Love Governs Believer’s Freedom

Transcript

GR 2105
11/26/2017
Love Governs Believers Freedom
Galatians 5:13-15
Gil Rugh

We’re going to the Book of Galatians in your bibles, Galatians chapter 5. One of Paul’s more severe letters, to say the least, he has some very serious things to address going on in the churches of Galatia, and they have been drawn into confusion by false teachers who have tried to tell them that they need to go under the Law. There are two parts to this under the Law for justification under the Law for sanctification. In other words, you cannot really become righteous, in the sight of a holy God unless you not only believe in Christ, but you also must submit to the requirements of the Mosaic Law. Then the other side of that is to say you’ve been justified by faith in Christ, but now to live a life of holiness that is pleasing to God, you must submit yourself to the Law. Both are serious doctrinal errors and Paul is explaining to the Galatians the seriousness of the situation.

I was, reading recently, a book that I had read before, but I was delving into it, and the man was talking about we need among believers, the gift of battle. He says it’s really not called a spiritual gift in the bible, but a gift where we have people who are willing to lead in the battles we have to face, and I understand what he’s saying. There are conflicts, such as Paul is dealing with at the church at Galatia that requires the church to stand and do battle against the error. As Paul is going to bring to our attention, in the section we’re going to look into, we not only need to be willing to battle, but you need discernment to know when you go to battle, and what you go to battle over. He going to not only address this matter of the proper use of their freedom but he’s also going to warn them about not getting involved in battles that will be destructive for the body and in the churches of Galatia.

This issue of our freedom in Christ, our salvation is by grace, not by works and as soon as you bring works into the picture, you have nullified grace. Romans chapter 11 verse six puts it this way. “If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace.” Grace by definition is something unmerited or undeserved, so if you’re going to say you earn or merit your salvation because of what you do, then it’s not by grace and our day by day holiness is not earned or merited ultimately by what we do.

Paul addressed this back in chapter 3. We keep coming back here. Verse two; “did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” That had to do with their initial salvation, when they believed in Christ and the Spirit of God came and took up residence in them. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” That’s what we call the doctrine of sanctification, saved by faith, by God’s grace, kept by our works. No! Those we would refer to, as Armenians believed that you could lose your salvation because you maintain your salvation by your works. We are kept by God’s grace even as we were saved by God’s grace. We express it that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, that brings us into freedom and that’s what Paul is addressing.

The freedom that we have in Christ, chapter 5 verse one began, “it was for freedom that Christ has set us free.” In John chapter 8 verse 36, Jesus talked about slavery to sin and to the devil and then he explained “if the Son shall make you free you, shall be free indeed.” The freedom that we enter into in Christ but now we hear this and say well, free, does that mean you’re free to do what you want, free to live as you please and Paul has to address that error. Freedom in Christ does not mean freedom to sin, freedom to do as you please. This is where confusion often comes in. We’re set free in Christ, and as we have talked about, there are those in Reformed theology as we refer to it, Covenantal theology, Calvinistic theology who believe if you say we are not obligated to keep the Mosaic Law you’re antinomian and you promote a lawless life, but that’s not true. Submission to Christ and the freedom you come to in Christ are not a freedom to do what you want. We’ve been set free from the yoke of the slavery to the Law. That has been repeatedly emphasized, it was stressed at the last part particularly of chapter 4 and then into chapter 5 we’ve been set free.

Here’s what one commentator says: “although we cannot gain acceptance by keeping the Law, yet once we have been accepted, we shall keep the Law out of love for Him who has accepted us and given us His Spirit to enable us to keep the Law,” but you see what he’s really saying. “We were saved by God’s grace and He gave us His Spirit so we could be put back under the Law but now we can keep it,” but the point is we’re put back under the Law. He continues, in New Testament terminology, “although our justification depends not on the Law but on Christ crucified yet our sanctification consists in the fulfillment of the Law.” I say that is exactly in opposition to what Paul has been teaching.

Back to chapter three. “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by the flesh, or are you now going to go back into bondage to the Law?” Remember what we saw at the end of chapter 4 in the analogy and illustration that he gave. “Cast out the bondwoman,” verse 30 of chapter 4, “and her son. The son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” We’re not going back under Law and yet this commentator and he has some good things to say but he’s confused on the Law and he is not the only one.

