Galatians 5:13-15

                                                                     Galatians 5:13-15

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

 

Love is the basic value of the Christian life.  We are called to a life where we prioritize the well-being of others over our own.  Freedom in Christ means to have freedom from sin not freedom to sin.  Clearly loving others does not mean that we just passively accept the false teachers this passage warns us about.  However, we are not to allow our confrontation of false teachers become our standard operating procedure.

 

IN CHRIST WE ARE FREE TO LOVE: Freedom is truly one of the greatest gifts of Salvation.  However, we must be assured that our freedom in Christ is not to be used as an opportunity to fulfill the lusts of our flesh.  Christ has set us free from the penalty and power of sin and we have the promise that for all eternity we will be free from the presence of sin.  It is because of that freedom that we are truly able to love and serve one another.  It is interesting that this admonition comes in the middle of a passage about correcting false teaching.  The presence of false teaching cannot cause us to become combatant with one another and start questioning motives.

 

IN CHRIST WE FULFILL THE LAW: The false teachers were striving to take the church back to an observance of the Law of Moses as being mandatory for salvation and good standing in the church.  Paul makes it clear that the only requirement of the Law is the requirement to love one another.  It would seem that the absence of a command for loving God is a contradiction, but it is not.  The only way we truly have of demonstrating our Love for God is by loving one another.  If we don’t love each other, we are certainly breaking all the commandments of loving God.  When we love in Christ, God is honored, and we fulfill the Law.

 

IN CHRIST OUR FLESH IS LEASHED: The natural response of our flesh is to protect ourselves and to attack one another.  Satan strive to build division, mistrust, and dissention in the body of Christ.  However, the Spirit of God that lives in us has called us to live under His control and not give in to the desires of the flesh.  God calls us to a life of self-control under the power of the Spirit.  When believers begin to quarrel with one another they run the risk of becoming completely ineffective.  God calls us to a completely different way of living.  

 

APPLICATION: Seek for practical ways to serve others in the body of Christ.  Have a deep and abiding love for all people as representatives of the image of God on earth.  Don’t allow the desires of the flesh allow us to enter a world of legalism or a world of gossip and backbiting.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Isaiah 54:1-17

Hope is a wonderful blessing from God, without which we would be vulnerable to all kinds of destructive tendencies in our lives.  Today’s society is marked by depression, anger, fear, anxiety and self-righteousness, in large part, because of the sense of hopelessness that prevails in our culture.  Isaiah writes to a people who are about to be taken into captivity because of their sin.  God knows that they will feel rejected, threatened and hopeless so He reveals His future plans for the nation in order to give them hope in the midst of the coming trial.  Hope is the expectation of good based upon the promises of God.  Many times when our lives are marked by the sins mentioned above it is because we have forgotten or failed to focus upon the promises of God’s Word. THE PROMISE OF GOD: From the very first day that God revealed His plan for the nation of Israel, He promised numerous descendants.  God chose Abraham, not because he was more righteous than any of the other people of his
Read more

1 Timothy 1:3-7

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not   to teach any different doctrine,   nor   to devote themselves to myths and endless   genealogies, which promote   speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.    The aim of our charge is love   that issues from a pure heart and   a good conscience and   a sincere faith.    Certain persons, by   swerving from these, have wandered away into   vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law,   without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.   There will always be false teachers that come into the church attempting to distract people from the truth and destroy people’s faith.  When this happens, it is the job of spiritually mature leaders to confront these false teachers and correct their teachings.  However, it is important that this correction be accomplished with the right motives and methods. 
Read more

1 Timothy 2:11-15

Let a woman learn quietly   with all submissiveness.    I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.    For Adam was formed first,   then Eve;   and Adam was not deceived, but   the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.    Yet she will be saved through   childbearing—if they continue in   faith and love and holiness, with self-control. There is certainly controversy and confusion about this passage in many churches today.  The idea of a distinction between men and women and their roles in the family and church certainly goes against the flow of many cultures around the world.  Some would argue that the literal and plain teaching of this passage is no longer applicable to today’s culture.  However, it is always dangerous to discard biblical teaching or try to interpret Scripture based on the cultures in which we live.  Certainly, the Spirit who inspired this text was aware of the many changes that would occur in future cul
Read more