Galatians 5:13

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (Galatians 5:13–15)

Christ has set us free—and now, paradoxically, calls us to make ourselves slaves of one another in love.

Communion with God Brings Community With One Another

On Wednesday nights we are seeking what it means to be in communion with God and community with one another. When God redeems an individual, He places them in fellowship with Himself through Jesus Christ. But He doesn't desire that we remain solitary in that communion. He takes the one who was at enmity with Him, now reconciled, and sovereignly places them together with others to be in community—displaying the gloriousness of God to the world and back to God. We are like mirrors, reflecting His glory back at Him as a body, in unity together.

That is why we must endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. When God gathers us together, there is not instantly community, because we are different. Look around this room: there are probably very few things that unite you with the people seated near you. You come from different backgrounds, different socioeconomic groups, with different ambitions and desires. The one thing that unifies us is Christ.

A People Made by Mercy

As Peter writes, "you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, God's own special people, that you should proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." Then he adds, "you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy." By God's mercy and grace He has made us one.

I'll never forget when Pastor Eric first started helping me with the youth ministry. Eric has a blunt, East Coast way of saying things—we California natives like to shave off the sharp edges, but he doesn't. One day he told me, "If it wasn't for Jesus, you and I would never be friends." And it was true. You look around the body of Christ and there are people you would never have introduced yourself to, never sat next to, never had any conversation with. They don't like the things you like. Yet Christ unifies us. In Him there is neither bond nor free, male nor female, Jew nor Gentile nor Scythian. God levels all of that.

Community Begins With Commands

When He brings us together, there are still some sharp edges. We tend to walk in the flesh. Verse 17 says the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that you cannot do the things you would. Christ doesn't clean us up before salvation; He sanctifies us after we are redeemed, transforming us into His image. But initially the sharp edges remain. We can upset and provoke one another—even something as small as someone taking "your" seat. It's like a family: if you have brothers and sisters, you understand the tension.

So community begins through commands. God tells us at the start: love one another, be kind and tender, forgiving one another. In the same way we tell our children, "Don't hit your sister—love her." That isn't natural; it has to be instructed, and at first it comes through a command. These are imperatives in the Greek. And we have one here at the end of Galatians 5:13: "by love serve one another." At the start it is a command; over time, as we mature, it becomes a joy.

Called Unto Liberty

But this command is sandwiched between things that are incredibly important. "Brethren, you have been called unto liberty." Back up to verse 1: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free." When you first received Christ, you may not have been fully aware of all that took place. Theologically, a great deal happened. He set you free. The more we walk with Him, the more we grasp what this freedom is about.

There are two dangers. One is to overuse our liberty—"Christ has set me free, so I can do whatever I want, whenever I please." That's the fear some have about teaching the grace of God: that people will become licentious. The opposite danger is to swing to legalism, setting up endless rules and standards. That is exactly what was happening in Galatia. Paul writes so they would stand fast in their liberty, having swung from one extreme toward the other. Between licentiousness and legalism runs the narrow path of love that God calls us to walk.

The Bondage of Sin

In John 8:34 Jesus says, "Whosoever commits sin is a servant of sin"—and that word means slave. Romans 3 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So all humanity is under sin, enslaved to it. Something must change; we need to be set free.

The Old Testament repeatedly uses slavery to describe what it is to be under sin, because the people of old could easily grasp it. In first-century Rome more than sixty percent of the populace were slaves. Slavery is not entirely done away with even today—and modern abolitionist groups do honorable work—but ultimately only the second coming of Christ will abolish it, for He is the one who sets the captives free.

Isaiah 52:3 says, "You have sold yourselves for nothing." How? By their idolatry, by their sin. Psalm 107:10 speaks of "such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in iron"—and verse 11 tells us why: "because they rebelled against the words of God." They are there by their own doing.

A Cycle of Their Own Making

Read through Judges and you see the cycle: when Israel had a good leader—Joshua, Caleb, Othniel, Deborah, Gideon, Samson—they followed God. As soon as the leader died, they did what was right in their own eyes, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and God allowed them to go into bondage to the nations. Under heavy taskmasters they would finally cry out to God. Psalm 107:13: "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses... and brake their bands in sunder."

God is a good Father—Old Testament and New. He is just; by no means does He clear the guilty. But the very first word He uses to describe His character is "merciful." In Exodus 34:6 He passes by Moses and proclaims, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful." He could have said holy, or just—both perfectly true. But purposefully He said merciful. So when His people cry out, His mercy draws Him to that cry.

Proverbs 5:22 says the wicked man's own iniquities entrap him. James says no man can claim he is tempted of God. The condition is our own doing. Jeremiah 2:13 gives a striking definition of evil: "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Two evils: rejecting God, and turning to other things to find joy in. Man is in bondage because of his own doing.

The Magnificent Redeemer Prophesied

The Old Testament paints a bleak picture, and it's important to establish that darkness when we share with people who don't know the Lord. But the Old Testament also prophesies the Redeemer—a great light shining into that darkness. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light... for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given" (Isaiah 9).

Isaiah 52:3 promises, "Ye shall be redeemed without money"—not with silver and gold, says Peter, but with the precious blood of a lamb without blemish. Isaiah 61, which Jesus reads in Luke 4, declares: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me... to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Isaiah 42:7 says He comes to open blind eyes and bring out the prisoners. Isaiah 49:9: "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves."

