Galatians 5:1-15

I. INTRODUCTION

Now I remember a time when I was a manager at Wendy’s. We had a manager meeting and some of the things that were talked about were food cost and quality control especially during the slow periods. The general manager said “we have an issue with wasting chicken because according to the counts we are throwing away almost as much as we are selling. I notice that when it’s getting near to closing time that we are cooking way too much chicken, do you know why that is?

Every one was quiet and just waited for his response. He said “The crew drops more chicken at night because they know we won’t sell it and that we will let them take home whatever is left over”. They are pretty much robbing us, so no more of them taking home what’s left over. It all goes straight into the trash.

The general manager was right, at our next meeting our chicken waste was way down and it corrected the issue.

I tell you this because it makes you think, why do you, do what you do? What are the motives behind even the good things to do? Where is your heart at? I think that’s what Paul is trying to drive home here when he talks about our Freedom in Christ, because if we do good things with wrong motives then it can still be sinful.

II. READING OF THE TEXT

LET’S READ WHAT PAUL SAYS ABOUT IT IN GALATIANS 5:1-15

III. CONTEXT (Acts 15)

In Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem gathered to make decisions about new Gentile believers.  Paul and Barnabas had been teaching that new believers did not need to observe the Old Testament custom of circumcision in order to be saved.  There were others though, that were against Paul, and taught that circumcision was necessary for salvation.

After some discussion, the church leaders in Jerusalem decided to send a letter to new believers in Antioch to confirm what Paul and Barnabas had taught them. 

Throughout the book of Galatians, Paul’s frustration is clear. 

In chapter 2 he describes a confrontation he had with Peter over the issue of eating with Gentile Christians. 

At the end of chapter 3 he makes it clear all who are baptized in Christ are children of God, without distinction. 

In chapter 4 Paul tells them that they are no longer slaves but Sons and Daughters of God who are free in Christ and urges them not to turn back to the worthless idols of the world.

In Galatians 5, Paul is addressing fellow believers who are saying that Gentile believers need to be circumcised to be saved. Paul urges against that mindset and tells them to stand firm and to use their freedom not to serve the flesh but to serve one another in love

The early Latin writer, Tertullian of Carthage, declared that the one thing that converted him to Christianity was not the arguments they gave him, because he could find a counterpoint for every argument they would present. “But they demonstrated something I didn’t have. The thing that converted me to Christianity was the way they loved each other.”

C.S Lewis defines love like this...

“Love is not a affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained”

IIII. God didn’t set us free so we could be in bondage to religion v.1-6

A. Religion is man working His way to God whereas, a relationship with God is when Jesus came down to man.

B.To illustrate this, let me share something with you.

i. When my ian has to clean up something or pick up his toys for instance, he will say “Daddy, can you please help me?”.

ii. Now I have two choices, I can tell him “No, you pick them up and get it done in 5 minutes or you’ll be in trouble!”

iii. Now he pay pout and get cranky but it will get done or I can say “Sure, i’ll help you” and i’ll make it a race to see how fast we can do it together.

iiii. Ian will hurry to do it and it will be fun to do.

v. Now these are two very different experiences for ian.

1. In one experience he is not free. He is annoyed, frustrated and complains and goes on with the work but there is this burden or heavy weight on him. He doesn’t feel free.

2. But in the second experience he feels free. He is doing the work without aggitation, without complaining because it’s fun. Yet, he still knows that if he doesn’t do it that there will be consequences.

C. The way to freedom is not doing all the work ourselves grudgingly so we wont have to endure discipline from the father but it’s allowing the father to come and be with us to help us.

One way is doing all the work in our strength and the other way is allowing the father to give us His strength to get it done.

D. Now let’s see what verses 2 and 3 say.

i. Pauls tells them that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

ii. That those who receive circumcision will be under obligation to the whole law.

iii. Paul is basically saying that they are opening a can of worms. That if they obey one law than they would have to obey them all and that is impossible to do without Christ.

E. Verses 4 and 5 speaks to this

i. You have been severed from Christ, seeking to be justified by the law and have fallen from grace

1. Severed-Literally means to be cut as of something that was made whole.

2. Christ didn’t come to replace the law he came to fulfill it!

3. In Romans 8:4 Paul declares that God’s purpose in sending His Son to condemn sin in the flesh is to fulfill the “just requirement of the law

4.The Methodist movement began in the mid-eighteenth century with a small band of intensely devout students at the University of Oxford.

5. These were towering figures like John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield.

6. They would meet regularly for study and devotion; they were known as the Holy Club because they practiced strict methods of increasing their spiritual zeal for God.

7. Yet amid all the religious devotion and moral striving, these men had lost sight of what ultimately counts.

8. In fine, the Holy Club men knew little or nothing of grace as taught in the Scriptures.

9. Their ironclad régime was one of human effort, that provided no assurance and left the all-important salvation of the soul a distant uncertainty.

10. Its practices brought little joy.… These ardent men strove on and on, yet saw no point of arrival.

11.Following his conversion, George Whitefield admitted how he’d gotten off track by losing sight of what ultimately counts:

12. “God showed me that I must be born again, I learned that a man may go to church, say his prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet not be a Christian.”

F. Faith working itself through love

i. The Apostle Paul touches on this in a way when he mentions probably the most important verse when he says...

