Gal 5:13-26 (2)

Opening

If you would go ahead and open your bibles to Galatians Chapter 5 as we begin today.

I think we all misunderstand freedom. Do you remember the promise of freedom that came with getting your drivers license and first car? I remember be so excited to get to drive my 1991 Dodge Spirit around. I remember the freedom to play the songs I wanted from the mostly illegally downloaded and burnt CD’s from LimeWire through the 2.5 working speakers in my car. Drive with the windows down. 0-60 in 45 seconds.

Then something unexpected happened. With this great freedom came this new chore. What I learned quickly is that this freedom I thought I was getting was just a new prison. Why? My 13 year old brother. I was now his chauffeur. What I found out was that I wasn’t the only one counting down the days to new freedom. So was my mom. She saw her opportunity and TOOK IT.

Transition

I think that story captures something most of us feel—we equate freedom with getting more of what we want. More independence. More control. More convenience. But when that’s our definition, freedom quickly turns into another form of slavery. You’re still being ruled—just now by your own cravings, responsibilities, or even other people’s expectations.

In the West, we’ve been taught to define freedom as “the absence of restraint.” No rules. No limitations. Just me doing what I want, when I want.

N.T. Wright (from Paul for Everyone)

“Freedom is not the random assertion of autonomy. It is the God-given ability to become the person you were meant to be.”

And who were we meant to be? What kind of freedom were we supposed to express?

Galatians 5:13–14 NIV

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul here is telling us that the freedom we are given is not for ourselves, Christian freedom is a freedom to serve one another, to love one another, in humility. See our understanding of freedom is something that we think will make us more. More things for us to do, more stuff for us to get, more more more more.

More is a prison in itself. There is always a one more thing, a one more activity. It is the mentality of if I could just have this..… it is a mentality of discontent

When we have that kind of understanding of Freedom we will misunderstand that Paul is telling the Galatians that it was for freedom we were set free, not to chase more, but to be filled with the right things.

Back in 2016 the youth group went on a missions trip to Dearborn Michigan. Dearborn Michigan is an interesting town. It is so densely populated with Muslim people that it is like a different country. One of the things we did when we were in Dearborn was to go and visit with the Iman, basically their word for priest. Iman Hub Hub was this gentleman’s name. We gathered around a large conference table full of snacks and food. The point of this was to ask Iman questions. One of the girls in the group asked Hub Hub what heaven would be like for her. I will never forget the answer he gave, it was wild and really insightful.

See Iman Hub Hub’s reason for entertaining us was to basically proselytize us, that is why he would let us in right, like he is thinking I can get a group of Christians into my church and give my apologetics for the Muslim faith. (which is one of the main duties a Muslim is to perform in their life in order to make it into heaven)

So a high school girl asks this man what heaven would be like for her, a female. Hub hub doesn’t really answer her question. He answers what the Muslim understanding of heaven is for him, a male.

He says, you can have whatever you want. Say you see a bird that you would like to eat. You can demand to eat that, it would then throw itself on the fire and fly into your mouth. In heaven you can have whatever you want you can drink all you want and never get drunk. You can have whatever you want.”

See this is what struck me, and why I remember this all these years later. To this Muslim imam he knew that what would sweeten the deal is to get whatever we want, but also that this understanding of heaven is odd. Why? Because they serve a religion that demands them to abstain for certain earthly pleasures in order to then get to heaven and have their fill of that exact earthly pleasure.

That is human nature. When we put ourselves in the center of things our perception, and our ideas get all out of whack. If we do the same thing with freedom we aren’t going to get freedom, because Biblical freedom isn’t really about us at the center. Biblical freedom places God at the center, and when God is at the center then that leads us to a place where we aren’t the center.

Elisabeth Elliot

“Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but the power to do what we ought.”

What ought we do is counter intuitive. Real freedom is becoming the you that you were created to be, and the you you were created to be is someone who lives for everyone who isn’t you.

This is a kingdom principle. A kingdom principle that I think we easily loose sight of. It is so easy to be self involved. I get it, I think of myself a lot. What I have found is that when I can get my thoughts off of myself and the situations I am in and can begin to think of others that is so important.

Illustration

We really want to believe that we’re the center of the universe. That life is about us, our dreams, our opinions, our freedom. But history shows how deep this desire goes.

Back in the early 1600s, the Catholic Church condemned Galileo Galilei for insisting that the Earth was not the center of the universe. Galileo had embraced the model that said the Earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around. And for that? He was tried by the Church and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

Why? Because saying the Earth wasn’t the center didn’t just challenge astronomy—it challenged human pride. It disrupted our need to believe we are the point of the story.

And isn’t that still the real offense of the gospel? That you and I are not the center. Jesus is. That real freedom isn’t found in orbiting around ourselves—but in letting our lives revolve around Him and others.

We don’t want to admit it, but the human heart still has a geocentric theology: I want everything to revolve around me. But the Spirit of God is calling us to something better. A life not obsessed with self—but poured out in love.

Look at the next part of this passage. Paul is going to show the difference between what we create and what God creates.

