“Freedom in Christ–What Is It?”

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

June 26, 2022

“For freedom Christ has set us free…” (Gal. 5:1a)

What a time to be talking about freedom…right? And I’m not referring to the fact that a week from tomorrow will be our country’s 246th celebration of our birth as a nation!

What I am referring to is that with all that’s going on in our country right now–whatever our thoughts or feelings or political leanings–we cannot avoid being exposed to significant issues that seem to hinge on the idea of freedom. 

If only we could all agree on what that means! 

With regard to guns, for example–what does freedom look like? 

Does it look like people having the right to buy shotguns? handguns? semi-automatic rifles? Is that what freedom looks like? Or does it look like children and teachers having the right to go to school without fearing for their lives? Or people of color having the right to go to the grocery story without wondering if they’ll make it home alive? Is that what freedom looks like? If only we could all agree on what freedom means! 

What about abortion, as another very current example–what does freedom look like with regard to abortion? 

Does it look like women having the right to make a decision about their own bodies? Is that what freedom looks like? Or does it look like an unborn fetus having the right to survive? Is that what freedom looks like?  If only we could all agree on what freedom means! 

What about LGBTQIA+ issues–what does freedom look like? And what about the worldwide climate crisis–what does freedom look like? What about the war between Russia and the Ukraine, and in all other places of conflict around the globe–what does freedom look like? And what about the topic of immigration and refugees–what does freedom look like? 

What about…what else? I’m sure we could quickly come up with any number of additional issues, issues that are significant, issues that affect hundreds of thousands if not millions of people, issues that affect our well-being as a nation and as a world, issues that seem to hinge on the idea of freedom…

If only we could all agree on what freedom means! What freedom looks like! How freedom should be expressed! 

I don’t know about you, but as I read today’s text from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, I did find some relief in knowing that this isn’t a new conversation! I guess, on the other hand, I’d be even more relieved if we as humans had come to some resolution by now!! But sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the human way…

But indeed, the idea of freedom is what Paul is addressing in his letter to the Galatians. The freedom that we receive in Christ. 

“For freedom Christ has set us free…,” Paul wrote at the very beginning of our reading for today. (Gal. 5:1a) “For freedom Christ has set us free…” 

As a little context, Paul had been in the region of Galatia–which is what we now consider the central part of Turkey, and was then part of the Roman empire and thus populated with Gentiles rather than Jews. Paul had preached the Gospel of Christ, and many had accepted the message of the Gospel and become followers of Christ. 

It seems from Paul’s letter that after he had left the region, other teachers had come and were preaching the need for the Galatians to follow Jewish law as the first sign of obedience in their newfound faith in Christ. Among other things, these other teachers were telling the Galatian converts who were men that they needed to be circumcised. (cf. Working Preacher…)

Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul is saying, “No! No! No! You do NOT need to adhere to the particulars of the Law!” “For freedom Christ has set us free…,” he wrote. And then a little bit later:  “[Y]ou were called to freedom, brothers and sisters…” (cf. Gal. 5:13a). And then he elaborates on that freedom. Because as we know, “freedom” as a general concept is not one that everyone necessarily and automatically agrees on…

So what does Paul say about freedom? What does he say about the freedom we receive in Christ?

First, he says what it’s not: to be free in Christ does not mean to be free to do whatever you want, whenever you want. “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,” Paul wrote. 

I once heard a certain 19-year-old say, “I just want to make my own decisions. I don’t care if they’re good or bad; I don’t care if they help me or hurt me. I just want my decisions to be my own.” Crazy, right?!?

I suspect there might be one or two of us who are here–maybe a few more…or maybe, actually, all of us, for whom–at least at some moments of our lives–that’s what freedom can feel like: the opportunity to do what we want to do, when and with whom we want to do it, regardless of how it affects anyone else. Freedom, sometimes, can feel like being able to say, “This is my life, and I’m gonna make my own decisions.”

That is a form of freedom. 