It’s consistent with those who have what we call a Reformed theology, nondispensational. They don’t have a consistent literal, historical, grammatical system of hermeneutics so they confuse Israel and the Church, they confuse our relationship to the Law and part of it comes out of the fact they’re concerned if you say we’re not under the Mosaic Law that must mean you can do whatever you want. We have no responsibilities; you’re on your own. Nothing could be further from the truth, so beginning with verse 13 where we pick up, Paul is going to show that freedom doesn’t mean license. Freedom in Christ doesn’t mean I make my own decisions and it’s between me, and the Lord, that’s not the case.

“You were called” verse 13, you see he picks up with what he said in verse one. Verse one, “it was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm, do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” How can somebody write and say we have to go back under the Law? When Paul says you’ve been set free, now don’t go back under a yoke of slavery, and for Gentiles who were never under the Law, as though they had to get under the Law, to be pleasing to God for their sanctification, but then he comes to verse 13. “For you were called to freedom brethren,” so all his emphasis on freedom and you’re not under the Law, you can’t put yourself under the Law. If you put yourself under the Law, you cut yourself off from a relationship with Christ. That’s what he has said in verse four, “you’ve been severed from Christ, you who were seeking to be justified by law;” you have fallen from grace. It’s just not operative.

“For you were called to freedom brethren,” and you’ll note here, he’s dealing with them as believers. He says some harsh things, he warned them. If they continue on a path of being drawn into this combination of faith in Christ plus keeping the Mosaic Law, that leads you to the conclusion then you’re not functioning in grace. You’ve cut yourself off from the benefits that are provided, in Christ only by grace, but even with the seriousness of that, it’s a serious letter. At heart, in his experience with them, he still has confidence, they’ve truly trusted Christ, but he is concerned they’re getting off track.

“You were called to freedom brethren.” Two words here. That word, “called,” it’s a word in the epistles of the New Testament that refers to the effectual call of God that results in salvation. He speaks to them as those who have been drawn by God’s grace to salvation in Christ. You were called. He calls them brethren. Now note on that word “called,” in the gospels it’s used differently. We’ve talked about this before but a reminder. In Matthew chapter 22 verse 14 Jesus said, “Many are called, but few are chosen” and there he talks about the call as something general to all people but a few have been chosen by God for Himself. When you come to the epistles, the word “called,” is only used of that call that is directed toward the elect, the chosen and results in their salvation.

Just take a moment. Come back to Romans chapter 8. We’re going to be back in Romans a couple of times so you may want to leave something here. Romans chapter 8 remember we’ve talked about Galatians is something of a rough outline of the Book of Romans, covering much of the same material we have in Romans but Romans expands it and elaborates on it. In Romans chapter 8 verse 28, a very familiar verse, “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called,” and there you’ll see, “according to His purpose.” He’s talking about believers that have come to love God because He first loved us, those who have been called according to His purpose. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,” so that His Son might be the firstborn among many brethren. “These whom He predestined, He also called; those that He called He also justified;” so you see that’s why we say this is what we call the effectual call, because everyone He predestined He called, and everyone He called He justified, so that picture of the sovereign work of God, “and those whom He justified, He also glorified.”

There is an example that we were talking about in our study of Revelation that He uses the past tense of glorified but that’s yet future because it’s as good as done in His plan. Just like His call is always effective and those that are called will respond, so He’s the initiator and it’s His work, we would say of drawing. That’s His call at work for us to come to Christ so that’s one of the examples of the use of “called.” It’s the effectual call so when Paul talks about “you were called to freedom brethren” that effectual call that by God’s grace you responded to, is He drew you.

As you come back to Galatians, you can stop in chapter one verse six. “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ,” so you see that conflict that is going on here. Something’s wrong. You responded to that call of God that brought you to salvation but now you’re deserting Him? Now these Galatians were brought into a realm of confusion, they didn’t understand it that way. They were listening to false teachers that were saying oh, this is nothing different. This is just a fuller explanation and understanding and as we saw later, they even promoted the lie that this is what really Paul teaches when he goes other places. He just didn’t have a chance to give you the full story.

