Freedom has Love within: (5:13-15):
Paul has made the point over and over again – the Christian life is a life of liberty. Jesus came to set the captives free, not to keep them in bondage or put them in bondage all over again. Often, Christians are seen as people more bound up and hung up than others.
The fear of the legalist is that liberty will always be used as an opportunity for the flesh. The idea is that people will just go out and sin as they please, then come and say to God, “I’m sorry, please forgive me,” and then go on doing whatever they want again. Paul recognizes the danger of this attitude, so he warns against it here.
- Calls brethren: Paul calls the believers asbrethren which speaks that all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. These are those who were baptized into Christ and have put on Christ (3:27).
- Tasted liberty: These brethren have been made free by Jesus Christ and also once tasted the liberty. He is asking them to use their freedom not in the sinful way.
- Do not misuse it: It is possible that we can use this glorious freedom of Jesus as a way to please ourselves at the expense of others.
- A Spirit given desire: It is easy to think liberty is the right to sin or the privilege to do whatever evil my heart wants to do. But we must understand that this liberty is the Spirit given desire ability to do what should do before God.
- Enslaves us to Satan: Freedom to sin is no freedom at all, because it enslaves us to Satan.
- Serve one another: Now Paul advocates that there is freedom to serve. Serve one another. The second greatest command in NT is “love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt.22:39). Apostle John in his 3-letters and the gospel has emphasised about the love.
- All have to do is to look into your own heart, and it will tell you how you ought to love your neighbour as yourself.” (Luther).
- The loveless life is a life lived on the level of animals, with a concern only for oneself, no matter what the cost to other people.” (Morris)
- Glorify God by your service: Christians by contrast, should not be slaves to sin, because they are free to do right and to glorify God through loving service to others.
- “By love serve one another” (Gal 5:13). The key word, of course, is love. We can have an empirical formula viz., liberty + love = service to others; liberty – love = license (slavery to sin)
God’s Freedom has promise and victory over sin: (5:16-21, 24-26):
Paul calls the believers to live by the Spirit. If any one has the desire to acquire the virtues given in (5:22-23), it is a sure fact that the Holy Spirit is working in his life. Further our life should be controlled and energized by the Spirit.
- Two natures: The explanation is found in the fact that each Christian has two natures, a sinful nature received at birth, inherited from fallen Adam, and a new nature received at regeneration when a person has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal Saviour. Both natures have desires, the one for evil and the other for holiness. Thus they are in conflict with each other, and the result can be that they keep a believer from doing what he otherwise would. In other words the Holy Spirit blocks, when He is allowed to do so, the evil cravings of the flesh.
The Spirit and the flesh have different appetites, and this is what creates the conflict.
- Two pictures: These two appetites can be given in a picture form comparing with Pig or raven with sheep or dove. They have opposite appetites. For example, the sheep is a clean animal and avoids garbage, while the pig is an unclean animal and enjoys wallowing in filth (2 Pet.2:19-22).
- Example of Noah: After the rain ceased and the ark settled on Mount Ararat, Noah released a raven which never came back (Gen. 8:6-7). The raven is a carrion-eating bird and found plenty to feed on. But when Noah released the dove (a clean bird), it came back (Gen. 8:8-12). The last time he released the dove and it did not return, which is an indication that it had found a clean place to settle down and Noah understood that the waters had receded.
Our old nature is like the pig and the raven, always looking for something unclean on which to feed. Our new nature is like the sheep and the dove, yearning for that which is clean and holy. No wonder a struggle goes on within the life of the believer! The unsaved man knows nothing of this battle because he does not have the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:9).
- Godly life: Paul emphasized that a godly life is not lived under the rules of the Law but is a life led by the Spirit. “All those who are led by the Spirit are the sons of God” (Rom.9:13). It was important for the Galatians to know that just as justification is not possible by works so sanctification cannot be achieved by human effort.