Use and Misuse of freedom
Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV) 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. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Freedom is missused when we use it as an opportunity for the flesh .
Freedom is responsibly used when we do service to one another through love .
Safety is not an excuse for disregard
Illustration: God has blessed these lands with very few natural disasters. we fear no earthquiakes, no floods, no tornados, and no huricanes. But on of the few potial dangers is--- what? Forest Fires. Imagine that it’s a particularly dry season and an enourmous fire developes and it starts advancing to your city. Fortunatly, the firefighters are able to stave off the fires your home is saved! So the very first thing you do on hearing the news that “the fire has been contained for now” is to go out and light fireworks in your backyard. That’s not just reckless, it’s stupid.
Thanks to the work of the firemen and women, your home is in safety. But don’t use safety as an excuse to be reckless. Instead let’s do things that promote our saftey and that of others. let’s be thankful we’re safe, and keep taking measures to keep it that way. That is what paul is saying ot the galatians. Gal 5:13-14 “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. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.””
Let’s take a closer look at some of these words...
There are three main words we’ll focus on to make sense of how this passage applies to you today and why it informs the way were regard our Religious Freedom in the United States
Freedom
ἐλευθερίᾳ - This word appears 11 times in the Greek New Testament and is always translated as either Liberty or freedom, but most often freedom.
Every single Lexicon and NT dictionary that i had access to agreed that this word signifies no longer being under the ownership or authority of another human being. ἐλευθερίᾳ is a legal term used to describe the emancipation of someone who has somehow paid their own debt. In our case, our debt has ben paid for with the blood of Jesus. Let that stain your consciousness. This matters because the freedom Paul talks about here is a clear reference to what it means to be saved. To be saved is to be free—no longer the property of or compelled by a previous owner. to be saved is to be called to freedom.
In the US, the exercise of religious practice cannot be compelled by the consensus of elected officials. this is known as religious liberty, and is codified in the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
Flesh
σαρκί - This word, more broadly referred to as sarx, occurs 147 times in the GNT. Sarki is almost always translated as flesh.
The top three most sarx oriented books in the NT are Romans, Jude, and Galatians. It’s interesting to note that said books feature heavily on the topic of christian lifestyle. the part of you that wants to continue doing evil and that desires sin and selfishness is called Sarx. Flesh. This is different than the word for body which is Soma. To say Flesh is a figure of speech. Flesh is a stand in for the idea of sinfulness. it’s unfortunate that some churches have created a duality of soul of body based on these figures of speech.
Serve
δουλεύετε - this word is the word for slave work.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary: Graeco-Roman World
In the Graeco-Roman world, owning slaves was not limited to the rich; many households included at least one slave. The Greeks and Romans both employed a system in which slaves could own property, earn money, and buy their freedom. This system was probably implemented to keep slaves submissive. Slavery provided labor for large portions of agriculture and handicraft. Those who wanted skilled workers often used slaves rather than free men. Thus, many slaves were more economically secure than many free wage-laborers. Aristotle presents slavery as a part of the natural order: “It is manifest therefore that … some are free men and others are slaves by nature” (Pol. 1255a1–2). However, this was not the only view of slavery in the Graeco-Roman world. Philo, for example, differentiates between bodily and moral slavery and states about conventional slaves that they “rank lower in fortune, but can lay claim to the same nature as their masters” (On the Special Laws 3.137). On the other hand, in his view moral slavery is ordained by God and such slaves are better off as conventional slaves, controlled by an owner. Others declared that it was slavery itself that was against nature (Florentinus, Dig. 1.5.4.1).
What it mean to be a slave in greco-roman world is akin to being a migrant worker in the US today. The goal is to work the jobs no one wants to do so that you can gain enough money to improve youre life. You’re not beat, and you still get paid, but you’re “less than.” And if a free-person were to do the same job they would demand considerably more pay. Make no mistake, however. the greco roman world had slave drivers and traders and the Bible never speaks kindly of them. While slavery then was “not as bad” as it was in other periods of Human History, the Word of God still condemned the system and those promoting it.
So then, to doulete someone, means to serve them. The migrant workers don’t tell the employer how the field should be plowed, how the seed should be watered, how the crop should be destributed among local produce chains, the migrant worker doesn ask why, doesn’t complain, this is not fair, why am i doing all of this, can’t he? To be a migrant worker is to be undersprivilaged. To be a slave, a NT world Doulos is to have exchanged personal liberty in some areas in order to pay off a debt.
Religious Liberty is Light for the Darkness
From Slavery to Slavery
Now understanding what the words meant to the original audience, you and I can aproximate what they understood from paul here
For you were called to be liberated, brothers. But do not use your new freedom from sin as an oportunity to sin again. instead use this as an oportunity to reliquish your ego for the sake of one another. How? Through love.
We go from being real undignifies slaves to the harsh master of sin and condemnation in the law, forced to struggle on our own strength. to now
What specific liberty do we remember this month?
Religious Liberty.
What happens when we use the biblical principles of Galatians 5:13-14 with our present truth of religious liberty?
Matthew 5:14 ESV
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
What good is it to have freedom if you don’t use it?
Matthew 5:15 ESV
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Have you seen how dark the world around us has gotten?
Matthew 5:15 ESV
Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
When we see the world as too dark too unsafe, we must remember that we are the light. And if the world looks dark it’s because you and me are keeping it that way.
How prophetic that Jesus told of a time before the end, when the light would dim out. how sad that because of the foolishness of some without spare oil, half of that light never came back on in time to be useful. I’m talking about Matthew 25
Lights were meant to shine
Religious liberty was made to ensure all people had an equal opportunity to believe what they thought was right, regardless of what others think or value. It was authored and codified into the framework of this country as a way to protect citizens from their government.
But for the Christian, Religious Liberty is permission to shine in the darkness.
Who in your life, right now, is being consumed by darkness? who around you, your son, your daughter, who? Who’s life looks difficult and wearied? Who do you see that struggles and can’t find rest? Who do you see is burdened with what they think is just normal life?
Go to them, and let your light shine
Don’t waste your freedom
Eliezer Roque Cisneros / Rifle SDA Church
Religious Freedom '23 / Galatians 5:13
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