You’re in chapter one, drop down to verse 15 of Galatians chapter one, “but when God who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace.” Note that emphasis the call of God is a call based on His grace. It was in verse six God called you by the grace of Christ. Verse 15 “God set me apart and called me through His grace,” so that work of our salvation is God’s work, in grace, not because I was smarter, quicker to grab on to things. It was God, who reached down and so it is for each one, so over in chapter 5. We have this work of God in calling them and you’re brethren, I want to address you as fellow believers.

I mean he said some harsh things, verse four, “you have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by the law; you have fallen from grace and if you’re going to be circumcised, Christ will not profit you at all. You might as well do the pagan work of mutilation.” These are you know strong things, harsh language “but now because you were called to freedom brethren.” I mean this is serious business. Where are you? You need to stop and think about this. My understanding is that God did call you and you responded, trusted Christ, were born again, you’re part of God’s family, you’re my brethren.

Where do we go from here? Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. Now here Paul brings in the other dimension. The Law, you give up your freedom but also you misunderstand freedom, and this is what the commentator that I read you was saying. You really need now to go under the law otherwise you will lead a lawless unholy life. No! You need to understand the freedom you have in Christ is genuine freedom, but you don’t turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh.

That word, “opportunity” an interesting background. It was originally a military word. It was the starting point. It was like your base of operations that you’re going to move out from, and then it comes to be used meaning an opportunity for something. A pretext to do something. You don’t say now I’m free in Christ I can do all I want. I can now sin all I want for there is remission. You know it’s great and grace becomes license. Don’t use your freedom for an opportunity for the flesh. That word flesh is used in a variety of different ways in the New Testament. Sometimes it just means your physical part of your body like the soft part of your body. Here your flesh so we talk about flesh and blood or flesh and bone. It can be used that way just of the physical body.

Sometimes it’s used in contrast to the Spirit because a person without the Spirit is just operating on the sinful desires that motivate his physical body and so the flesh is expressing those desires innate in us as sinful beings that motivate and control us and that’s what Paul is doing here. They’ll find expression in your physical activity but they are not centered in the physical so the flesh over in chapter 5 verse 24. Those who belong to Christ Jesus “have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” so the connection there, those desires and passions that express themselves through our physical bodies that we see all the time.

I saw on the news as probably you have recently, they’re still trying to figure out why this man would murder so many people and the catastrophe they had in Las Vegas. They just can’t understand what would motivate a person, but we understand. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” “No one knows the depths of the depravity of the human heart,” Jeremiah 17:9 and 10 says “except God,” and there is no “rational” explanation because sin is irrational. I sometimes say sin makes us stupid to do things that are, irrational. Now you rebel against the all-sovereign living God. There’s no rational reason to do that so the flesh, sometimes called the old man, sometimes called the old nature.

You’re at the end of Galatians, come over to Ephesians just a page or two over. Ephesians chapter 2. He tells the Ephesians, “you were dead,” verse one, “in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath,” so you see it all goes together and what we were before we were set free in Christ.

We were controlled by those desires and we see the world around us, they continue to become more open, more flagrant in that which makes no sense. You sometimes think you’re living in the asylum. We say, “this is reality.” You say, “that’s not reality” and you know, we talk about this is a man, this is a woman. No, no, no, this woman is really a man and this man is really a woman and don’t offend them by saying otherwise. Pardon me; I don’t think that’s right. It doesn’t matter, if God says this is right then sinful man rebels against it. You want to be careful of our freedom in Christ because those old desires are still there. We say, “well I’m free in Christ.” I don’t want to live a legalistic life.

Come over to the Book of Jude, all the way back just before the Book of Revelation, that little one chapter book or letter. The Book of Jude and in verse three, “beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith.” There’s that battling you have to do, “which was once for all, handed down to the saints” but there has to be discernment. There’s an area where we must do battle over, “for certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation,” ungodly persons. “They creep in unnoticed” among believers but they’re not truly born again. They may have a lot of knowledge. They may be able to talk a good line but they’re ungodly persons, what do they do? They “turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and in doing that they deny our only Master and Lord.” I mean you can’t go to licentiousness without denying the Master and Lord, the One who has sovereign authority over our lives, so here you see why Paul wants to be careful the Galatians don’t swing the other way.

