Reflections on Galatians 5

Galatians 05 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Christ has set us free! This means we are really free. Now hold on to your freedom and don't ever become slaves of the Law again.
2. I, Paul, promise you that Christ won't do you any good if you get circumcised.
3. If you do, you must obey the whole Law.
4. And if you try to please God by obeying the Law, you have cut yourself off from Christ and his wonderful kindness.
5. But the Spirit makes us sure that God will accept us because of our faith in Christ.
6. If you are a follower of Christ Jesus, it makes no difference whether you are circumcised or not. All that matters is your faith that makes you love others.
7. You were doing so well until someone made you turn from the truth.
8. And that person was certainly not sent by the one who chose you.
9. A little yeast can change a whole batch of dough,
10. but you belong to the Lord. That makes me certain that you will do what I say, instead of what someone else tells you to do. Whoever is causing trouble for you will be punished.
11. My friends, if I still preach that people need to be circumcised, why am I in so much trouble? The message about the cross would no longer be a problem, if I told people to be circumcised.
12. I wish that everyone who is upsetting you would not only get circumcised, but would cut off much more!
13. My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don't use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love.
14. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself.
15. But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.
16. If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires.
17. The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should.
18. But if you obey the Spirit, the Law of Moses has no control over you.
19. People's desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds.
20. They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are
21. envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God's kingdom.
22. God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful,
23. gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways.
24. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires.
25. God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit.
26. But don't be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are.
    
    

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    Man perpetually struggles with the idea of salvation by faith alone. Our minds automatically tell us that sin is wrong and that it separates us from God. It also tells us that something is necessary to atone for the sin to renew our relationship with God. But it doesn't make sense to us that the only thing we can do to atone for our sin is to have faith in Christ's sacrifice of Himself as an atonement for our sins. Therefore, people are continually stumbling over the issue of legalism - the fulfillment of certain outward rituals and actions to atone for our sin and to please God.
    
    This was the struggle the Galatians were having. And they were stuck where many Christians become stuck. Having gotten beyond the first obstacle, that salvation is by faith in Christ, they were stuck on the issue of maintaining that salvation through their own efforts. That is, through legalism. So, through the influence of Judaizers they were on the verge of resorting to the Mosaic law and the ritual of circumcision as a means of maintaining their salvation. This fit well with their pagan background with its ritual practices of cutting and marking.
    
    Paul warned them here that to fall in with the Judaizers and resort to the law and circumcision would be to again submit to a "yoke of slavery." (5:1) Anyone who depended on the law was obligated to keep the entire law, which is impossible. Thus they become enslaved to a system from which they can never be free. Furthermore, in doing this, "Christ will not benefit you at all." (5:2) Turning to the law will count Christ's sacrifice as useless and of no benefit to them. The two are not compatible.
    
    Instead of turning to the slavery of the law, Paul told them they are called to the freedom of faith in Christ. This freedom in Christ, however, is not, as some fear, a freedom to opportunities of the flesh. Instead, it is a freedom to "serve one another through love." In so doing, they will satisfy the entire law which is "fulfilled in one statement: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (5:14) On the other hand, an obsession with fulfilling the law leads not to loving the neighbor but to conflict of which he cautioned them in verse 15: "But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another." The heart of the law is love for God and for our neighbor, but we don't arrive at that outcome through an attempt to keep the law. Instead, we satisfy the law by attempting to love our neighbor. But this is only possible if we "walk by the Spirit." (5:16) Again, we are back to faith in Christ whose Spirit will lead us to love our neighbor if we walk in the Spirit.
    
    If we will walk in the Spirit, Paul says, the fruit that is produced in us will be "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control." (5:22-23) The presence of this fruit in our lives will break no law. But it is not attainable in the flesh.