Galatians 5:1-6
' For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that, if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be reckoned as righteous by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. '
What does it mean to be free?
Paul is encouraging the church in Galatia in a time of confusion. Some have come to the church and told the faithful there that they must be circumcized to truly belong to the church. They believe that loyal followers of Jesus must adhere to the whole Torah law. What we see in the witness of the apostles in the book of Acts is that God’s mercy was widening beyond the bounds of the Torah. Through Christ, God was welcoming all people into the fold of God. According to Paul, the people were freed from the constraints of the law. If they were truly free, what was to guide them?
This is a common argument we still hear today. “You can’t pick and choose. You have to follow the whole letter of scripture!” It’s a well-meaning stance in most cases. We are not the designers of our faithfulness. Christ is the fullness of God and the fullness of humanity. We are shaped in Christ’s image, not our own. It is Christ’s faithfulness that brings us the hope of righteousness. It is also Christ’s faithfulness that brings the freedom Paul mentions. What, then, is the meaning of our freedom? How are we to embody this freedom?
Today is July 4th, a day when many Americans will celebrate their independence and freedom. We remember the costs of that freedom. We acknowledge the ways we have been careless with our freedom, and we recommit to being a people worthy of the freedoms we celebrate. But more than freedom from tyranny, we remember the freedom from sin and death that Christ has gifted us. In that freedom, we are free to activate our faith through loving service to others. Genuine freedom is love at work. It is freedom from a self-centered life. It is freedom from an obsession with excess. It is freedom from greed and pride. It is the freedom to serve others without expecting repayment, knowing that God sees when others don’t.
Paul is straightforward with his messaging here: the only thing that matters is faith working through love. Is there anything holding you back from your faith working through love? How has someone else’s loving service impacted your life?