Paul’s Recap (vv. 1-12)

As the Apostle Paul starts to bring this letter to a close, he first repeats what he’s been saying in the first four chapters.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (v. 1).

The yoke of slavery is anything we think we must do to be made right with God aside from faith in Jesus Christ. The Galatians had been told by false teachers that they had to obey the Jewish law, and that faith in Christ alone was not enough. If we are Christians, there is nothing good we can add to our faith to make God love us more, and there’s nothing bad we can do to make Him love us less. As believers we are “in Christ”—we have His righteousness—so it doesn’t matter how well we perform or how badly we mess up. His love for us is maximum all the time.

Paul hits a several points quickly in verses 2-12:

• Circumcision, as a requirement, nullifies faith in Christ (v. 2)
• If the Jews were going to rely on circumcision to make them right with God, they were obligated to the rest of the Jewish law as well. Jesus covers everything or He covers nothing—there is no middle ground (v. 3).
• Self-righteousness severs you from Christ and a grace-based relationship with God (v. 4).
• If we depend on the Spirit by faith, we have hope (v. 5).
• Only faith—not self-justification—counts for anything (v. 6).
• It only takes a few people preaching a false gospel to tear up a church (vv. 7-10).
• The cross is offensive to everyone who thinks they can become righteous through their own works (vv. 11-12). Self-effort is the basis of every other religion.

So, what do we do now?

The Negative

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (v. 13a).

People who are told they are free from the requirements of the law may go to the opposite extreme of “I can do whatever I want.” This is what the world tells us it means to be free. We can pursue whatever makes us feel good: food, drink, drugs, sex, etc. But if we do that, we are actually becoming slaves to our own flesh. Paul wrote in Romans 6:

“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (6:15-16).

The flesh doesn’t know what’s good for it, and to indulge the flesh is to become slaves to our desires.

The Positive

“…but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (v. 13b-14).

God has designed us to love and serve one another, both within the church and outside the church. We are not made to live for our own pleasure, focusing only on ourselves. The life of faith is not a mirror in which we inspect ourselves and make ourselves look and feel good. It is a window through which we see the needs of others and choose to serve them. Tim Keller wrote in The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness,

“The essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less… The truly gospel-humble person is a self-forgetful person.”

We don’t serve others in order to make God love us or approve of us, but because He already does love us. We realize that God has forgiven us, so then we can forgive others. God has given grace and mercy to us, so then we can give grace and mercy to others. God has loved us, so therefore we can love others. Our service to others is an overflow of what God has already done in us and for us through Christ Jesus. The church should be a living demonstration of loving and serving others instead of ourselves.

The Warning

“But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another” (v. 15).

Self-righteousness often manifests in harsh words to or about other people. If I feel prideful about my abilities or knowledge, I’ll look down on others who don’t measure up to my standards. If I don’t feel good about myself, I may try to tear others down to my level. The world excels at verbal warfare, but Christians should have no part in it. Apart from Christ, we too are sinners who deserve eternal condemnation. But through God’s mercy and grace we were made right with God and adopted into His family. We should be the most grateful and gracious people on earth.

Christ was the only truly righteous person to ever live, and we receive His righteousness by faith alone. We have no place to look down on others. When Christians snap at one another with gossip, slander, and condemnation, they create a culture of self-destruction that will consume them and will destroy the witness of the church.

Let us remember who we are in Christ—forgiven, loved, righteous, free—and let us learn to live out that identity in our daily lives.

“Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4-5).

Application Questions

1) Has Christ set you free? Are you standing firm in that freedom or have you submitted to some other yoke of slavery to law, sin, or self?

2) Does your experience of being a Christian feel like a heavy burden or freedom? If it feels burdensome, what is creating that burden?

3) Are you running well obeying the truth of the gospel, or are you hindered and troubled?

4) Are you using your freedom to indulge the flesh or to serve others in love? Is your service truly selfless or do you have ulterior motives?

5) Are you yoked to a list of “must dos” to feel right with God? Do you really believe He loves you no matter what?