Galatians: A Study of Christian Freedom
Lesson 15: A New Law! Galatians 5:13-15
Please note: Texts in [brackets] are treated elsewhere in the lesson.
Some find the whole idea of living without clearcut rules to be very frightening. They imagine the result will be chaos. These people like rules, like clearly defined boundaries. That way everyone knows exactly what to do in every situation.
Paul has just spent considerable effort addressing those who are endowed with such a love of law. Now, he introduces the notion of a law of love. But first he urges them…
Do Not Dishonor the Liberator
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters;
Paul had emancipated the Galatians; actually, he informed them that they had already been emancipated when Christ had entered their lives. That was part of Christ’s great work on their behalf: “Jesus liberated you so you should live in liberty.”
This freedom is a fact of Christian life. There will always be legalists who persist in trying to deny this reality but their work is a distortion of the gospel and an insult to the Crucified One.
Yet, liberated Christians may sometimes express their freedom in ways that do not honor the Liberator. So, Paul must issue another warning.
only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,
Paul warns the Galatians—and us—that freedom can become “an opportunity for self-indulgence.” The phrase is literally “do not give an occasion for the flesh;” that is, don't provide an opportunity for the flesh to manifest itself. What does Paul mean
We’ll say more about Paul’s idea of “the flesh” next time. For now, let me say he isn’t talking about our human bodies. The Bible does not support the notion that our bodies are inherently evil and should be despised. That’s a Greek concept, not a Biblical one.
Several translations render “the flesh” as “sinful nature.” That’s a better approach but it still opens the door to confusion. For now, let’s say that Paul is warning the Galatians—and us— against the danger of using our freedom in a way that suggests we have never been touched by God’s transforming power, as if we are not beneficiaries of the Spirit’s presence in our lives.
To live in a way that regularly “gives opportunity to the flesh” betrays our claim to be one of Christ’s People. If returning to a work-based salvation denies the efficacy of Christ’s work, so too does living totally self-centered lives. Of those who live such lives, it seems fair for unbelieving onlookers to say, “That Christ of theirs doesn't make much difference, does he?”
To live in a way that regularly “gives opportunity to the flesh” eventually leads to bondage, just as surely as legalism does. This is the ironic discovery of the libertine. This is true not only of fictional characters like Faust but of real men and women like the countless entertainers and sports figures whose careers have been cut short by alcohol and drugs, by the refusal to rein in their desires. This is why Peterson paraphrases the warning this way, “Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.”
To live in a way that regularly “gives opportunity to the flesh” will ultimately destroy a Christian community. Listen to Paul’s warning, “If…you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” It reminds me of the Limerick:
There once were two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit
And they scratched and they bit
Till (excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails)
Instead of two cats there weren't any!
When Paul speaks of the Galatians biting and devouring one another, he probably has in mind a continual congregational climate of criticism and conflict. Perhaps the congregation was in turmoil over issues raised by the false teachers; perhaps the members had been fighting over issues like circumcision and diet, forgetting they were brothers and sisters in Christ. Perhaps they were fighting over other matters, like what to do with those who had fallen for the false teachers’ pitch or who had fallen into some sin or who had allowed the threat of persecution to prompt them to deny the faith. We don’t know for sure what the “biting and devouring” may have been about but Paul saw it was dangerous.
For this reason, Paul proposes another way to both guard our freedom and protect against the enticement of “the flesh.”
That is the way based on the law of love.
[but through love become slaves to one another.]
Love: The “New” Law
14 For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Throughout the New Testament, love directs the Christian moral ideal. Whatever the circumstance we are called to love our neighbor. Even when we are not sure what love may mean in a particular circumstance we are pretty sure that biting and devouring one another is not an expression of that love to which we are called.
Fortunately, we are not entirely left in the dark about what such love means.
The word Paul uses is agapao, the term that Mounce says should be defined as “to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for” another. Notice something, this kind of love is not really a matter of feeling; it has to do with our intentions and actions. We can show agape love whether we “feel” like it or not. And, of course, such love is evidenced by action, not just words.