Galatians 5:16–26 NIV

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

I feel like I have spoken about this before, but it is so important that it bares repeating. We don’t get mad at an orange tree for not producing apples. You don’t expect it to. Only an insane person would insist that an orange tree should produce apples. This is absurd right? That is what many do when they get to this verse in Galatians. Among Christians this is likely the most popular passage in this whole letter.

Yet I think we do this passage wrongly, teach it wrongly, apply it wrongly.

Why do I say that? Well we have two lists. The first list, the fruits of the flesh. Fruits from the tree we call flesh. Flesh here is not just the physical, but really stands for anything that is other than God. The fruit of the tree of anything other than God, has a list comprised of Sexual deviance, idolatry, and societal sins. This is what this tree produces full stop. This tree is known by its fruit.

We know that this fruit is bad fruit, and it is most defiantly not what kinds of things “Christians” should be doing we tell ourselves. So what do we do? We jump from that list to the next list of fruits and put them on our proverbial shopping list of things we should act like we are.

So we put on the powder of love, concealer of joy and piece, the eye shadow of forbearance, the lipstick of kindness and goodness, the blush of gentleness, and the setting spray of self-control. Then we walk into our communities, our jobs, our churches with a mask of these that we put on.

But real life is humid and will cause that makeup to crack and melt away. Why? Because that isn’t the type of tree we are. See this isn’t something that we can fake.

If the inner life is rooted in the flesh, that is in the self-life, the self-directed life then no matter how diligently anyone tries to act differently, the natural outcome will be disorder, anxiety, pride, and sin. As Jesus said, a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

The critical mistake in modern Christianity is attempting to act like Christ without actually being formed like Christ. That is the central problem of the church: we are trying to produce the fruit of the Spirit without living by the Spirit. So we fake it we put on the makeup of “Christ”. And eventually we burn out or melt down.

The answer is not to work harder at appearing godly, but to become the kind of person who naturally loves, who is at peace, who is kind and gentle—because Christ’s life is flowing through them.

Spiritual formation is not behavior modification. Spiritual formation is a re-rooting of the soul in God. A spiritual discipline is not a technique to be good, but a way of abiding in the Vine. The fruit does not come by effort, but by remaining. And when we truly remain in Him, the fruit grows without strain.

“We can’t be like Christ by merely trying to act like Christ. We must be inwardly transformed.” — Renovation of the Heart Dallas Willard

The question that follows is how? I can’t just sit on my hands. That is true, but it is likely going to feel much more like that than we are comfortable with. See transformation is something that happens to us. It happens to us by what Paul give us in a two fold manner, 1st crucified the flesh with it’s passions and desires, and “keep in step with the Spirit.”

1st crucified the flesh.

Paul tells us elsewhere that he died to himself daily. Christ encourages his followers to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow him.

Realize that you must lead a dying life; the more a man dies to himself, the more he begins to live unto God.

Thomas a Kempis

2nd keep in step with the spirit

How do we do that? Well I think Paul inadvertently answered that earlier in the chapter. See Paul tells the Galatians here to keep in step. walk with the spirit. The idea of moving or going along with is also like running a good race. Which Paul pointed out the Galatians had been doing in 5:7. Notice they were running a good race, by someone cut in. What did they cut them off from? Obeying the truth

Galatians 5:7 “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”

Well what is the truth that needs to be obeyed? Jesus is the way the truth and the life. The Galatians were keeping in step with the spirit (running a good race) how? by obeying the truth.

How do we keep in step with the spirit? obey the truth. However, and this is a big huge however, don’t fall into the trap door of legalism. See we are free to do these things, because Christ Jesus gave us such freedom to follow him, but we don’t do that without having placed our trust in him first. Trust that the fruit he wants us to bear is better than the fruit we are comfortable with.

How do we keep in step with the Spirit? Obey the truth. But not through striving or legalism—by trusting His freedom and yielding to His power.

John Mark Comer sums this up well:

“Willpower is at its best when it directs my body into spiritual practices… so the Spirit’s power can do what willpower can’t.”

Our part is spiritual effort habits, truth, obedience. The Spirit’s work is transformation. That’s walking in step.

Invitation

So the question becomes: Are you walking in step with the Spirit? Not just attending church. Not just trying harder. But truly living in rhythm with Jesus?

Because this isn’t just a message for people far from God. It’s a call to every one of us. Whether you’ve followed Jesus for five minutes or fifty years, the invitation is the same: Trust Him. Obey the truth. Let the Spirit lead. There is no other way

And maybe today, for some of you, the Spirit is tugging at your heart—drawing you not just to believe in Jesus, but to follow Him. To surrender, to yield, to walk daily with Him. That’s what it means to be a disciple, not just someone who believes the truth, but someone who obeys it in love and trust.

"Come to me," Jesus said, "all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Take my yoke—walk with me—learn from me. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.

You don’t have to do this alone. You weren’t meant to.

So today, the invitation is open:

Maybe for the first time, you need to place your trust in Jesus and begin walking in step with His Spirit.

Or maybe, you’ve been a believer for years—but somewhere along the way, you started running your own race again. Today is your chance to return. To walk again in the freedom and power of the Spirit.

You’re invited. Let’s walk in step with Him.