Free To Do Good

"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

Galatians 5:13

As born again children of God by faith in Jesus, we have been called to liberty.  We have been freed from sin, the sinful demands of our flesh, fear of man, worry, death and the condemnation of the Law of Moses.  Paul compared the Law to a tutor that guided the Jews to please God until Jesus Christ came, and then the Law took them by the hand and handed them over to Jesus for Him to lead them individually and corporately who is greater than the Law.  Claiming to have "liberty" in our individualistic society is akin to saying, "I can do whatever I want."  This is not at all the posture Christians should adopt, for it vaunts self instead of submitting to God and one another in love.  Rather than using liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, through love Christians are called to serve one another.

Paul's caution against the misunderstanding and misuse of liberty shows it is possible to use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, to justify doing as we please because we feel entitled to do so.  Being raised in the United States, I cannot tell you how many times I heard people justify themselves by saying, "This is a free country."  My translation of that hackneyed phrase is, "I can say and do as I want because I can--regardless how it affects others."  As long as we live in a body of flesh in this world, we will be incorrigibly drawn to seek opportunity to please self rather than glorify God by serving one another in love.  The liberty Christ provides is not merely a liberty from law but liberty to love, forgive and serve others.  Prisoners released from prison can remain enslaved to sinful ways that landed them in prison in the first place, but our liberty is to be exercised as new creations through whom the life of Jesus is lived out daily.

Paul said in Galatians 5:14-18, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! ¹⁶ I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."  Our natural, fleshly appetite is to bite and devour one another, to lash out with words or actions that work to destroy people, reputations and relationships.  We are called to mortify these deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, and this is accomplished by following and obeying the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth.  Those who try to control and force their flesh to submit by power of the flesh will ultimately fail, but all who walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The liberty we have been called to is not primarily focused on what we do or avoid doing but all God has called us to be.  By Jesus Christ the world was crucified to Paul and he was crucified unto the world: they were dead to one another by all Jesus mightily accomplished by His death and resurrection, having made Paul a new creation.  Adherence to the Law of Moses regarding whether a male was circumcised or not (which was a huge point of contention in the early church) had no power over people who were in Christ.  Jesus provided an example of serving one another in love when He took the place of a slave and washed the feet of His disciples before dying on the cross for their redemption.  Those who are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit will heed Paul's exhortation in Galatians 6:10:  "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith."