Memo: These notes are aimed at teachers of Exploring the Bible. They’ve been coming to you for a month now, and I’d like some feedback. I repeat, I often skip material in the quarterly on purpose in order to add other info and choices, but I’m open to shaping these to your wants and needs. Do you want more word studies, illustrations, applications, Biblical culture, major ideas from the whole NT or Paul. Less of something? Let me know. Email: plassiter@suddenlink.net.

 THE FRUIT OF FREEDOM!

Galatians 5

The Exploring the Bible quarterly I’m following focuses on the Fruits of the Spirit this week. And this is vital and a major part of my preaching and teaching ministry. But there’s no way I’m skipping the first part of the chapter on freedom, as this is central to why Paul wrote the letter.

Freedom

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1 – RSV)

Freedom’s opposite in the Bible is slavery. To be free is to be free from slavery to three things: sin, the Law (Torah), and death.  Note that this is different from the Greek view and our usual meaning today. We’ll come back to these shortly, but today we’re talking about Paul’s meaning in Galatians 5. Remember too, that Paul’s original letter had exactly as many chapters and verses as you had in your last letter or email…exactly NONE. I’m not sure why ten centuries later they divided the chapter where they did, because the idea is attached to the running thought since the beginning. If in real estate location is everything, in Bible exposition context is everything!

Some false teachers had brought fake news to Galatia after Paul left, saying that Christians had to observe the Torah by having the men all circumcised, observing the dietary laws, and all the other 600+ rules of the Pentateuch. Paul jumped all over this, especially since he was mostly building churches with Gentiles who had never even heard of the Law.

He first tells them, reminds them really, that they were saved by the Grace of God through Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection. The Law had not saved them and could not save them. That means they did not need to continue to observe the Jewish ways.

Now he almost yells, “YOU’RE FREE! CHRIST HAS SET YOU FREE!” His major point here is freedom from the law. He considers the Law now a “yoke of slavery,” restricting life rather than growth. Note that technically here Paul refers to the “ceremonial Law,” not moral law. He will make that very clear in verses 13 and following (:13ff).

Note from time to time Paul uses the phrase “works of the law” and sometimes shortens it to “works.” This double meaning of the word creates the confusion. It may also have created confusion in the first century that led to James’s statement the “faith without works is dead.” Paul refers primarily to doing the works of the Law as an effort to be saved. James is referring to a distortion of Paul that says he meant once you are saved, you can sin all you want to. We’re about to see that in no way does salvation by grace through faith alone means freedom to sin all you want. (The exception are those who say this is true, but if you are genuinely saved, your won’t want to sin!)

Second, Paul means that in addition to freedom from the Law, you are also free from sin. He pictures himself and all the rest enslaved to sin and helpless without Christ. Someone has noted that in Romans he says we were “dead in our trespasses and sins.” Dead people cannot do anything to help themselves. If help is to come, it must come from outside. Have you ever noticed that most frequently the NT says “God raised Christ from the dead?” I believe a few places say Jesus rose, but the majority has the Father raising the Son. When Jesus saves us, He rescues us from the hold of sin on us. Again, in Romans 6, he points out that “we are buried with Him in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life!”

The Bible very, very often pictures life as a road or journey. Righteous are those traveling the narrow road toward God. Unrighteous are those traveling away from God. It doesn’t matter why one is aimed away from God, whether unaware, rebelling, or simply enjoying sin. Once Paul was aggressively traveling that way away from God, intending to arrest and haul off Christians. But Jesus, as it were, fell from the sky to stop Saul in his tracks and make a 180 degree turn in his life.

That 180 degree turn, by the way, is what the Bible means by repentance. Repentance is not merely a feeling of sorrow or guilt for one’s sins. It’s being sorry enough to quit. Repentance is a change of direction in life to re-orient oneself toward God instead of away from Him. One of the major OT words for repentance means literally “to turn,” and in some places in the OT, the translation says something like “he turned and went another way.” That explains why some translations say “God repented and did not do the evil he had said…” It has nothing to do with how God felt. He saw the humans changed their behavior, so He changed His.  The major word for repentance in the NT means “to change your mind.” Again, that’s a 180 degree change of opinion and direction!

Incidentally, have you ever noticed the Bible seldom seems to care about how you feel about this or that. I’ve often heard folks say, “I feel better when I go to church (or pray or give or whatever).” Sometimes, you should feel terrible coming from church, having discovered how you’re falling short or being disturbed over some need of the world you should be helping out with.