You know we keep things in balance. A number of years ago Charles Ryrie wrote a book, Balancing the Christian Life and it was a good title for a book because it is a balance. Well, we are going to go under law to be sure we don’t live a licentious life. Oh no, we’re not going under Law! All right, we’ll swing back over here and we’re in a licentious life. No that’s not right either and the licentious ones are bragging about their freedom and the law promoters are bragging about they have a restricted life and neither one are biblical, so we have to know the word well enough to know where lines are drawn, and not get pushed off to one side or the other. The Reformed theologians try to push us who do not believe we are under the Mosaic Law in any way as an authority for our life. They say, “well then you’re antinomian.” Amazing how much was written promoting that—that’s not true. It’s not either you go under the Mosaic Law or your antinomian. You live a lawless life, that’s the choice.

Part of what is characteristic of Reformed theology, we’ll have to do a study on Reformed theology some time. They try to create you have two choices, either you live under the Mosaic Law or you’re lawless. Take your pick. I can’t pick either one; you’ve given me two wrong unbiblical choices. There is a third, you’re not under the Mosaic Law nor are we free to live in licentiousness, that’s what Paul is stressing here.

Go to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 16. “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as a slave of God.” Now here we’re going to get the picture. True freedom in Christ moves us from one realm of slavery to another, but freedom in Christ does not move us under the Mosaic Law. We are not in that slavery. We have been moved into slavery to the living God, which is true freedom. True freedom is the ability to live as you were created to live, to function as you were created. We were created to live in fellowship and harmony with the living God who created us, so we are truly free when we can function as God created us to function, and we use analogies you know, you don’t make a fish free by putting him out on the sidewalk so he can enjoy the sun. That’s not freedom. The fish is free when you put him into the water, but you don’t make a human being free by putting him under the water and holding him there. He wasn’t created for that, so we are free when we can function as we were created to function and that is in a relationship with the living God and in harmony with His will, so we can talk about, you use your freedom as slaves and that word is going to come up in Galatians, of God.

Come back to Galatians chapter 5 and then we’re going to look at a couple of other passages so verse 13. “You are called to freedom brethren; only do not use your freedom, turn your freedom into an opportunity,” a base for the flesh, “but through love” and here’s our word; it’s a word to be a slave, the same word that was translated bondservant, as a bondservant of God, a slave of God. “Through love serve as a slave one another,” be enslaved to one another and it is a command, given in the present tense so a present imperative. Something that is to be characteristic of our lives. We have been set free now to function in the family of God. For what? For serving each other. Now sin is selfish. Sin has its center, me, my life revolves around me. My pleasure, my enjoyments, what I want and we’re familiar with the, “I wills” of Satan in his rebellion against God in the Old Testament.

This is turning things completely a different direction. I have been set free from that selfish, self-centered, sin controlled life and now I use my freedom as one who has been enslaved to others. That’s what love does through love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” and this is that marvelous demonstration of love, “in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” That’s the amazing thing! It’s that self-sacrificing service. Through love, serve one another. So it’s not a freedom to do what I might desire, to pursue my selfish, self-centered passions, lusts and so on but to serve one another. I’ve been set free from slavery to be enslaved, but the slavery I now have is the freedom to function in obedience to God in pleasing and manifesting His character.

The word we translated serve and bondservant is basically the word slave. One commentator wrote, the English word “serve” does not adequately translate the Greek verb “here” and he mentions the Greek verb. It’s douleuo, which stands for the common Greek word, the Greek word slave, a doulos. Through love Paul said you should make yourselves slaves to one another, thus freedom and slavery are not simply mutually exclusive terms, they stand in closest possible relationship to one another. What are we a slave to? What are we free for and that balance? Come back to Romans chapter 6 for a fuller development of this, same issue, it’s this balance, this tension of being drawn under law. You could see if there were false teachers that came and promoted license, excused by their concept of grace, easy to swing the other way and say, “well, boy I’d rather see people under the law, and have some standard that they live by.”

