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| Volume 26 Number 5 May 2024 |
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| Volume 26 Number 5 May 2024 |
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Brian R. Kenyon
Sometimes, people misconceive “freedom” as meaning anything goes. Perhaps the popular line in a song a few decades ago, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” has contributed to that notion. However, when people start claiming “freedom in Christ” when it comes to justifying unscriptural practices, we must realize “freedom in Christ,” like all freedom, has limitations. In Galatians, Paul defended his apostleship against those who wanted to undermine his apostolic validity (Galatians 1:1), mainly because he preached against circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses as a requirement for salvation as they taught (Galatians 3:10-12, 24-25; 5:2-6; Acts 15:1, 5). Paul told the Galatians, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13 NKJV). From this verse, we will examine what “freedom in Christ” allows and does not allow. This will help us better serve the Lord by helping us live according to His Word (Matthew 4:4; 7:21; Luke 6:46).
Freedom Is Not for Serving Lusts
Christians have been called to liberty (Galatians 2:4; 4:26, 31; 5:1) through the Gospel (2 Thessalonians 2:14), but that freedom in Christ is not to serve as a springboard for fulfilling fleshly desires. “Liberty [freedom, NAS]” is translated from a word, eleutheria, that means “freedom” or “liberty.” The word is found in several New Testament verses (Galatians 2:4; 5:13; Romans 8:21; 1 Corinthians 10:29; 2 Corinthians 3:17; James 1:25; 2:12; 1 Peter 2:6; 2 Peter 2:19). Our freedom in Christ is not an opportunity to the flesh. “Opportunity [occasion, KJV]” is from a word, aphorme, that originally meant “the starting-point or base of operations for an expedition;” then it came to mean, “the resources needed to carry through an undertaking” (Bauer, 127). Paul was saying that members of the Lord’s church should not let their Christian freedom “become a beachhead for the armies of indulgence to gain a foothold in this life” (Boice, 492-493). The word is used several times in the New Testament (Romans 7:8, 11; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 11:12; 1 Timothy 5:14).
The word “flesh” is often misunderstood as teaching that “flesh” is inherently evil, which, of course, it is not, for Jesus was in the same flesh as we are (John 1:1, 14; Hebrews 2:14). The word from which “flesh” is translated (sarx) has a variety of meanings: flesh, physical body; human nature, earthly descent; human being, person; earthly life, human realm of existence (Galatians 1:16; 2:20; 3:3; 4:14; 5:13; 6:12-13; Romans 2:28; 7:5, 18, 25; 8:3, 8-9, 12; 1 Corinthians 7:28; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 10:3). Most of the denominational world assumes that flesh, or human nature, is inherently sinful. This deception is perpetuated by some translations, like the NIV, which translates the word as “sinful nature” (as it also does in a host of passages, including Galatians 5:16-17, 19, 24; 6:8; Romans 8:3-9, 13; Ephesians 2:3), consequently misapplying such passages as Psalm 51:5 and Romans 5:12; 7:18. The Bible teaches that human nature is inherently good (Ecclesiastes 7:29; Ezekiel 18:20). After all, as already noted, Jesus came in flesh (John 1:14; Hebrews 2:14).
In the first century pagan world (as well as today), people were “accustomed to an unrestrained indulgence of their desires;” thus, Paul was reminding the Galatians that “Christian freedom does not mean the end of all moral restraints” (Johnson). Paul also wrote, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). Freedom in Christ does not give license to live however we want!
Freedom Is for Serving One Another
Rather than using Christian liberty to fulfill the lusts of the flesh, this freedom should be used to serve one another “through love” (Galatians 5:13b). “Through [by, KJV; διά] love” is to characterize all Christian service (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 13:4-7; Colossians 3:14; 1 Peter 4:8). The verb translated “serve [be servants, ASV]” is from a word (douleuo) that means to serve as a slave; be a slave, be enslaved. This word appears several times in the New Testament (Galatians 4:8-9, 25; John 8:33; Romans 6:6; 7:6, 25; Ephesians 6:7; Philippians 2:2; Colossians 3:24; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Timothy 6:2; Titus 3:3). The Galatians were not to be slaves to the law principle (Galatians 4:8; 5:1), but they were to be slaves to one another in the Christian sense of service (Ephesians 5:21). This slavery is not like the worldly kind that was forced upon the weaker by the stronger, but it was a kind of bond service that was based on voluntary enslavement to the Lord (Galatians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 7:22). The analogy is comparable to the Old Testament slave who was freed but refused to leave the household of the master he loved, deliberately volunteering to remain a slave forever (Cole, 206). According to Exodus 21:1-6, “If the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.” This voluntary service to one another is the natural outcome of our volunteering to make Jesus our Master (Matthew 6:24; Ephesians 6:6). Peter taught that Christians were free, “yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice,” but to live as “bondservants of God” (1 Peter 2:16)!
Conclusion
Freedom is a great blessing, especially where it concerns our relationship to Christ and His church. We must always be vigilant, though, to make sure we are not misusing that freedom by once again becoming enslaved to sin. We must remember we “were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked… But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-6). Thus, as Paul urged, let us “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
Works Cited
Bauer, Walter. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 2nd rev. ed. by William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 1979.
Boice, James Montgomery. “Galatians.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Vol. 10: Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians. Ed. Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976.
Cole, R. Alan. The Letter of Paul to the Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary. Rev. ed. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 9. Ed. Leon Morris. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989.
Johnson, Robert Lee. The Letter of Paul to the Galatians. The Living Word Commentary. Ed. Everett Ferguson. Electronic Database. Abilene: ACU P., 1999.
