I had the chance to speak to our local graduating senior class recently and I hoped to remind or inform them that the freedom they are about to experience as they move out of the house and go to college, trade school, work, or the military, is much more than all the rules they think they will not have to follow any more. Here is a little of what was said from Galatians 5:13:
“For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
When you think of freedom, what comes to mind? Perhaps it is a picture of the flag of the United States of America waving in the wind from a stark white flagpole against an azure sky. Or maybe it is the loosening of chains of a prisoner that has served their time or has been pardoned and can now walk out of the prison that held them for days, months or years. Or maybe it is seeing the exploding colors of fireworks on the Fourth of July. The reality is that when most people think of freedom, their thoughts are one-dimensional at best. They tend to think about all the things that freedom means we are loosed from, but they don’t think about the responsibilities and privileges that come with freedom. They don’t realize the choices freedom enables them to make. They don’t think about the life of freedom, but merely the release of freedom. In our passage today, Paul begins by describing freedom in much the same way, but he works beyond the one dimension to the multi-faceted dimensions which freedom enables us to enjoy.
First, they were free from the list of rules called the Law. Any Christian who has read the Old Testament usually comes away with the thought, “I am glad we don’t have to do that anymore!” But what is it about the Law that we find so repugnant? It is the way the Law was lived out more than the intent or purpose of the Law. Paul told us that the Law is the tutor that leads us to Christ (3:24). But the purpose of the Law was fulfilled when Christ came. Some people, not wanting to put away that which was familiar, profitable, and comfortable to them, would not follow the Law to its intended end; therefore, they continued following the now empty practices of the Law just for the sake of their own traditions. Those people, not content to be alone, marginalized, or isolated, desired to cause others to join them in their futile attempt at empty, outmoded expressions of pointless pursuits, so they threatened others into following them and even came into the church for the purpose of disrupting others with their thinking. Because they spoke well, enjoyed the fruits of the system they defended, and had respectable titles, the people needed to be reminded that they had been set free from the Law, not because the Law had been abolished, but because it had achieved its purpose.
Second, they were freed from sin. If you are not to turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, then it naturally seems that the freedom is from the opportunities of the flesh in which you lived prior to freedom. And what is the opposite of freedom? Slavery! Verses 19-21 talk about the slavery to which we were once enslaved. While the list is not meant to mean that we have been guilty of all, it certainly shows that all have been guilty of some and some of us have been guilty of all the thinking and heart issues that lead to the actions.
But that is just what they were freed from. They were also freed to love. We were called to freedom so that, through love, we might serve one another. We will get to serving one another, but we must stop to say that the freedom we have been given has enabled us to love others. While some might object that lost people can love, they cannot love like God loves. When God loves it is from a base that expects nothing because He needs nothing. When God loves, it is from a pure motive of what is best for the object of His love based on perfect knowledge that has limitless power to produce a perfectly planned and known outcome. We cannot love like this until we are connected to the One Who can love this way.
Additionally, they were freed to serve. This brings us to the command in this section. We are to serve one another. The word here literally means to be a slave. To sell one into slavery in a sense of indebting oneself to another for the purpose of working for them until a debt has been satisfied. The thing that makes this relationship unique is that we do not owe each other anything because we have all sinned and are falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We don’t owe Jesus anything from the standpoint of paying Him back for the forgiveness we have been given because we could never do this. It is all forgiven. But out of a sense of gratitude, He deserves our all. He has chosen the way to express this. Love (which we have just looked at) and serve one another. For in serving one another, we serve God. Who does not like their kids to be treated well?
Finally, they were freed to choose. Here is the thing about a command: it involves a choice. You can choose to obey or disobey a command. If I tell you the sky is blue, it is a statement of fact. There is no choice to be made. I may agree or disagree with the statement, but there is no choice or action needed. The statement can stand on its own. If I ask a question, there is no choice beyond merely to answer the question. If I command someone, they have a choice to obey it or not. The consequences of choosing not to obey may be so severe that they make the command seem to be irresistible, but there is still a choice. Now, the unconverted do not have a choice to obey or not because the things of God are foolish to them and they cannot understand them (1 Cor 2:14). They also do not have the Spirit to enable them or life to live out the choice. The saved have this choice. If you are saved, you have the choice. I was saved in November of 1992 and I have the choice. Sometimes, I do well, but many times I do not. Regardless of the choice I make, I have a choice. And so do you! Choose to love and serve God. Choose to love and serve others. Choose to love and serve your family, your community, and your country.
TRY TO BE A RAINBOW IN SOMEONE’S CLOUD -MAYA ANGELOU