It is not the freedom we receive in Christ…

“Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence,” Paul wrote [I guess the aforementioned 19-yr-old was not, in fact, the first to think along those lines…]. “But through love become enslaved to one another,” he continued. “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Gal. 5:13-14)

Listen to how Eugene Peterson interpreted it in the version of the Bible called The Message: “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do…. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.” (Gal. 5:13-14) 

Paul then goes on to elaborate further–and talks about being led by the Spirit as opposed to being led by “the flesh.” “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other…” (Gal. 5:16-17)

This was not intended to set up a false dichotomy between the body and the spirit, an artificial split between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the soul. Paul was not saying that all of our physical, fleshly desires are bad and to be denied, and that only our spiritual desires are good and to be acknowledged. 

In referring to “the flesh,” Paul was talking about our egos. Our purely selfish desires. The desires that we have that are rooted exclusively in self-interest. Our desires to do what we want, when we want, and with whom we want, regardless of how it affects anyone else. That’s what Paul was talking about when he counseled the Galatians to “not gratify the desires of the flesh.” 

Paul knew that being guided by those sorts of desires, being controlled by those sorts of desires, consistently giving in to those sorts of desires–while it may feel like a form of freedom–

is actually a form of captivity, a type of bondage to those egocentric, self-centered desires, desires that will never be satisfied. 

Paul knew that persistently giving priority to those sorts of desires is a way of living that’s destructive and divisive, that regularly allowing those sort of desires to lead our thinking and our doing is a way of being that destroys relationships and divides communities, because each one is only looking out for themselves, each one is committed only to their own well-being. 

You heard Paul’s list of some of the behaviors that result from that sort of “freedom”: “sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” 

And because not all of those words necessarily make a lot of sense to use these days, I’m also going to read that list from The Message. Peterson writes, “It’s obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never- satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.” And he concludes, “I could go on.” 😦

Paul knew that these are the kinds of things, the types of behaviors, the ways of being, that result when we each try to find freedom and purpose in simply fulfilling our own, small, self-interested desires. When we think we’ll find freedom and meaning in doing what we want, when we want, and with whom we want, regardless of how it affects anyone else. When we believe we’re living freely by freely indulging ourselves and only ourselves. It’s my life, dammit, and I’m going to live it as I see fit. 

I think Paul would say that is the opposite of the freedom offered to us in Christ. 

In fact, in Christ, we are offered freedom from that way of being. 

Paul, it seems to me, is desperate to convince the Galatians that through Christ, we are freed from our own, small, self-interested desires, whose fulfillment is more likely to lead to destruction and division; and we are freed to love God and love each other, with this sort of need-tending leading to mutual well-being and the building of community. 

Through Christ, we are freed to know ourselves as God’s beloved–and yes, I’m saying it yet again!! Through Christ, we are freed to know ourselves as God’s beloved! And as we know ourselves as beloved–fully known and completely forgiven and relentlessly and eternally loved by God–then we are freed from our frantic, frenetic, sometimes pathetic need to meet our self-indulgent, self-interested, self-centered desires, without any consideration for anyone else…and we are freed to love God and love each other as we have been loved.

We are freed to be consumed less with fighting to get our own needs met and be consumed more with fighting to make sure the needs of all are met, knowing that as love and justice are made more available for all, love and justice and freedom will only grow.

“Live by the Spirit,” Paul says. (Gal. 5:16) Or as Peterson says in The Message, “My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit.”

And as I say to you–if I may be so bold as to add my interpretation to Paul’s and Eugene Peterson’s(!): 

Let God’s Spirit lead you. God’s Spirit of courage and justice.

Let God’s Spirit fill you. God’s Spirit of forgiveness and grace.

Let God’s Spirit overflow from you into the lives of the people around you. God’s Spirit of peace and joy.

Let God’s Spirit lift you from your own, small, self-centered, self-indulgent desires, desires that will trap you and trick you and promise you satisfaction but will never be satisfied…

Let God’s Spirit reveal to you the joy of loving others as you experience the joy of being loved…

And let God’s Spirit set you free. Truly free to love your neighbor as you love yourself–with tender care, with generosity and hospitality, with humility and respect, with forgiveness and grace, with kindness and compassion, and with extravagant love. 

“For freedom Christ has set us free…” (Gal. 5:1a) Free to be truly loved and to truly love one another.

May it be so. 

God, may it be so… Amen.