Exploring the Scripture
Chapter 5 begins by urging the churches of Galatia to choose freedom in Christ, rather than a yoke of slavery. Paul’s letter to the Galatians uses a theme of slavery and freedom to represent the law and grace symbolically. He is referring to his earlier argument that the law of Moses was given to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. But it became burdensome, a strict disciplinarian that enslaved, rather than freed, the people.
Paul urges the Galatians to choose freedom. Freedom can be difficult when a person is used to the confines of slavery. People may feel more comfortable relying on laws to define their actions rather than making their own decisions. Laws were given to help define relationships and dictate what actions were acceptable within the community. Freedom in Christ is not separating from those responsibilities and relationships, but embracing Jesus’s example of kingdom relationships shaped by love.
The temptation to abuse newly found freedom is great. Paul calls on people to avoid self-indulgence and put others first in love. He quotes Leviticus 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He reminds them that if they bite and devour one another, eventually they all will be eaten up! Individual freedom must be secondary to community empowerment. Loving your neighbor as yourself involves reciprocity and equality.
A choice is before them: live by the Spirit or gratify their wishes. The two are incompatible and cannot coexist. Those who live by the Spirit, Paul affirms, are not subject to the law. That doesn’t mean they are free to do whatever they like and live a self-centered existence of greed, drunkenness, promiscuity, and carousing. The list includes material and spiritual excesses like sorcery, idolatry, anger, envy, and divisiveness. Paul warns that those who engage in these activities are outside God’s kingdom/kin-dom. They become slaves to their yearnings for too much of anything.
Paul compares the works of the flesh to the fruits of the Spirit. Even the nouns he uses to define the categories are revealing: works and fruits. Living in the flesh is hard “work,” using up your resources and exhausting your soul. Living in the Spirit results in growth, development, and good “fruit…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” (v. 22–23). Although these are listed as spiritual fruits, they also positively affect our physical existence and build community. The tension between works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit is not a simple dualism of matter versus Spirit.
There is, of course, the temptation to revert to the works of the flesh, but Paul reminds us that those who belong to Christ have been crucified with him, thus destroying the self-centered wants and passions that could control us.
The Spirit guides us in controlling our wants, both material and spiritual. We can limit our consumption of goods, energy, and resources. We can handle relationships with true desire, faithful love, and generosity aimed at empowering others. We can check our greed and emotional outbursts by remembering the needs of others. Recognizing how God loves us shapes how we love our neighbors; it transforms us.
Project Zion Podcast
Hosts Karin Peter and Blake Smith consider how this week's scripture connects to our lives today.
Central Ideas
- The law was given to help define relationships and behaviors. But laws are inadequate to free people to love as God loves.
- Christ frees us to live in the Spirit, motivated by a higher ethic than a list of laws, to love our neighbor as ourselves.
- The Spirit guides us in controlling our wants, both material and spiritual.
Questions to Consider
- Where do you recognize the law as inadequate to free people today?
- Where do you see the fruits of the Spirit active in your life? In the life of your congregation?
- How would you characterize the tension between individualism and community awareness in your nation?
- What is God calling you to do as you live in the Spirit?