Stay on Track! Paul's Letter to the GalatiansIsampula

Real freedom

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

“Christ has set us free," Paul says in Galatians 5:1. That is the goal of Jesus’s redemptive work. Some people feared that this freedom would lead to lawlessness and chaos. But Paul says we should not use it to indulge in sin. In another letter, he explains this further “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions…. For sin will have no dominion over you” (Romans 6:12-14).

Having freedom in Christ means not obeying sinful passions. We are made free from sin. In Galatians 5:24, Paul says believers “ . . . have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

So, what is the goal of our freedom? It is to serve one another in love. This has been God’s will for our lives from the beginning, but as long as we are slaves to sin, we cannot love God or the people around us. We tend to only love ourselves. When we are freed from our self-centeredness we can serve others wholeheartedly.

When you think of freedom, what comes to your mind? Do you think of “serving one another through love” as freedom?