Picture a stage. There stands humanity in darkness, a slave to sin in the prison house. Christ has always existed, waiting in the wings—then comes the advent of the Messiah, the incarnation, the Redeemer on the scene. "Unto us a child is born." And He sets us free. We are to stand fast in that liberty, not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.

Liberty Redefined—and Distorted

How are we to use this liberty? Our culture has redefined the concept. America is the land of the free, and our founding documents speak of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But happiness has become the focal point—freedom now means doing whatever makes you happy, and no one should stand in your way. This has crept into the church, where ministry becomes only about keeping people happy.

Is that what God intended by liberty? We've tainted the glorious gospel with the idea that liberty means I can do whatever I please, whenever I want, however I desire, as long as the end is my happiness. "You leave me alone, I'll find my own happiness—but if your happiness steps on mine, you need to get out of the way." It's all about me. We breathe on those coals of the carnal nature from the youngest age, until living for me, me, me means stepping on everyone else—and then we have to legislate against it. That is not at all what is meant by the liberty Christ has given.

The Lame Man at Bethesda

There's a perfect illustration in John 5. At the pool of Bethesda, just north of the Temple Mount, lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered people, all waiting for the moving of the water. The story was that an angel would stir the water, and whoever stepped in first would be healed—so there would be a mad dash of sick people. It's a sorrowful scene.

A certain man had an infirmity thirty-eight years. Jesus asks him, "Do you desire to be made whole?" On the surface it almost seems an insensitive question—of course he wants to be made whole. But as I've studied this passage, I sense Jesus came up behind him, because the man never identifies his healer; he never took his eyes off the water to look at the Son of God standing beside him. He simply answers, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool." He doesn't even ask Jesus to help him. Jesus says, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk." Immediately the man was made whole.

Liberty Rightly Used

This drew the Sabbath police. But notice verse 14: afterward Jesus found him in the temple—the right place. For thirty-eight years this man had been close to the temple, hearing the sounds of worship but never able to enter. Now he is inside. Jesus says, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."

Why use this as a picture of liberty? For thirty-eight years his infirmity kept him from actively practicing sin—though sin still resides in the heart, in anger, lust, and envy. But now that he is set free, he has a choice. He could use his liberty to find a harlot or join the drunkards. Instead, Jesus finds him in the temple, using his liberty rightly. And Jesus warns him: a worse thing than thirty-eight years of lameness would be an eternity in hellfire. We have the same choice. We were in bondage to sin and death; now we are free, and God says, "Use your liberty in the right way."

The Paradox of Grace: Serving One Another

Back in Galatians 5: "Stand fast in the liberty... Don't be entangled again into bondage... For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." Here is a great paradox. The word for "serve" is from doulos—slave. I have set you free from slavery, and now I call you to make yourself a slave again, willingly, out of love for one another.

The mindset of a freed slave would be, "I never want servitude again; I'm my own man." But God says, "I have redeemed you, given you fellowship with Me, and now I call you into community—and there I want you to make yourself a bond-servant, out of love." A bond-servant is one who willingly makes himself a servant. Paul calls himself a bond-servant of Christ.

Servants of Righteousness, of God, of Obedience

We are called to be servants of righteousness: "having been made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). Servants of God: "having become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" (Romans 6:22). This may be the most common term the apostles used of themselves—Paul a servant of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1), Paul and Timothy servants of Christ (Philippians 1:1), James a servant of God (James 1:1), Peter a servant and apostle (2 Peter 1:1), Jude the servant of Jesus Christ. Peter exhorts us: "as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God" (1 Peter 2:16).

We are also servants of obedience (Romans 6:16) and, in Galatians 5:13, servants of one another. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5). At first this service must be willing even against the flesh—I die to my flesh to do this. As time goes on, it becomes a joy.

Bite and Devour, or Walk in the Spirit

Why? Verse 14: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Loving God, loving others—this is our call. And like the lame man, we have a choice. We can find ourselves in the temple, serving the Lord and one another, or, verse 15, "if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another." We can be natural, sinful, fleshly people biting and devouring because it's all about me.

Paul sums it up in verse 16: "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The flesh wants to bite and devour for self-preservation; the Spirit is sacrificial. When I confess, "Lord, I don't want to serve this person, but out of agape love I will do it to Your glory," a transaction takes place. Your joy is exalted in it. Remember what Jesus said: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." So go and serve, knowing it is more blessed to give. Sometimes we do it sacrificially; sometimes, as God transforms us, we cannot wait to do it. We are now the servants of Christ, of righteousness, of obedience—called to love, forgive, and serve one another.

Closing Prayer

Father, would You work this out in my life? I know my flesh is so strong at times that I just don't want to do what is pleasing to You by serving my family, by serving the body of Christ, by serving those outside the body of Christ. Lord, You know the depravity, the wickedness of my heart. I ask that You would give me Your grace and Your mercy to be able to be gracious and merciful to others. I confess that I don't always in my flesh desire to serve others. Would You work that in me, and work it out in my brothers and sisters here? Lord, we have been redeemed by Your righteous hand and brought into fellowship with God the Father, and through the communion we have with You, You've brought us into community with one another. Teach us to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.