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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.
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