Paul, chapter six of Romans opens up, “what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase” because it is talked about, sin multiplied and was shown to be so great, then the law did reveal sin because every time God said, don’t do this or do this, people did the opposite. The Mosaic Law revealed sin, but now that we’re under grace do we say well, you know, even my sin is good because when I sin, and then recognize God forgives me by His grace, I’m testifying to how great God’s grace is and Paul says such a thought is inconceivable. “May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

And that’s where then when we placed our faith in Christ, we were identified with Him spiritually in His death, in His burial and in His resurrection to new life, and he comes down to verse four. “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,” and that’s the baptism of the Spirit—“for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13)—“so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, (note,) so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we will be in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this that our old self,” our old man, which is synonymous with the flesh or our old nature, our old man, I“was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with.” Its power is broken; it doesn’t mean it ceases to exist. That will happen at a future time but this verb done away with katargeo means rendered inoperative, powerless. In other words, the authority of sin over me controlling me and enslaving me was broken, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. “For he who has died is freed from that slavery to sin, so if we have died with Christ, we believe we’ll live with Him, so as Christ was raised from the dead never to die again; we spiritually have died, so that sin is no longer the master over us.” Verse 11; “even so consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.”

That is why I say this is our true freedom, and now that relationship with God that was broken, because of sin and now I have been brought into a right relationship with Him. Now by His grace, I can live the life He created me to live, not one in rebellion against Him, not one centered on myself but one that’s centered on Him. Verse 12, “do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you should obey its lusts, do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.” That’s what we did before those self-centered desires moved me and controlled me and so I used my body for sinful things. But the contrast, “present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.” That’s our new freedom, and now I belong to God, now I can live for Him, your bodily members as instruments of righteousness to God. “Sin shall not be master over you; you are not under law but under grace.”

You see the danger. You go, wait a minute, we just read a man who said; now we live the Christian life, we go under the Law. Well, that’s just the opposite of what He says, “sin will not be master over you, you’re not under law, you’re under grace” and under grace, there is that inner enabling power of the indwelling Spirit who moves and controls me. Now there’s often a battle, because the old man has his authority, and power has been broken but it’s not been removed, so there is that tension but the reality of it is, I never have to sin again. I, by the grace of God, could live a sinless life, and some like John Wesley did teach sinless perfection and some others for a while in our early days of our salvation, in our family, we were part of such a group. Never met anybody in that group who was sinless but met some who thought they might be pretty close but what? We’re under grace and there is that new power as we have been made new in Christ and have the indwelling Spirit to be our enabling power.

Verse 15, “what? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” You see we are not under law for our sanctification. Paul said we’re not under law! Does that mean we are free to sin? May it never be because when you sin, you put yourself back into slavery, sin wants to wrap its tentacles around us, that’s the deceptiveness of sin. Even as a believer, we think, “well I can sin now because I have the power not to sin and I can dip into it and out of it when I want,” but it doesn’t work that way. Sin is a master and so when we go delve into sin, it starts to wrap one tentacle, then another tentacle around us and pretty soon, we find ourselves going back to slavery to sin. “Do you not know,” verse 16, “when you present yourself to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

Thanks be to God, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness but that’s freedom because God created us in His image, to reflect that image in all that we are and all that we do. That’s true freedom. That’s what the world does not have and it seeks in all these other ways, but we can know the true freedom but it is a freedom of living for God, you became slaves of righteousness. “I’m speaking,” verse 19, “in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness, present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free; in regard to righteousness, therefore what fruit, benefit were you deriving from those things? They result in death. Now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, your fruit, resulting in sanctification the outcome, eternal life.”

Now that’s what Paul is talking about in more condensed form, in Galatians. Come back to chapter 5 that, verse 13, “through love we serve one another we are enslaved to one another.” This is love, it’s self-sacrificing. Before it would lust, which is self, pursuing its desires. Now we function as the God who is so gracious, so loving, who loved us when we were unlovely and by His grace, we can love Him because He first loved us that enablement that enables us, to love one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Now this sounds strange. Doesn’t it sound like well, now the goal is to keep the law and fulfill it?

One commentator put it like this, and this is different from the previous one I read you that said we’re under the law for sanctification. This is a different commentator but says the same thing, the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Mosaic legislation are no longer binding on Christians today but the moral law expressed in the Ten Commandments is indeed relevant for the New Testament believer, who by divine grace has been incorporated into the people of God. When you see that kind of term, “the people of God” there is a blending of Jews and Gentiles, of Israel and the Church so we want to take and break off part of the Mosaic Law and say it is binding on the people of God. Having been justified by faith alone, they were no longer in bondage to the Law but the moral law had not been annulled, the Ten Commandments summarized in the admonition to love ones neighbor are still in force.

