Galatians 5:13 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

NIV: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh ; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

NASB: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

CSB: For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love.

NLT: For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

KJV: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

NKJV: 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.

Paul has spent most of this letter to the Galatians calling them to live in the freedom that comes with faith in Christ. With His own blood, Christ has purchased for those who trust Him a freedom from slavery to our sinfulness under the law. We are forgiven. We don't need to toil under the harsh burdens of the law (Galatians 3:23–29). In his letter to the Romans, expanding on these same ideas, Paul put it this way: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

This raises a new question, though, one that Paul's enemies surely asked: If there is no threat of condemnation for sinning, what is to keep people from sinning more and more? Without a consequence, won't people just indulge in every kind of evil practice? Now Paul confronts that idea, too. He warns the Galatians not to use their freedom in Christ as an opportunity to selfishly serve the flesh by only doing what feels good. Instead, they should selflessly serve each other in love.

Again, whether or not we live in Christ is all about where we place our focus. Living under the law, by definition, is about trying to justify ourselves before God, by my own effort, through my own works. We focus on ourselves, and are really seeking our own glory as a result. Salvation by faith in Christ is about what He did, through His works. It's not about us, at all.

In a similar way, living in the freedom Christ purchased should not be about focusing on ourselves. It is about seeing God's love for us and striving to serve each other with that same love.

Galatians 5:1–15 focuses on what those in Christ should do with our freedom in Christ. First, we must guard it, especially from those who would pressure us to follow the law. Paul was confident the Galatians would resist the one leading them in the wrong direction. Paul also warns us not to waste our freedom in Christ to selfishly serve ourselves instead of serving each other in love. The entire law is fulfilled in that one word: love. Those who serve themselves, though, will always end up in conflict with each other.

Those who trust in Christ have been set free. Paul's readers were in danger of wasting that freedom, by veering off in one of two directions. On the one hand, false teachers were pressuring them into circumcision in order to be sure of being right with God. On the other hand, freedom can also be squandered on serving only our sinful desires instead of investing it through serving others in love. God's Spirit gives us the power to do that when we let Him lead us. Life in the Spirit bears powerful and positive fruit in a Christian's life.

Galatians 3—4 focused on theology. Galatians 5—6 focus on how Christians should live in response to those truths. In short, we must resist being dragged away from the freedom we have in Christ to follow the law. We must also resist wasting our freedom on serving our sinful desires instead of serving others in love. We can do this by the power of God's Spirit with us. When we give Him the lead, powerful, positive characteristics show up in us. Galatians 6 will show how to use those characteristics to serve each other.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.