GREEKS – The Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle thought of freedom as freedom for citizens to make their own choices. To Americans, that’s our primary thought that comes to mind. Lately we hear much talk about electing the President by direct popular vote rather than through the Electoral College. They don’t realize the Founders discussed that and feared it. If that were to become our way, then big cities would elect the President, and states like NY, CA, FL, and TX would decide the elections. Smaller states in the “flyover country” would see people elected who did not care about their rural problems.

What is freedom to you? We gripe and hear about conspiracy theories all the time, but in reality, we have many earmarks of Greek and American freedom:

You can live where you choose.                        

 You can marry whom you choose (If they agree!)

You can generally work in your choice of fields.     

You can choose your brand of car or truck.

You can worship where you choose.

Within limits, you can choose which college to attend or no college.

You can apply to any armed service.

At 16 you have the right to drive a car.

At 18, you have the right to vote – and if you read the news around the world, you see how vital

                        That is.

Hopefully, one day you can choose to retire, when and where and what it means for you.

And there are myriad choices daily – what and where to eat. What to wear, where to go…

You see how free we are and feel how precious that is. Ministers are taught to interpret Scripture by asking two questions: What it meant, and what it means! First you seek to find out as best you can what the original author had in mind and how his first readers would have understood it. Then you can ponder the truth and ask how it applies to us today. So, let’s sum up freedom.

What it meant: freedom from keeping the Jewish ceremonial laws relating to circumcision, dietary rules, temple worship and sacrifice. It did not mean freedom to act as you will such as stealing, murder, and adultery.

            It also meant freedom from the grip of sin. The radical change in life’s direction turns your back on sin and (compare 1 John 1:9) when we do commit acts of sin, there is forgiveness on request. Guilt no longer ties one to the past, but frees us to live in love and service.

What it means: To some degree, this interpretation is often subjective. It’s healthy to think and make your own applications. You might disagree with my applications or add more.

I strongly believe Biblical freedom is freedom from legalism. We still have Pharisees among us today. Don’t you know people whose religion is almost all “don’t do this,” “don’t do that?” They openly reject people who don’t follow their approved lifestyle. The devil’s best PR stunt is convincing the world that all we do is judge them. We have done a terrible job letting the world know we are the only organization where you must confess you are a sinner to join. Every one in the church (and outside it, too, for that matter) is a sinner. The longer you walk the Christian path, the more you find ways to clean up your life and discovering sins hiding behind other sins!

Of course, it’s true that many teenage and young adults wear T-shirts and have tattoos that say “Don’t Judge Me.” And most of these have sins it’s easy for us “holy” people to condemn. True, most of these are into booze and drugs and sex and all sorts of other things. But we do a bad job accepting a person and enabling them to feel accepted while never approving their lifestyles. Hey – half the time I don’t approve my own lifestyle, why should I pick on you. (Maybe so I don’t feel bad about my own?) First Baptist Ruston does a fantastic job at this, beginning with the pastor, but continuing as far down as I can tell!

Verses 13-14 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Quick trick question:  Is v 14 quoting the OT or a Gospel? Answer: both! Jesus said it, and He was quoting Leviticus!

Few statements are more powerful than these two. God calls us to freedom! Freedom. For freedom Christ has set us free! Stand therefore…  But then Paul adds, “Don’t use this freedom as a launching pad for sin. Rather voluntarily serve each other. The word for serve is the verb form of the noun that this apostle uses at the beginning of most of his letters, slave or bond servant. He’s using irony. Don’t trade your freedom for slavery to sin, rather trade that freedom to freely slave for your neighbors.

And Paul quoted his Master: Love your neighbor as yourself. Philippians 2:5ff pictures Jesus taking on the form of a servant, bond-servant, or slave. If Jesus set the example, we are not greater than He, and we cannot say serving is beneath me.

Note on love: Remember earlier I was talking about the Bible’s being more about action than feeling? Here’s a great example. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus challenges us to treat others the way we want to be treated. He has just said to love our enemies. We may not feel warm toward an enemy, especially if he has just slapped us. Nevertheless, I am commanded not to return evil for evil, but to replace it with good – whether I feel like it or not! That’s Christian love – or its beginning anyhow. Later on in your walk, you may find that warmer feelings are indeed surfacing.