Back under the Law then they’ve got the gymnastics of dealing with “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” as we’ve talked about, well the Sabbath day is the seventh day and you were morally required to keep it but we’ve changed it to Sunday. Oh really, you can’t change the Law. It’s been put in force. It is a unit and furthermore you can’t break it into pieces, ceremonial, civil, and moral and we’ve been through this. It is a unit, you break one portion you break it all. Now that doesn’t mean some of those things, which were true in the Mosaic Law, are true today. The point that he is making here is that what God intended with the Mosaic Law for His people was to guide them as a people who had trusted in Him as their God. Now, to live in a way that is pleasing to Him, in a relationship to one another that was pleasing to Him, so in that sense love fulfills the law. It gave obligations.

We have obligations and responsibilities. Some of them are similar, for example, to some of the Ten Commandments. They are repeated in the New Testament, so we carry them out by the indwelling power of the Spirit, not because they’re part of the Mosaic Law but because they’re part of what God instructs for us as His children. We’ll get down to that with the Fruit of the Spirit as we move through towards the end of chapter 5. That’s what the Spirit of God is producing in our lives and there are commandments given to us. They’re instructions, there is the law of Christ but the Mosaic Law is done!

To say now, we’ve broken out this part of the Law and he brings the Ten Commandments in but even those who try to parcel out the Mosaic Law, there’s more. The Mosaic Law is a summary of the whole Law and the Ten Commandments aren’t a summary of the whole Law, so this breaking it out, where do the moral commandments come, there’s 613 commandments. Now you have to go through and say well this is clearly a civil commandment, this is clearly ceremonial, this is clearly moral and some of these seem to overlap. Which is it? Was it a moral issue if you did not offer the prescribed sacrifice? You were rebelling against God, that becomes a moral issue. Well it’s also a ceremonial issue if you don’t observe this required religious activity.

You just can’t break it up, so this idea, but love does fulfill it because this is what He required. This is what Jesus said, the whole commandment can be fulfilled in, the whole Law can be fulfilled in two commandments, love God and love your neighbor. That is true. When we come to it, I love God because He first loved me, now I want to do what is pleasing to Him. My focus is not first me, it is first Him, what is pleasing to Him, what is honoring to Him. Well I’d better go under the Law, let’s see, He wanted me to observe this holiday, He wanted me to offer this sacrifice, no, no, no, not that, not that! Then man sets himself up as authority, we’ll put you under what portion of the Mosaic Law we think you should be under and of course you’re under the Sabbath day requirement but we’ve switched it to Sunday. Where did God say, I now transfer My requirement of the Sabbath to Sunday? Well, we see examples of people meeting on the first day of the week. Well that doesn’t mean the Law changed once the law’s in force, you can’t change it.

Remember, we’ve been through that so love does fulfill the Law. This is true, we are to function in love. That means we’ll put others first. We will care for others. We are a family; we are to be sensitive to others. Love covers a multitude of sins. We deal with each other as a family. We don’t excuse sin but we’re not looking to be offended and all the things that are so obvious in many ways, it will become clear as we move along.

Back up a couple of passages. Let’s see, come to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Paul had to deal with this in all his churches so we oughtn’t to think we are above it. First Corinthians chapter 8 opens up; we note “concerning things sacrificed to idols that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, love edifies.” See that point of distinguishing here what is right, what is wrong. What can we do, what can’t we do? Well we know that an idol is nothing, and since I have that knowledge and it pleases me to eat this, I’m going to eat it. Now wait a minute, I know it’s not a spiritual issue but I know that it also could be detrimental to someone else so love controls me. That’s what he is dealing with here and that’s why by the time you get to chapter 13 we have what is called the love chapter, because no matter what I do, no matter how gifted I am, if I’m not functioning in love, then I’m just making a lot of noise, so we have this spiritual gift.

Come back to Romans chapter 13. This is even closer to Galatians verse eight and “owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For these commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, not covet,” and these kinds of commandments are fulfilled in, “You love your neighbor as yourself.” Of course if I’m going to steal from my neighbor, I’m not doing it in love, I’m doing it in selfishness. I want what he has so I’ll take it when he’s not looking, and the other commandments, so you can see how it fulfilled all of that and then the love for God obviously to do the other things He said that are required at that time that are not necessarily required now.

