Galatians 5:13-18 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Humans from the very beginning were made to be free, for we were made in God’s perfection and likeness. Adam and Eve had the authority, ability, and freedom to rule over all that was in the Garden. We had an inner consciousness to know God’s desires for us and his creation. Within his likeness and freedom, we could live as He functions, except for partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15-17) Adam received these words as a commandment that was good. He knew God’s words were solid and powerful, for God created all things through his pronouncements in and through his Son, the Christ as Genesis 1 explains to us. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. (1:26-27) Adam also was powerful in words and deeds. Therefore, when the violation happened by Eve, using her freedom to eat of the fruit of good and evil, God removed Adam and Eve from the Garden. God would keep Adam and Eve away from the tree of life, for their disobedience would be disruptive to the harmony of eternal existence. The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis 3:22-23) Men and women would now live for a finite amount of time. They would have to work the ground and tend the animals for their own existence. Sin had disrupted the harmony of creation. And now a law crept into the hearts of men and women that was anti-authority, disharmonious with God the Creator. This law, spawned from Eve’s disobedience, was recognized by Paul, even though he knew what was right to do. The law of sin and death was alive in his soul. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? (Romans 7:22-24) Paul, as with all humans, still possessed this powerful likeness of God, the ability to do what he desired, knowing he does not have to be under any authority but himself. This freedom to rebel against God, even an inner resentment to God's control is a constant struggle against goodness in his life. His fleshly rights over the laws’ authority in his life made him know that he is carnal, not righteous. He knows that the flesh, sin, leads to death, but he is a captive of it. He is not capable of separarting himself from the destructive nature of his willful self. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. (Romans 7:14).
From the very beginning God endeavored that men and women would be free as He is free, for humans were made in his likeness. Now since we are new creatures in Christ, made in Jesus’ image and not Adam’s, we once more are in freedom, eternal beings in the likeness of God. Paul reminds the Galatians that they were called to be free. The Spirit of God within us is the engine of the freedom that we have inherited from our faith in Jesus Christ and his works. The Spirit of God within us is the fountain of positive, right choices that are helpful to all people. Because our fleshly inclinations are still with us, for we have not as yet been transfigured into our spiritual bodies, Paul warns the Galatians, do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. Do not sell your rights as a new creature in Christ to the will of your flesh as Esau did when he chose a meal of food over his firstborn rights. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. (Hebrews 12:14) God is in the redemptive business of providing all new creatures with their firstborn rights, the freedom that comes from being in the image of his Son. We too should be in that redemptive business if we are spiritual and not fleshly. If the Spirit motivates our lives, we will follow Christ’s command to Love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 19:19) However, if the flesh is the captain of our lives, our vessels will be used for selfish reasons, taking advantage of the people around us, not serving them as God desires us to serve them. We will not be washing their feet, an allegorical image of serving people, but we will be asking, demanding, others to serve us as we desire. The latter is not love, not harmonious, not helpful in expressing the will of the Father God to the people of the world. Sin, selfish interest, brings disharmony and violence into any community. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. Sadly, the law given on Mount Sinai has no power to control this aggressive nature of sin within humans or to change hard hearts. This cancer of carnal and fleshly desires has metastasized within all human society to the depths of constant warfare and violence, chronicled in the history of mankind as a testimony to the evil in the hearts of man.
Paul is stating a fact to the Galatians when he says, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. The flesh will centralize its life on self-interest, on control of others, not on servanthood. Anger and quarreling are a product of the flesh. The law can be used to break down the cohesiveness within a society. The law can be used to champion unholy actions and hurtful words towards others, but God has asked us to live in peace with others, to promote love towards all people. You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48) What is perfection? It is holiness, as the Father is holy. The law could only show imperfection. But Jesus came to forgive all people. He shed his blood, a symbol of forgiveness for everyone who would trust in his work and his work alone. The blood of Abel represents the need for justice. God is a just God, and He will recompense all sin with harsh judgment. But Jesus shed his blood as a payment for sin. Each drop contains forgiveness for mankind. However the law has not this efficacy. Paul is battling the introduction of circumcision into the Christian lives of Galatia. He knows the law has no efficacy in it, but it will just bind the Galatians into ideas of right and wrong, good and evil as the Tree of knowledge did for Adam and Eve. These ideas of right and wrong, good and evil, do not bring people closer to God; they just accentuate man’s waywardness and inability to be holy and good. Right away after they sinned, Adam and Eve felt naked; therefore, they clothed themselves. Right and wrong, good and evil cannot save us from destruction. Men and women need a Savior. Mankind needs a Savior-- someone to step in front of people's march to destruction. They need someone to pay for their sins, someone to cast the love of God over their lives, forgiveness over their lives. Jesus came to do that. The law could never halt this march to destruction; only a living God could do that. Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. (John 12:44-46) Man does not have to live in darkness, uncomprehending of the reason for life, thinking that life is only an accident. Jesus came to identify that life has a strong dynamic purpose, loving others and loving God with all our mind, soul, and spirit and therefore living forever. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to nurture real, eternal, life within us. Paul is advocating turning to God’s Spirit in our lives, setting ourselves free from right and wrong, good and bad by law. He tells us to keep in touch with God’s life in the Spirit inside of us. We who are alive IN CHRIST NOW should keep in step with the Lord through the voice of the Holy Spirit within us. If we are led by the Spirit, we are not under the law. But we are FREE INDEED as God is free to love and care for everyone and everything that has been made. Amen!
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