Bob Allen

Galatians 5

I have been so busy the last few months, that I have barely updated the site.  I’m sorry about that.  The reminder of the bill for the web site reminded me that it needed to be used or abandoned.   So here is this week’s Sunday School lesson.

Galatians 5:13-15  Liberty has Responsibility

The purpose of our calling is clearly stated in verse 13, we were called to freedom.  What is the freedom to which Paul is speaking?  It if a freedom from the Law.  We are free from that struggle to keep a code that we just can’t keep.  Free from the overwhelming fear that we will never measure up to God’s standard.  We are free because Christ set us free when He made us righteous in God’s eyes.  And although that Law written on stone no longer enslaves us, we are still slaves.  But now, we are slaves to Christ and His righteousness.  You can’t run far enough to get away from God.  You will never get away from the Holy Spirit that lives within you.

In the past few weeks, we have all tried to approach this from a balanced view, and reminded ourselves of things we know well.  We all know that we were not saved to do whatever we want.  I was reading about this and your response was very Jewish.  The Jews believed that if the rules and punishment was not there, people would do whatever they want. They didn’t or couldn’t imagine the power of the Holy Spirit living inside a person, directing and convicting concerning what?  Sin, Righteousness and Judgment to come.  (John 16:8)

We all know that God’s revelation to man has been progressive but the message has never changed, just gotten more specific.  We also know that God never changes.  And yet we wrestle with the question of has God’s moral law changed?  It has not.  The ceremonial law is now useless that the true Lamb of God has completed the complete sacrifice, but the moral law continues.

I would suppose that if God didn’t know everything, He would be amazed that we return so easily to slavery.  The Bible teaches that we are delivered from

Galatians 5:13-15  Liberty has Responsibility

The purpose of our calling is clearly stated in verse 13, we were called to freed

  • The Penalty of Sin (Eternal Separation from God) – Past
  • The Power of Sin (Death) – Present
  • The Presence of Sin (Heaven) – Future

This verse reminds us of the 2nd state, our present state. We were called to freedom.  With that freedom, comes a choice that we will all be faced with, a choice to either choose the first part of verse 13, or the second part.

Part One:  You might choose to use your new found freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.

Part Two:  You might choose to use your new found freedom as an opportunity to serve one another through love.

Those seem to be the only two choices.  Every choice either falls under serving the flesh or serving one another through love.

 

What are some guidelines from this passage that we might draw on to give us instructions as we deal with living in our freedom?

  1. We are not free to indulge the flesh – (v. 13)
    1. What could Paul mean by indulging the flesh? It is the nature that you and I were born with and still seems to raise its ugly head from time to time. It is a question of who controls your decisions.  Is it your desire to please God, or your desire to pursue your own pleasures?  This isn’t always the pursuit of sexual sin.
    2. This includes but is not limited to the sins of selfishness, gossip, and idolatry. Fear and its close friend, worry, are also listed as sins the church tends to overlook. (Fear believes the object of your fear can overcome God’s power. Lying to impress others – the Pharisees were big offenders of this, they portrayed they were spiritual but it was only an external veneer.
  2. We are not free to exploit others – (v.15) This happens when we use other people to get our way in this life. In verse 15, the picture is that a person is using others to satisfy their own needs.  The picture is of physical needs, but this could be true in any sense of the misuse of others.  It might be physical, emotional, or whatever.  Another note that Paul says clearly is that those who live by that principle, will be devoured by it as well.
  3. We are not free to disregard the needs of others. – (v,14) If you are obeying verse 14, you can’t be guilty of doing 13 or 15. If you have the principle in your life of loving others as yourself, you are truly permitting God to live and love through you.  And by the way, this doesn’t mean giving others everything they desire.  You don’t give yourself everything you desire.  Why would you want to do that to someone else?  What does loving our neighbor as ourselves mean or look like practically?

Learning How to Walk – Galatians 5:16-25

I suppose it would have been a little empty if Paul hadn’t given us some sort of gauge to assist us to know what it meant to walk in Christ.  This passage, preceded by exhortations to enjoy our liberty is going to describe what that liberty looks like.  Not only that, Paul is going to contrast the life of appropriate liberty with the life of living in the flesh.  The contrast is easy to recognize and the state of someone who walks on either side of the fence is obvious to all.

I know that I am not an old sage who really deserves to be heard about this, but this next section I have often referred to as the stop signs in the Christian life.  These are the things that when you notice them in your own life, you should stop, look both ways, and probably do a U turn.

The Deeds of the Flesh (Four categories)

  1. Sexual – (Immorality, Impurity, & Sensuality)
  2. Religious – (Idolatry & Sorcery)
  3. Personal Relationships – (Enmities, Strife, Jealousy, Outbursts of Anger, Disputes, Dissension, Factions & Envying)
  4. Excessive Alcohol Consumption – (Drunkenness & Carousing)
  • What does Paul mean when he says “those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”?
  • By the way, this is a possible list of things that mislead Christians can be trapped by, or fall prey to. However, true believers happen into sin and sense in their own beings the regrets for living a life that is not pleasing to God. A non-believer will go there and stay there.  Can we tell the difference?  Maybe, maybe not, but God knows.  There is a verse that concerns me but it is the council of God so I trust it.  (Matt. 13:24-30 – The parable of the wheat and the tares.)