Love is the fulfillment of the law and then you come down to chapter 14 and what are you dealing with? Foods and eating and what can I eat, what can I, not eat, and you have Jews and Gentiles getting mixed together in churches, and coming out of a background. It’s clear, the Law had certain requirements regarding what you could eat and not eat. We know Peter struggled with this. Paul talked about it earlier in Galatians but he says it’s not an issue. Function in love; don’t do what would hurt your brother just to make a point. We wouldn’t want to say if we had people being saved out of a Jewish background, we’re having a ham sandwich lunch today. Everybody’s invited. Why would we do that? We could have a turkey sandwich lunch or something that they could eat. Making an issue out of things that are not—that’s why I say we want to be willing to go to battle, but we want to be discerning over what requires us to go to battle and what does not, because love is a governing principle here that does not cause us to be accepting of wrong doctrine, or teaching. It also keeps us from becoming harsh and selfish in the implementing of our freedom, so come over to chapter 16 verse 17. We’ll pick this up because it’s where we’re wrapping up in Galatians 5 verse 17. “I urge you brethren; keep your eye on those who cause dissension and hindrances contrary to the teaching, which you learned, and turn away from them.” He’s talked about, you know, we must understand, there is that exercising of our love in our differences, but there is no tolerance for error. Again, we want to swing from one side to other. We don’t want to be viewed as narrow, just holding to this doctrine so tightly, so we swing to the other side and we’re accepting of that which is not proper, or we go the other way and show we’re not that loose. We’re going to be tight and it’s recognizing this requires a stand and we cannot yield. This is a personal conviction and we know this is consistent with the word but it’s not required.

I am free to eat a ham sandwich but I don’t have to eat a ham sandwich and that kind of balance. As long as it’s not being promoted as required for sanctification or for salvation, you don’t want to eat a ham sandwich don’t eat it. If you do and you understand the freedom, you’re free to do it. Be careful, in other words love, how can I benefit you? What would help you to continue to grow? What would be an obstacle to your growth and such men who create these divisions, unbiblical divisions are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, their own appetites by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

Come back to Galatians 5. We come to verse 15, if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. This is the danger at the Corinthian church, by not being careful to make biblical decisions, be biblically discerning, standing where they must, the church is going to be torn apart, and you have to be careful. That’s what these false teachers do, they infiltrate, they spread this and pretty soon, what? Paul is talking about Galatian believers being turned against one another and you get consumed.

Churches, I am of a Baptist background. After we left the Holiness movement, we went to be a part of a Baptist Church and we profited from it but the Baptists are famous for their battles and everybody jokes. Oh yeah, this Baptist Church came out of this Baptist Church and this Baptist church came out of this Baptist Church, and this was a battle and this was a battle and this was a battle. Sometimes they’re over doctrinal issues, there had to be a battle, but you know a lot of the battles come down to just things that we shouldn’t battle over and even over doctrine we ought to sort it out, because for example, on the Mosaic Law. We stand here, there is not going to be anyone allowed to teach that we must put ourselves under the Mosaic Law, period, but by the same token, we’re going to be careful that we don’t get so carried away with our doctrine that we’ve crossed the line and there is freedom. We have people who have certain convictions about the foods they eat or don’t eat. Now they have it for health. Well that’s fine. You know, ruin your body with vegetables. No, I’m joking. We have freedom but we have to be careful, a sad thing that he has to say be careful your freedom doesn’t become an opportunity for the flesh, and then you begin to bite and devour one another. What a testimony before the world, they bite and devour one another. Well I was going to summarize these for you but we’ll use our summary points as we come into the next section next time.

Let’s have a word of prayer together. Thank You Lord for Your word and Lord we’re mindful that we are responsible to You and to Your word. We must be a people who are discerning, not that we’ve been left to ourselves but we have Your word and Your Spirit. We must handle it carefully, accurately. Lord, we want to stand firmly for the truth of Your word but we want to stand in love. We want to be careful that we don’t carry our doctrinal convictions over into matters that are personal convictions nor do we want to be light and fail to stand firmly, doctrinally when we should and we want to be careful. Easy to be caught up emotionally in one position or another. Easy to allow ourselves to be confused. Thank You for Your word, its richness, and the privilege we’ve had to study it together today. Pray in the week before us that we’ll live faithfully, walk true to the truth that we are privileged to know and share. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.