Galatians 5:13-26 - Freedom

Listen along as we continue our series through Galatians.

Notes//Quotes:

Galatians 5:13-26 - Larry and Jorgen
Title: Freedom

“the “freedom” of the Messiah’s people cannot be used as “opportunity” (aphorme (ah-for-may),  a “base of operations”) for “the flesh.” 
- N.T. Wright

“In verse 3, Paul implicitly says that Christians are freed from obligation to obey the whole law. Then in verse 13, he tells us to “serve one another in love”; and in verse 14 he says that the summary of the law is to love one another! So Paul says bluntly that the Galatian Christians must obey the law. How do we understand this? Are we obliged, or are we not obliged?! Essentially, the answer is “yes”. In one way we are obliged to keep the law, but in another way we are not. If we look at verse 3, Paul immediately follows: “[You are] required to obey the whole law” with: “You … are trying to be justified by law” (v 4). The obligation that is gone for the Christian is the obligation to obey the law to be saved, which is impossible to achieve. But now that we are saved wholly and freely by grace we are, if anything, more obligated to obey the law! Why? Because we have more reason to love God than we ever did before. Love arises from gospel faith and hope (v 5–6), and overflows into loving and serving our neighbors, rather than using them to serve ourselves. And loving our neighbor is “the entire law … summed up in a single command” (v 14).” 
- Timothy Keller

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.” 
- Martin Luther

“What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” — James 4:1

“18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” 
— Romans 7:18-20

“destructive attitudes such as selfish ambition, namely competitiveness, a self-seeking motive; envy, coveting, desiring what others have; jealousy, the zeal and energy that comes from a hungry ego; and hatred, meaning hostility, an adversarial attitude...the results of these attitudes in relationships: discord, being argumentative or seeking to pick fights; fits of rage, outbursts of anger; dissensions, divisions between people (which is what rage leads to); and factions, permanent parties and warring groups.” 
- Timothy Keller