Verse: Galatians 5:13 (NLT)
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.
Devotion
This is such a beautiful verse. We’ve been called by our Lord to live in freedom. Freedom can sometimes be a charged word, especially in America where we might have preconceived notions of what freedom means, but this kind of freedom is so much more liberating than any man-made legal document can offer. This is a spiritual freedom brought to us by the gospel. A commentary I have on this verse explains it well: “Gospel liberty consists in three things, freedom from the Mosaic yoke, from sin, and from slavish fear.” So this freedom doesn’t have anything to do with 1st or 2nd amendments, instead it’s a freedom to live in union with Jesus without needing to be concerned with commandments or sacrifices (thank goodness) or be enslaved to sin.
So then, what are we to do with this freedom of Mosaic laws, freedom from sin, and freedom from fear itself (for what is there to fear anymore)? Be servants (literally “in bondage”) to each other! I love these seeming paradoxes throughout our faith… we’re given this absolutely staggering liberty to be free from the law and from sin, and the purpose of that liberty is not to be selfish and do what we want but rather to immediately submit to one another in community.
It makes me think of the series Christian was doing on “What’s the point of Church?” This is it, this is the point! To come together as people who have been freed from sin, and to love one another and serve each other in as many ways as we can.
Prayer:
Thank you for the freedom you have called me into, freedom that can’t be taken away by man or laws or anything in this world. Lord, I ask that you would open my eyes to just how amazing that freedom is, so often there are things that seem frightening in this world but you have called me to be free from those fears and free from the burden of legality and sin. Please give me strength to not abuse that freedom but to instead freely offer myself in service to my brothers and sisters around me. Thank you for the community you’ve called all of us into, and please help us to serve each other and strengthen that community so we can be a light to the world. You said “they will know us by our love,” please help us make that true for our church! Amen.
Author: Matt Hale
Recent Comments