Using Your Freedom as a Christian
Galatians 5:13-15
Many of us watched with joy the liberation of Iraq in the spring of 2003. The news reports beamed the fall of the Hussein regime around the world… another oppressive dictatorship thrown onto the ash-heap of history.
We rejoiced as America’s finest went beyond the call of duty by answering the call of liberty. Hollow statues fell. Self-aggrandizing murals and paintings were effaced from the walls of public buildings. Young men and old women wept together for joy. Morning had finally broken after a very dark and very prolonged period of night.
For the first time in many years, there was no government at all. Everything the Iraqi people had known was now in transition. We witnessed first hand that Democracy can be a messy enterprise, especially when the rights of individuals have been suppressed for so long.
But mixed with our joy was also some disappointment. It was disappointing to see some citizens of Iraq looting their neighbor’s businesses, hoarding fuel, and stealing valuable artifacts from the national museums. Some of them chose to exercise their new-found freedom to curse the very soldiers who risked their lives to liberate them. It was disappointing to watch. But they were free.
There are special disciplines that people of freedom must heed. Freedom comes at a price; it isn’t an easy discipline. Christians are in a similar position. For those who have been set free from the spiritual oppression of Satan’s regime, we have new disciplines to practice and embrace. Those who don’t learn to practice and embrace the disciplines of freedom will soon be slaves again.
The Christians of Galatia had been set free from sin and legalism by Jesus Christ. But some of the Galatians were misusing their freedom. Some were cursing the apostle who brought them the good news. Some were becoming licentious and promiscuous. Some of them were attacking their fellow believers, both verbally and spiritually. They thought freedom meant they could act as they pleased; that they could rape and rob and trample the rights of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul saw this, and his disappointment (guided by the Holy Spirit) led him to remind the Galatians of the disciplines of freedom in Christ.
We find these instructions in Galatians 5:13. We’re going to look at verses 13-15 this morning. As we read these verses, notice how God reveals the way true Christian freedom is rightly expressed. In honor of God and His word, let’s stand for the reading of these verses.
13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. [NIV]
[Prayer] The reason Paul didn’t want to see the Galatians submit to the bondage of the legalists is because they were called to freedom in Christ. But this new freedom was not to be used as an opportunity for the flesh. Don’t answer out loud, but I wonder how many of you as Christians ever struggle with the deeds of the flesh? Are you ever tempted as a Christian? I think I have everybody’s attention now. This is a watershed issue in the Christian life. We need this doctrine from God’s Word. You know why? Because your old fleshly nature is still active in your life even as a Christian. So God says your freedom in Jesus is to be guarded for holiness; otherwise, your old nature will try to use your new freedom to indulge in that which is unholy. If you’re a Christian, what can you do to keep your freedom in Christ from being used for fleshly indul-gence? What a timely question for our day! Consider the truth of verses 13-14, which is this…
I. The freedom Christ gives is manifested in sacrificial service to others (13-14).
He says, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14 The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Listen to what God is telling us in these verses: If the problem is using your freedom for self-indulgence, the solution is using your freedom to serve one another in love. Not only that, but you serve one another in love with the same zeal you would have normally spent on yourself. This is the radical power of Christian freedom. There is a boundless freedom in Christian fullness. Full people don’t have to be envious. Full people don’t have to be petty and jealous. Full people don’t have to be hungry for sinful pleasure. Fullness in Jesus leads to freedom that serves in love. But emptiness leads to bondage that turns inward for self-indulgence.
Turning inward never results in a fuller life. Just the opposite is true. Turning inward always creates a deeper pit of dissatisfaction. The more one turns inward, indulging the sinful nature, the more empty one becomes. Over time, the chasm becomes so deep… we realize we have squandered our freedom only to become slaves. Like the wolf in Alaska who licks the frozen blood from the Eskimo’s knife stuck in the ground, faster and faster in a frenzy for satisfaction, by the time we realize we’re drowning in our own blood, it’s too late to stop.
Many Americans, even many Christians, have been sold a rotten bill of goods by our culture. We’ve been led to believe that everyone should experience ultimate satisfaction in this life. We say that we have a “right” to be satisfied. We’re taught to believe that satisfaction is in the next thing we buy or the next lover we woo. If you’re married and your partner doesn’t satisfy you, culture says leave the marriage and find someone who will. If you’re single, culture says you’ll only be happy if you’re married. If you’re married, culture says, you’ll only be satisfied if you go back to being single. So happiness becomes attaining whatever you don’t have… and it exists wherever you haven’t been. It’s always somewhere over the rainbow.
Some people think that if they could only move to another place they could be satisfied; it’s not here, it must be over there. Others think that satisfaction is in another person, so I’ll find someone to satisfy me and if that doesn’t work, then I’ll find someone else. And after awhile, we’re like the wolf, drowning in our own blood because we licked away at the enemy’s bait and developed an insatiable thirst… only to realize we’ve been deceived. Paul says, “Don’t use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.” It’s a trap. It’s a lie.
