Galatians 5:13–15 (ESV) — 13 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. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Adopt a New Slavery (13-15)
Last week, we began a passage that was Paul’s passionate plea to the Galatians to identify and silence hindering voices that were keeping them from running in grace. Constantly identifying hindering voices is one way to stay strong in grace. A second way to run the grace race is to adopt a new slavery. In the thirteenth verse, Paul explains this new slavery by telling us that our freedom is not for our flesh. He said, “You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (13). So, right away, we discover a new tone. Paul had been exhorting us not to lose our gospel freedom, but now he warns us not to abuse our gospel freedom. [1] We often think of freedom as doing whatever we please. Many believe denying our rights or impulses is sacrilegious, unacceptable behavior. But the truth is that this type of freedom leads to enslavement. We can see this in our recent societal history. The sexual revolution, along with birth control, offered women the right to commitment-free sex. It’s a practice many men have engaged in for centuries. Our society celebrated this as a freedom, which freed all of us—men and women—from the shackles of marital exclusivity.
“A growing body of evidence has shown that, for women especially, having multiple sexual partners is correlated with lower levels of mental health and happiness. Conversely, far from being locked into misery, the happiest wives in America are highly religious women married to highly religious men. Couples who pray together, read Scripture at home, attend church, and so on are twice as likely as their secular peers to say they are satisfied with their sexual relationship. We might think that Christian marriage is robbing women of sexual freedom. But the data suggests that it’s pulling women (and men) away from the train wreck of commitment-free sex.” — Rebecca McLaughlin, Jesus Through the Eyes of Women [2] But the early church initiated its own sexual revolution. When men converted to Christianity, they gave up their sexual freedom and committed to faithfulness in marriage. Though free from the law, they could not imagine practicing unholiness before their beloved and holy God, so they restrained themselves. They would not use their freedom on their flesh, nor should we, because the flesh enslaves. To deny the self in a culture of self is one of the most countercultural things we can do. Self-disobedience is considered taboo, but it is Christian, and it leads to a better life. [3]
A New Slavery
Then Paul said, “Through love serve one another” (13). That’s the language of a new version of slavery—serve one another. Jesus, of course, nudged and trained his disciples in this direction. The night before he was crucified, Jesus took the position of the lowest household worker and washed the feet of his men. He said it was meant to illustrate how they should serve one another (John 13:14). To many, service to others sounds terrible, but Jesus said to his men, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17). And anyone who has given themselves to the service of others has discovered the truth of his words. When we use our freedom for the flesh, we become miserable. But when we use our freedom to serve others, burdens lift, problems are put in perspective, and life becomes what it was meant to be as God’s image bearers. This new slavery leads to life and health for the communities it touches. The word Paul used for “serve” describes our condition before Christ—we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world (Gal. 4:3). This is a hint that he thought of Christians as being set free to come under a new empowering principle: love. This love is the launching pad from which all good ministry occurs. As Paul said in another place, we can have all power, all faith, and all sacrifice, but if we have not love we are nothing and gain nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-4).
It Fulfills the Law
Next Paul told us how this new slavery fulfilled the very law the Galatians were tempted to obey, though they never could. He wrote, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (14). This statement might shock those who have followed Paul’s argument up to this point. He has said we are free from the law, but now he returns to the Law and holds it up as something he is happy to see fulfilled. You might think he’s quoting Jesus when he says, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” but Jesus was quoting from Leviticus 19 when he said it, and since Leviticus is Law, Paul is quoting the Law (Lev. 19:18). In other words, love fulfills the true purpose of the Old Testament law, and Paul was in total support of Christians exercising their freedom by obeying the law of love. Think of the ten commandments. The second tablet—or final six—of the Ten Commandments dealt with loving others, our horizontal relationships. For instance, honoring your parents is a way to respect the family structure (Ex. 20:12). And since society is better when people listen to and care for their elders instead of neglecting them and ignoring their wisdom, honoring your parents is a way to love your neighbor. And all the other horizontal commandments will be fulfilled through love. Refraining from murder and theft, refusing to lie, resisting covetousness, and keeping marriage vows are all ways to love your neighbor as yourself. How can I love you and hurt you, or expect you to pick up the relational, psychological, and societal damage that murder, hatred, abuse, and the like leave behind? How can I love you and steal your money, time, or attention for my own selfish gain? How can I love you and lie to you? How can I love you and promote fornication or adultery that would harm current or future marriages? To love is to keep the law, and Christ has set us free so we can. The Old Testament anticipated this message. Since no one kept the law perfectly, the prophets of old eventually began promising that the Spirit would one day come to make us new. At that time, God would put us under a new covenant and transform us from the inside out (Jer. 31:31-34, Ezek. 36:24-28, Heb 8:6-13). So the Old Testament, knowing its adherents were incapable of obedience and were guilty before God, anticipated an era when God would give his people new natures and enable them to obey. This is true freedom—freedom to follow God. Free to fulfill the law through love. So, are we obligated to keep the law or not obligated? Yes. In one sense—getting our acceptance from law-keeping—we are not obligated at all to keep the law. It has been fulfilled for us, and we are set free. In another sense—being regenerated people with new natures who are free from sin—we are obligated to keep the law. We are free from the law as a way to earn a position before God, but law-keeping by neighbor-loving is still a way to please God. And people who have been remade by Christ’s cross want to please God! [1] Keller, Timothy. 2013. Galatians For You. New Malden, England: Good Book Company. [2] McLaughlin, Rebecca. 2022. Jesus Through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord. The Gospel Coalition. [3] Sayers, Mark. 2016. Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience. Moody.