Next, he makes it abundantly clear that he does not believe you can receive God’s grace and continue in sin. Rather walk by the Spirit! The Holy Spirit is Christ in you. Every Christian receives Christ as Savior, and then God comes to live inside in the form of the Holy Spirit. Salvation includes the power to live a Christian life. Paul sets up a contrast between the one living under the Spirit’s guidance and the ones who are guided by carnal desires. There is a battle, a daily one. (Read the last part of Romans 7.) But if you ignore the Spirit, you will be unable to serve Christ, and in the church, you could bite and devour one another.

                                                         

Works of the Flesh

What does the devil try to get you to do? Verse 19 is a handy list that Paul calls the works of the flesh. We find the expected sins here, drunkenness, sexual debauchery, idolatry, and sorcery. Those someone has called the hot-blooded sins. But have you noticed how the lists in the Bible sneak in those “innocent” cold-blooded sins? My eye just glanced down to see Jealousy, anger, and selfishness! People who attend an adult Bible study are more likely to have problems with anger than carousing, with envy and jealousy rather than drunkenness. But these are sins too.

I have a sermon aimed at teenagers called “Cigareets and whiskey, and wild, wild women.” Yes, that is indeed the first line of a country song. The second line is “They’ll drive you crazy, they’ll drive you insane. Anyway, I aimed the three obvious points and why they were wrong at our adolescents. The adults were probably the most moral group I’ve ever pastored as far as those three things were concerned. Afterwards a good deacon came up to me and said, “Pastor, I know some folks might get offended, but I’m behind you all the way.” The irony was that sermon would have offended no one, but I had been preaching on the cold-hearted sins, and no one offered to support me! Their defense, of course, was to pretend I was preaching to others.

So which of these sins are yours?

                                                            Fruits of the Spirit

Right off the bat, let me point out that fruits of the Spirit are not the same thing as spiritual gifts. The fruits are qualities of the Christian life that apply to all disciples. The gifts are individualized, so that the church has many people who can do different things, just as the body has many parts, all for different purposes.

Look at the first three that leaped to Paul’s mind: Love, Joy, Peace. Paul is often imagined as a stern, strict old dude, though I suspect the opposite is true. Open your Bible to any of Paul’s letters and see how long before you see the word love. It won’t be long. I’ve often said the apostle has re-purposed a salt and pepper set, filling one with the word Love and the other with In Christ. Then he just liberally sprinkled those words across his pages. Seriously, that’s how important love is. Everything else fades in importance. Over and over in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul examines a good trait or a good deed and declares no matter how good it is, without love it amounts to nothing!

Joy may be an exception to the feeling principle, for it certainly is a wonderful emotion. Notice it’s linked with peace, another deep-seated quality. In fact, we’ll see in a couple of weeks when we get to James, that discipleship can be so wonderful that we can throw a party in the middle of persecution. Perhaps the song, “It Is Well with My Soul” expresses the reason. When we know we are at peace with God, that satisfaction can erupt in joy!

Four of the others group together nicely: patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control. Few things would help our world more in our day than these virtues. Seems like everyone is yelling at everyone else. We chaperone children and teenagers and try to calm them down when they begin to lurch out of control. I fear adults need that control today. Just look at the politics on the front page of the papers and that lead on the TV news. They often have clips of people saying the nastiest things to one another. Surely this is the work of the flesh and by no means the fruit of the Spirit. I am troubled by how often on my Facebook feed I read posts by folk I know to be Christian saying awful things about people on the other side. We need to know that being a liberal, a conservative, or independent does not make you the spawn of Satan. Whatever your stance, I will respect you as a patriot with a different vision for American than the other side has. More important, Christians should treat others with respect because they were made in the image of God and because Christ died for them.

Another note on self-control. The word is almost equivalent to disciplined. I repeatedly hear stories of top athletes who arrive first at practice and remain after practice to sharpen their skills and their abilities. Spending all that time may seem to imprison one, cutting off their free time. But when the game is on the line, they are free to make the one play or move that wins for his team.

 I remember this tale as told on Pablo Casals, the great cellist. After a concert, a little old lady twittered up to him and said, “Oh, Mr Casals, I wish I could play the cello like you can!” He looked over at her and replied, “No. You don’t.” She drew back. “If you really wanted to play like that, you would be able to. You would have practiced 6, 8, or 10 hours every day, year after year. That’s what it takes!” Self-discipline. What will it take to become what you want to be?