Our nature is to always look for greener pastures. Some people constantly scan the horizons for greener pastures (where can I be more satisfied; who can bring me more satisfaction?) But those who always seek greener pastures in marriage, or work, or wealth, or just relationships in general will always find themselves tending a dead and barren pasture. Green pastures are the result of careful tending over a long period of time. Green pastures come with hard work. The answer to a dead and barren life is not in seeking a greener pasture elsewhere. If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, the answer is to spend more time cultivating the grass on your side of the fence. That means work. It means sacrifice. Invest time and labor in your pasture, which is your life, your soul, your marriage.
You and I were not created to be satisfied by another human being. As much as we may love and cherish another person, they will never be able to satisfy you in the deepest longing of your soul. Money won’t do it. Drugs and alcohol won’t do it. Sex won’t do it; recreation won’t do it; neither will extreme work-aholism or extreme leisure. The truth is: nothing and no one can satisfy your soul but God. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
Jesus Christ invites us, like He invited the Galatians, to bring our empty, yearning souls to Him. He calls us to bring our dissatisfied and broken emptiness to be filled with the much-ness of Jesus. When we are empty, we have two options: (1) we can turn inward to seek satisfaction within our selves, by indulging the sinful nature; or (2) we can allow that emptiness drive us to the much-ness of Jesus, to be so filled by Him that we overflow in loving service to one another. Turning inward leads to bondage; but turning to Jesus to love and serve others, comes from freedom. Paul says, this is why you were set free as a Christian. Imagine what our church would look like if everyone laid hold of this freedom! Imagine the souls who would be drawn to Jesus by full men and women who serve one another in love. This place would be radiant with joy, God would be glorified in public, and His people would be satisfied at the deepest level!
Paul says the whole law is summed up in one statement, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But this command could never be given to empty, hungry slaves. Only freed and filled men and women can delight to obey these words.
There’s been a lot of confusion in our day about the meaning of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Some have taught that we can’t really love others until we first learn to love ourselves. They assume we don’t love ourselves enough. Self-love has been defined as “self-esteem”. They say, you need to start loving yourself more, pamper yourself more, and splurge on yourself. They say exalt yourself, so you can exalt your fellow man. But the Bible is assuming natural self-love as a given. Self love is never commanded in the Bible, it’s just assumed. The command is, “You shall love your neighbor as (you already) love yourself.” The kind of self love the Bible assumes for all people is really self-interest. In other words, all people want to be happy, we all want to be satisfied. But we express that longing in various and sundry ways.
There’s a sense in which every natural action that we do is somehow motivated by a form of self love. Take the person who says she hates herself. She looks at herself in the mirror and says I’m overweight, I’m ugly, I have no friends, my hair is awful. And you say, that sounds like self loathing; how is that motivated by self love? Well, think about it. If she really hated herself, she would be glad she was overweight, and ugly, and friendless, because hatred wants the worst for the object of hatred. But she hates the fact that she perceives herself to be all of those negative things because she desires better for herself. That’s self love. Self love is self interest… and it’s as natural as the day is long. Even suicide is motivated by a misguided form of self love. Even believers can be tempted by the enemy to lose hope, where the truth of God’s love is eclipsed for just a moment so that self love gone awry can lead to tragic decisions. The Bible assumes this self love to be a given. It is so important that we understand this principle.
Notice the way Paul describes self love in Ephesians 5:28-29; this is in the context of marriage: “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it as Christ does the church.”
When you really love your spouse, you’re making things better for yourself in the long run. Serving one another in love is the shortest route to satisfaction and tranquility. Plus, when you serve one another in love with the same zeal you would have used to indulge the sinful nature, you win two battles with one decision. Not only is sin defeated, but your relationship with others is strengthened and renewed. The freedom Christ gives is manifested in sacrificial service to others. Then notice the negative corollary in verse 15. This verse teaches us that…
II. Christians who attack fellow believers are only destroying themselves (15).
Verse 15 says: “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”
Verse 15 is a picture of what even Christians look like when they go empty. These words picture a person who, like a starving, empty animal, is biting and devouring another person.
I’ve heard recent accounts of churches where controversial business meetings have degenerated into fist fights and brawls. Where grown men and women became so immature and violent that city police had to be called to break up the fighting members. I’ve also known of couples in Bible teaching churches who got so angry at their spouse for that they became physically violent. When God’s people go empty there are tragic consequences in the offing.
This passage sets before us two opposite ways of living; a way of life with fullness and a way of death with emptiness. There is really no middle ground in this warning. A church of people who refuse to serve one another in love will gradually destroy each other. It’s only a matter of time. God has been so good to this church. There has been a family kind of love in this body since the first day I got to know you. There is a gracious and teachable kindness in this church. This church has love because she loves truth. You’re on solid footing with a good foundation. My prayer is that Christ Community Church will abound more and more in love for one another and for all people (1 Thess. 3:12). I pray that our love will be manifested in our words, our actions, in our singing and laughing, in our giving and our receiving, so that Jesus Christ will be glorified.
This is only possible if we are free. This is only possible if we are filled with the much-ness of Jesus. True Christian love—both in the church and in the home—is motivated by the joy of sharing our fullness, not by the desire to fill up our emptiness. The secret of love is freedom, and the secret of freedom is total confidence in the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The charge is this: use your freedom in Christ to love one another. Let’s pray.
(c) Charles Kevin Grant
2003