Law and Love 4

You, my siblings, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge selfishness; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

Paul writes to his friends in what is modern day Turkey (called Galatia in the first century) about the freedom that we have in Christ. He pushes hard against those who try to set up a religious and cultural framework for inclusion in God’s family. At one point he yells (in writing) at those who wanted that kind of rules-based spirituality “I wish you would go castrate yourselves!” (It’s true - see it in Galatians 5:12). So yes, Paul was passionate about us having true freedom in Christ.

And at the same time, Paul pushes back on the ‘liberals’ who loved their freedom in Christ so much that their spiritual lives were flabby, selfish, and weak. These free-spirits had given up any sense of obligation, duty, or obedience - and Paul calls them out.

For both groups, we’re called to love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s a radical call of freedom and it’s a radical call of sacrifice.

Do you find yourself leaning one way (towards rules) or the other (throwing off all restraint)? What might love look like for you today?