Galatians 5:13-21 – Right and Wrong Uses of Freedom
All through this letter Paul has been arguing that the Galatians are free. They’re not to submit again to slavery by obeying the law in a futile effort to get right with God. Being a Christian means you’re free! To use Paul’s own words, it means you’re not under law, but under grace! Your standing before God and your place in Heaven doesn’t depend on what you do. And yet because we’re sinful human beings, we tend to jump on that word ‘freedom’ and think: ‘great, this means that we can live however we like!’ And so Paul wants to leave the Galatian Christians in no doubt that this call to freedom isn’t an excuse to live however they like.
‘It doesn’t matter what you believe – it’s how you live your life that counts’ Have you heard that said before? But the Apostle Paul shows us again and again that you can’t just separate the two things so easily. What you believe will affect how you live. We see it here in this letter he writes to the Galatian churches. The first 5 and a half chapters are about what you must believe. And the last chapter and a half is about how you’re to live. So first what you’re to believe, then, in light of that, how you’re to live. False teaching will affect how you live. If the Galatians follow the false teachers, it will eventually bear fruit in how they live. OR — if they misunderstand Paul’s arguments AGAINST the false teaching, it will also affect how they live. And so Paul warns them in v13. Being led by the Spirit doesn’t mean you can do things which grieve the Spirit. Not being under law as a way of getting right with God, doesn’t mean you can disobey the law. And so Paul says: ‘Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh’.
While the works of the flesh include sins of the body, they also include sins of the mind, and sins of speech. We see that in these verses. The works of the flesh are the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit mentioned in vs 22 and 23. The works of the flesh are living in any of the ways you used to live before you were a Christian. They’re living the way people who don’t have the Holy Spirit live. And the easy thing for us to do is to apply these things to the world around us. That can be such a get out clause for Christians. Giving off about how bad a world it is out there is easy. Whereas actually facing up to our own individual sins, confessing them, repenting of them, and fighting against them — that’s a lot harder.
Questions
- What affects how we live?
- Why is it easier to point out other people’s sins?
Prayer Points
- Pray that we would look at our own sins and strive to kill them.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.