Agapé love, the love to which Christians aspire, involves the mind more than the heart. It doesn’t reject feelings but it sure isn’t driven by them. It’s great aim is to seek the best for the other. As Barclay described it, agapé always seeks a person’s “highest good.” Now, when you hear that, remember that to the early Christians a person’s highest good always involved having a right relationship with God.
Today, however, some tend to think that a person’s highest good is self-affirmation. So, in our understanding, love involves making a person feel good about himself or herself. Love should build our self-esteem, we’re told. Calling men and women to reorder their lives so they might experience that right relationship with God seems unloving to some.
Then, too, some think the highest good is freedom to make as much money as you can with the minimum of interference. This is an open door to materialism which always values the thing over the person. To these folks the suggestion that such matters as fair-trade practices, workers’ rights, and caring for the environment might be matters loving Christians should support, makes such Christians seem naive.
If we are going to shape our behavior according to the law of love, we need a clearer view of this love.’’
Paul provides a description of Christian love, agape, in I Thessalonians 5:15—“See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good for one another and for all”
Paul describes such love negatively: “See that none of you every pays back evil for evil."
Resisting retaliation is an aspect of Christian love. It calls on us to deny a very "natural" impulse to strike back at those who have hurt us. In the tense situation the Galatian churches seemed to be dealing with, the tendency to seek such pay-back would have been very strong.
Paul describes such love positively: "Always aim at what is best for each other and for everyone."
Agape transcends emotion and calls us to seek the best for others. Because of this it must be thoughtful; what is best for another is not always immediately apparent to us or to the other person. Although we cannot ignore another's happiness, seeking to make the other person happy may not be in their best interests.
Doing the loving thing may make the other person temporarily unhappy with us. This may be discovered when we must oppose a self-destructive lifestyle or other behaviors which are offering temporary pleasure to someone. Since evangelism--presenting the good news--may involve beginning with the "bad news," witnessing may be another venue in which seeking the best for another may involve making another unhappy for a while.
Paul describes love's breadth: "...for each other and for everyone."
Love is to be demonstrated within the Christian community, that is a given; but it is also to be demonstrated to those outside the community. This was one of the distinguishing marks of the early church, distinguishing and radical.
So, to show agape means we need to think about what we are doing, weigh our responses. The love Paul is talking about is not sentimentality. Sentimental love tends to make us feel good. Of course, showing agape may also make us feel good but there may be times when acting for the best of another means going against their wishes. And that can make us feel bad but only if we forget the big picture.
Every parent knows such occasions. You may have to break your feverish child’s heart to say the trip to King’s Island is off. The trip may have been planned for weeks and it may be weeks before it can be rescheduled. Your child may be too young to understand the danger to himself or herself and may even accuse you of being mean for canceling the trip. It hurts you to do it but you know it’s the right thing, the loving thing, to do.
Fortunately, in most cases, we are not left to try to guess what the loving way is. First, when Christians are called to love the neighbor they are reminded that the law gives us insight into how that love is manifested. This is what Paul means when he says, “The whole of the Torah is summed up in this one sentence: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The New Life Translation is even more pointed: “You obey the whole Law when you do this one thing, ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’” Paul may have had Jesus’ words in mind.
Jesus was being questioned by the religious authorities who hoped to show him up as a false teacher or charlatan. He had held his own with the Sadducees but the Pharisees thought they might be able to best him.
The story is found in Matthew 22:34-39
34 When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had left the Sadducees speechless, they met together. 35 One of them, a legal expert, tested him. 36 “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Then Jesus adds, “All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.”
While the Commandments are not the pathway to heaven, they can give us insight into how we can love one another.
Our culture is so anti-Ten Commandments that is may seem strange to suggest that following the commandments may be an expression of love. Follow me on a couple examples to show how this fits. Later you can finish up the list.
Surely, if you love your neighbor, you will seek to keep your neighbor’s marriage strong. Surely, if you love your neighbor’s children and your children—who are also your neighbors—you will wish them to know a stable home. Surely, if you love that special neighbor who is your spouse, you will strive to honor the trust that neighbor has placed in you. Surely, if you love your neighbor, there will be no adultery.
