (and guys, I do the same thing!), pray God will show you how to love them.

    Oh, and incase you were tempted, → 

Don’t Devour Each Other! Verse 15 gives us one concrete example of this love transformation. “15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Honestly, this could probably be a sermon all by itself because, as Christians, we do this. We devour each other, and in the process, we help the real enemy by destroying the family of God! Let me just close this point with some food for thought here. (I have three this time!) Remember, in the context here we’re talking about conflicts within the Church. 

1. Pick your battles...from the Bible! We like to talk about choosing our battles because it means we get to fight sometimes ☺️. There are Biblical reasons to stand and fight, but those have nothing to do with your feelings being hurt. Dig into God’s word. Pray that it changes you and that you’re consumed with a passion for Him. Then, ask yourself if what you’re so mad about has anything to do with the picture He’s painted for us.

2. Love Each Other… Even If We Differ On Pet Doctrines Or Stylistic Approaches To Worship. I said this last time we were together. People attending other churches are not our enemies. Yes, there are heretical churches out there who drag the name of Jesus through the mud. We should stand against that, pray for them, and encourage people trapped in those kinds of fellowships to examine God’s Word too. However, there are also churches in our community that just look a little different from us, or worship a little different from us, but they love Jesus and they believe in His gospel and they are devoted to His truth. Don’t let Satan divide God’s house! Instead→ 

3. Come Together! Physically, emotionally, spiritually: God’s family is meant to live life together...not just share surface-level prayer requests on Sunday mornings. Yeah, that’s not natural for me either, but what’s natural to me is what I needed rescued from in the first place!

   

    Let me just close with two questions as our→ 


TAKEAWAYS 

  1. Are you using grace as an excuse to sin?

  2. Do you realize you’ve been set free to love the people around you? Is that your mission?

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