1. “Faith working itself through love is the only thing that matters”

2. There were Jews saying that gentiles needed to be circumcised to be saved.

3. Today we have people in the pentecostal movement who say you need the evidence of speaking in tongues to be saved.

4. But scripture tells us that the way we love one another is the evidence of someone who is saved.

V. Man-made religion is just peer pressure from dead people. v. 7-12

A. That brings me to my next point that, man-made religion is just peer pressure from dead people.

B. Paul goes on tell them that they were running well, who hindered you from obeying the truth?

C. Paul uses a familar phrase and says “A little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough”

i. This phrase is also used by Jesus in Matthew 16 in reference to the religious leaders and how they were hypocrites

ii. Jesus was referencing those religious leaders who have been around for a while. Those that would try to trap him with questions and those that were plotting against him behind his back.

iii. Here in our text of Galatians we get a warning from Paul about the legalism that was entering the church.

iiii. Many Christians come from legalistic backgrounds.

a. They grew up in churches where it seemed like almost everything was ultimately important—except that which in fact was truly important.

b. They recall painful congregational meetings where individuals seemed just as enraged about the temperture in the sanctuary in sundays or the color of the carpet in the fellowship hall as they did about no one getting saved or baptized at the church.

c. These are toxic places to be because they have the wrong motives and focus

d. Yet legalism lurks in the shady corners of nearly every Christian community. This is why we can go for months, if not years, and never notice it’s there.

e. Legalism’s lurking presence in our lives reminds me of a bizarre incident at one of the park district pools in the Chicago area.

f. A nine-year-old boy went down a waterslide, plunged into the pool, and bumped into the dead body of a woman near the bottom of the pool.

g. Much to everyone’s horror and disgust, however, they discovered that the body had been in the pool for several days, even though the pool was open, lifeguards were on duty, and people were swimming.

h. Health inspectors explained that because the pool was so murky no one could see the dead body submerged several feet under the surface.

i. A dead body lurking in the murky waters of a pool—that’s the way legalism works in the life of a church and in the life of a Christian.

j. Legalists lose sight of what ultimately counts. They start thinking that nonessentials are essential; And the result is that they look with pity or suspicion on anyone who would think or do otherwise.

k. They even try to win others to there cause by slander and gossip.

k. Even to the point of false accusations and even calling them selfish just because they feel there power and authority is being threatened.

VI. The grace of Christ frees us to love one another v. 13-15

A. That brings me to my next point. That the grace of Christ frees us to love one another!

B. The apostle Paul was so passionate about this issue because he was a zealous Jew, He persecuted the church and was as legalistic as they come but Christ totally delivered him from the spirit of religion!

C. Paul states in verse 13 that we are called to freedom and warns us not to abuse our freedom by serving the flesh.

i. Just because we are free from the law doesn’t mean that we should walk in the flesh. We still have an obligation to moral conduct and holiness.

ii. Christian freedom cannot be defined as permission to do anything we want. Rather, it is the cleansing of our hearts that shifts our hearts to be in alignment with God’s will by changing our desires and motives to match His.

iii. We are free from endless ceremonial laws, sin, and fear. But we are not free in the sense of totally governing ourselves.

iiii. We are under the restraint of the Holy Spirit and the constraint of the higher law, the law of love. Freedom must be used to glorify Christ and serve others.

D. Paul says in verse 14 that the law is summed up in one commandment “You shall love your neighbor as your self”

i. What i found to be true is that legalists and modern day pharisees don’t do a good job at loving themselves so in turn they don’t love their neighbors well. Ever hear the expression “Hurt people, hurt people”

ii. For example, if someone is very critical of other people, it usually means deep inside they are unhappy about who they are.

iii. If someone always claims other people are selfish it’s usually because they aren’t getting what they want or need.

E. In verse 15 Paul says.... “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”

i. We see the verbs in this sentence increase in their intensity. First they bite, devour, and then can be consumed by one another.

ii. The book of James talks about this to as He says “What causes fights among you? Isn’t it the selfish desires with in you?

iii. When we lose the motivation of love, we become critical of others. We stop looking for good in them and see only their faults.

a. Soon we lose our unity. Have you talked behind someone’s back?

b. Have you focused on others’ shortcomings instead of their strengths?

c. Remind yourself of Jesus’ command to love others as you love yourself

iiii. The source of the conflict went back to those were causing confusion among the believers in Galatia

a. They were saying in order to be saved you must do this or do that.

b. We must guard against destructive criticism.

c. Paul was describing a church that was harming one another more than helping one another to heal.

d. When we are critical of someone it says more about our character then it does about the other person.

e. We shouldn’t use our freedom to indulge in the flesh and be a prisoner of our feelings but we should use it to walk in the spirit.

VII. APPLICATION

A. What if we realized that our freedom in Christ doesn’t bound us to slavery to the spirit of religion and legalism but to a vibrant relationship with Christ

B. What if we realized the true motives of our hearts and why we do what we do?

i. We can do things for God but with selfish agendas. Do you need to repent of your attitude or motives?

ii. Paul also mentions in 1 Corinthians 3 that there will be a time of testing on judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done and only the work that survives the fire will matter to him

iii. Paul says this about love in 1 Corinthians 13:1–3 (The Message)

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.