i could not have said it any better than verse one. we are familiar with the first part, but i don’t think we hear enough about the second. “keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” i love how paul brings out the fact that if you adopt one part of the law, you must adopt all of it. you cannot pick one thing to be a requirement and leave the rest. it’s all or nothing. do you cut your hair at the sides of your head? do you stay outside of the assembly for the proper amount of time during your period of “uncleanness?” and interestingly enough, we need not leave the law behind in spirit. the actual rules no longer apply, but jesus gave us the truth of the law, the spirit of the law, and paul reiterates it. “love your neighbor as yourself.” which is why the cross is a stumbling block to the religious. to the gentiles, it is just foolishness. but to the pharisees (and now to some in our own day) it gets in the way. they trip over it. why? because it is too much freedom. they cannot get their minds and hearts around the fact that it has all been done already. it is actually finished and paid for. for all time. there is nothing to be added to it. we need not DO anything else. we need not NOT DO anything else. it is there and it is done. it is the free gift. but what was the purpose of this gift? to set us free from the law. the obligation. that we would then be free to serve in love. by our own choice. not under compulsion.
if paul were alive, i think he would vomit all over his own shoes if he were to witness what has been done with verses 16-26. they have been used to teach exactly the OPPOSITE of what he is trying to say here. these are verses that have been used to lay down more law in our modern time. it can be hard to read this and exfoliate it in order to get at what is being said here. it carries a lot of baggage with it. but what i think paul is getting at here is that since we are free, and can indeed now do whatever we wish, we are to use that freedom to build the kingdom. do not just use that freedom for yourself. although, if you desire, you certainly can. just know that we have to answer for what we do with this freedom when our time is up. not in a legalistic way. such as: “did you drink? did you smoke? did you read your bible every day?” but rather, “was i the center? did you obey me when i called you? did you fear men more than me? were you about my business?” much more ambiguous and personal that way. and much more room for freedom. and joy. if you are serving god with a clear conscience, you can do as you wish. there is even room to relax and enjoy yourself guilt free, because you know you are serving your king in doing what he asks of you. rather than beating yourself up for NOT living the way men tell you to. THIS is our freedom as opposed to the yoke of slavery we are supposed to stand firm against. if i am in good (in truth) in my heart with god, i do not need to hear from you how i do not measure up to your standards or interpretations of holiness and “right action”.
this chapter has got to be one of the most powerful things i have read…and it is just so awesome how something i have read hundreds of times before can cometogether like this at this certain time in this certain study and mean so much…
do not be subject to he yoke of slavery….bear good fruit, etc…
man..thank You Jesus for bringing all things together under You
I feel immensely grateful to God for His amazing gift of salvation which gives me freedom. Feeling grateful helps me to remember it is pure gift and then I don’t get “burdened again by a yoke of salvery.”
I love verse one in this chapter. Again I can see Paul up there in front of me cheering me on. Verse 4 is another one as it reminds us that if we do not accept the fact that we can be saved by grace we will be severed from Christ. I am glad that I am saved by his grace.
I so often hear the Paul preached only to the circumsized and verses 11 and 12 tell me this is not so.
I love verse 25 ‘If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit.’
4 thoughts on “Galatians 5”
i could not have said it any better than verse one. we are familiar with the first part, but i don’t think we hear enough about the second. “keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.”
i love how paul brings out the fact that if you adopt one part of the law, you must adopt all of it. you cannot pick one thing to be a requirement and leave the rest. it’s all or nothing. do you cut your hair at the sides of your head? do you stay outside of the assembly for the proper amount of time during your period of “uncleanness?”
and interestingly enough, we need not leave the law behind in spirit. the actual rules no longer apply, but jesus gave us the truth of the law, the spirit of the law, and paul reiterates it. “love your neighbor as yourself.” which is why the cross is a stumbling block to the religious. to the gentiles, it is just foolishness. but to the pharisees (and now to some in our own day) it gets in the way. they trip over it. why? because it is too much freedom. they cannot get their minds and hearts around the fact that it has all been done already. it is actually finished and paid for. for all time. there is nothing to be added to it. we need not DO anything else. we need not NOT DO anything else. it is there and it is done. it is the free gift. but what was the purpose of this gift? to set us free from the law. the obligation. that we would then be free to serve in love. by our own choice. not under compulsion.
if paul were alive, i think he would vomit all over his own shoes if he were to witness what has been done with verses 16-26. they have been used to teach exactly the OPPOSITE of what he is trying to say here. these are verses that have been used to lay down more law in our modern time. it can be hard to read this and exfoliate it in order to get at what is being said here. it carries a lot of baggage with it. but what i think paul is getting at here is that since we are free, and can indeed now do whatever we wish, we are to use that freedom to build the kingdom. do not just use that freedom for yourself. although, if you desire, you certainly can. just know that we have to answer for what we do with this freedom when our time is up. not in a legalistic way. such as: “did you drink? did you smoke? did you read your bible every day?” but rather, “was i the center? did you obey me when i called you? did you fear men more than me? were you about my business?” much more ambiguous and personal that way. and much more room for freedom. and joy. if you are serving god with a clear conscience, you can do as you wish. there is even room to relax and enjoy yourself guilt free, because you know you are serving your king in doing what he asks of you. rather than beating yourself up for NOT living the way men tell you to. THIS is our freedom as opposed to the yoke of slavery we are supposed to stand firm against. if i am in good (in truth) in my heart with god, i do not need to hear from you how i do not measure up to your standards or interpretations of holiness and “right action”.
evjifs
this chapter has got to be one of the most powerful things i have read…and it is just so awesome how something i have read hundreds of times before can cometogether like this at this certain time in this certain study and mean so much…
do not be subject to he yoke of slavery….bear good fruit, etc…
man..thank You Jesus for bringing all things together under You
I feel immensely grateful to God for His amazing gift of salvation which gives me freedom. Feeling grateful helps me to remember it is pure gift and then I don’t get “burdened again by a yoke of salvery.”
I love verse one in this chapter. Again I can see Paul up there in front of me cheering me on.
Verse 4 is another one as it reminds us that if we do not accept the fact that we can be saved by grace we will be severed from Christ. I am glad that I am saved by his grace.
I so often hear the Paul preached only to the circumsized and verses 11 and 12 tell me this is not so.
I love verse 25 ‘If we live in the spirit, let us walk in the spirit.’