Surely, if you love your neighbor, you will not lose sight of your neighbor as a person and transfer your affection to your neighbor’s stuff. So, surely, if you love your neighbor, there will be no coveting.
So, the commandments can help us define love.
But there is a second way to shape our love: We have Jesus Himself as a model of what this love means. I like this comment by A. C. Craig, “…the [chameleon] word love always needs a dictionary, and for us Christians the dictionary is Jesus Christ.” How Jesus treated others, whether they were society’s idols or society’s outcasts, demonstrates agape in its several dimensions.
The WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets and bumper-stickers have been mocked, but honestly, how different would the world be if we did truly try to emulate Jesus? Would we be better off if those around us asked, What would Stalin do, What would Justin do, What would the Kardashians do? You get the point.
Thomas Maston said this agape is “energetic and benevolent good will.” Again, this reminds us that this agape-love is active. When we think of Someone who surely seemed filled with this energetic and benevolent good will, we think of Jesus who was described as one who “went about doing good” (Acts 10:18).
The love that guided Jesus to heal the lame, guided him to drive the corrupt money-changers out of the temple. In the same way, A. M. Hunter sees this virtue shaping every aspect of our lives: “All our Christian activity, whether protesting, rebuking, sparing, or, on occasion, just keeping our mouths shut—is, or ought to be, loving activity.”
FREE SERVANTS
In contrast to “biting and devouring” one another, Paul says this love will be manifested if we “through love become slaves to one another.”
Picture this: only a few sentence before Paul had told the Galatians they had been set free, now he is telling them to become slaves. The New Revised Standard Version is almost alone in this rendering of the verse. The majority of translations favor a more literal translation that says, “serve one another in love.” The emphasis is on our servant-like actions directed toward others. Still, the verb Paul used does mean “to be a servant” and the word “servant” is used of Christ’s followers elsewhere.
Martin Luther saw this seeming paradox. He wrote in his important book, The Freedom of the Christian Man: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”
Luther didn’t mean a Christian woman is obliged to do everything others tell her to do. Nor must a Christian man to ignore the needs of his own family to provide for another. He is speaking of a new attitude, an attitude that seeks to serve rather than to be served.
Certainly Paul’s vision involves stepping away from the self-centeredness that seems to drive so many people. Life for the Christian isn’t a matter of “looking out for number one,” it’s a matter of looking out for us all. As Paul will later make clear, the false teachers who were creating so much havoc in the churches were motivated by selfish concerns, not the welfare of the Galatian Christians. (cf. Gal. 6:12-13) This was not the loving way, not using freedom to serve others.
Then, too, part of this means we are free to serve others for the first time without self-centered motives. Under a law-based system for attaining favor from God, we serve others to win points for ourselves. Our good deeds performed for others are really born out of love for ourselves; we hope to get something out of our behavior. Under a grace-based system we may act benevolently toward others out of genuine love for them.
In a practical sense, if Paul’s words were taken seriously churches would not find themselves caught in the all-too-common situation where 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. It would mean nominating committees would have more volunteers than they knew what to do with. At the same time, these servant-volunteers would be so respectful of their fellow servant volunteers there would be far less jealousy, conflict, and criticism than is often found in our churches.
Of course, this law of love has more far-reaching applications. It would shape our outreach. It would inform our defense of the faith. It would temper our interaction with the larger culture. It would determine where and how we spend our resources.
The law of love would give direction to all we do as Christ’s people.
THE BIG QUESTION
In 1968, Peter Scholites (1938-2009) was the minister at StBrendan’s Church in Chicago, a church named after the Irish missionary who wanted to take the story of God’s love everywhere. The church’s youth choir was scheduled to sing at an important multi-denominational, multi-racial meeting and he couldn't find what he thought was an appropriate song. So, in one day, he composed a song. You know it.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love.
I hope this lesson has given you some things to think about. So, instead of trying to list some implications of this “new” law, I’m going to leave you with a big question: How do people know Christians today?
[15 If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. ]
