Galatians 5:13 - Homiletics

The meaning of Christian liberty.

The false teachers deserve this severity of treatment, for they would deprive you of your liberty.

I. THE CHRISTIAN CALLING IS TO LIBERTY . He had already counselled them to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free ( Galatians 5:1 )—a liberty which lifted them out of legal bondage, and, above all, destroyed the yoke of ancient ceremonialism; and now these Judaizers were attempting to strike at the root of their calling.

II. THE DEEP AND UNCHANGEABLE DISTINCTION BETWEEN LIBERTY AND LICENTIOUSNESS . "Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh." This counsel was specially needed for a Celtic people emerging out of the old immoral paganism, It shows:

1 . That duty is not destroyed by liberty. Their escape from legal bondage did not involve the annihilation of all moral restraints or the abrogation of the moral Law. In fact, the gospel brings believers under a weightier obligation to duty than the Law possibly can do, for it brings upon the believer the mighty constraint of Divine love ( 2 Corinthians 5:14 ). They were no longer justified by the Law, but the Law was still a rule of life. The Antinomians of Germany and England held that believers were under Law in no sense; that they were under no obligations to obedience; and therefore were ready enough to use their liberty under the gospel "for an occasion to the flesh." It is still very necessary to emphasize the obligations of Christian people under the gospel, for gross immoralities have been committed by men with an extravagant view of gospel liberty. Christ came to call sinners to repentance, not to licentiousness; to take his yoke upon them, and yield their members instruments of righteousness unto holiness.

2 . Christian people ought to use their liberty wisely. There is a margin left for human discretion in the application of gospel principles. Perhaps a too free use of our Christian liberty has often become an occasion of sin. Therefore a Christian divine suggests that in matters of duty we ought to do too much rather than too little, but in matters of indifference we should rather take too little of our liberty than too much.

III. THE ONLY BONDAGE ALLOWABLE IN CHRISTIANITY IS MUTUAL LOVE . "But by love serve one another." There is an antithetic force in the original, which is not so obvious in the translation: If you must have bondage, let it be the bondage of mutual love. Love is to be the means by which the mutual bondage is to be manifested.

1 . This bondage is not degrading. Though they were servants of each other, they were not masters of each other. "All ye are brethren." Christ himself is our example in this service: "1 am among you as one that serveth." This one tact lifts this duty to an incomparable height of dignity and impressiveness.

2 . It is this which will keep your liberty from degenerating into licentiousness. Their love for one another, grounded in their love for God, would set them upon all opportune ways of benefiting each other. Thus love is the one debt always to be discharged and always due. "Owe no man anything, but to love one another" ( Romans 13:8 ). The counsel of the apostle seems to suggest the existence in Galatia of factious quarrels and unchristian isolations.